Florida Legislature: What to Do, What to Do

The annual Florida Legislative session opens today in Tallahassee. The chambers of both Houses will be decked in flowers, a signal that hope springs eternal. But what do you hope the legislature will accomplish this year? Today, I'd like to start a conversation about what you would like to see the legislature accomplish this year.

Of course the big issues that everyone is talking about are the twin terrors facing property owners: insurance and taxes. The St. Petersburg Times has an excellent article today about the tax issues. Inevitably, every other issue facing the state is intertwined with the tax issue. There are education challenges both in K-12 and the university system. Managing growth and transportation issues loom large. How about crime and the cost of Gov. Crist's Anti-Murder bill?

There are plenty of challenges and opportunities facing the legislature this year. How about we get the on line conversation going? Maybe our legislators will take notice of what we say. After all, hope springs eternal.

Florida Kossacks Unite

I have been trying to put together a list of Florida Kossacks (DailyKos users from Florida for the uninitiated.) We can blame this whole thing on Susan S. She thought a Tampa Bay Kossack email list would be a good thing to put together after the election. I thought that was such a good idea that I have been trying to expand it across Florida.

Well, it's been pretty much hit or miss here so far. So, I put on my thinking cap and said to myself, "Self, how are we going to go about getting more Florida Kossacks onto this list?" Can you see the light bulb coming on now? So Self answers back, "Well you dummy, why don't you set up a blog for Florida kossacks and other interested folk?"

So, here we are at Florida Kossacks. I thought maybe if we had a central place to post our diaries maybe more Floridians would see them. I know that we have a lot to say about things of particular interest to Floridians. I don't see why you couldn't post them on DKos and cross post them here. Or maybe there are some things you would just want to post here - or whatever.

Anyway, my hope is to start something here that would be useful to Florida Progressives in coping with the problems and opportunities that we face here in the Sunshine State.

I want to invite all Florida Kossacks and anyone else who has an interest in all things Florida to drop by the blog and see what's going on. If you are interested enough to want to publish, drop me a note at:

gatordem at verizon dot net

and we'll set you up for that.

I am certainly open to any suggestions about how to do this better and / or make it more useful or more interesting or just plain different than it is. So hurt me, but not too bad.

I hope to see you all around the FL-Kossack blog soon.