Alachua Post

When children all over the world climb aboard the future train and head off for tomorrow, will Florida's children be left at the station? Florida's leaders appear bent on making sure that happens.

Consider their enthusiasm for a constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes for schools. Then consider their slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from the school budget. Their actions and words speak loudly of their intentions.

Their actions imply a willful and deliberate effort to bankrupt Florida's public education system. Their words speak of economic necessity during hard times. We can't raise taxes, they say, so we must cut spending.

Editorial: Another Political Prosecution in Alabama

Another Political Prosecution in Alabama

Wed, Feb 6th 2008 Editorial

This time they are going after a state legislator who happens to be a teacher in a community college.

Democratic Talk Radio is calling for an Independent Federal Prosecutor to investigate all the federal prosecutors and federal judges in Alabama over their seeming politically inspired abuse of office. This goes far beyond dirty politics....

http://blog.locustfork.net/index.php/alabama-legislature/another-election-season-another-political-prosecution-in-alabama/

Editorial: Transient Wisdom

Transient Wisdom

Peter Rebmann

Sat, Jan 26th 2008 Editorial

When I heard Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke tell Congress to leave infrastructure spending out of their economic stimulus package, my heart sank. I've been arguing for years that infrastructure spending, especially for new and improved schools, is exactly what we need to keep our social and economic momentum going.

I guess I should have saved my breath. When the Fed Chairman says forget spending on schools and roads and such, then that's the end of that. Sometimes you have to know when you're beat.

To say that short-term corporate thinking now prevails at the highest levels of government only belabors the obvious. When everyone from the Fed Chairman down to the President agrees so quickly on a short-term solution to a major economic crisis, then something more is at work.

Editorial: City of Alachua Press Release Disputed for Accuracy

City of Alachua Press Release Disputed for Accuracy

Michael Canney

Thu, Nov 1st 2007 Editorial

Re: October 26th City of Alachua Press Release:
"Plaintiffs Lose Appeal in Election Lawsuit against City Of Alachua"

November 1, 2007

Hon. Mayor and Commissioners:

Editorial: Are COPs Illegal?

Are COPs Illegal?

Peter Rebmann

Tue, Sep 25th 2007 Editorial

The Florida Supreme Court dropped a bombshell on the normally staid world of government construction financing the other day.

By a unanimous vote, they overturned 27 years of precedent by ruling that Escambia County couldn't sell bonds to finance a new 4-lane highway without voter approval. In the process, they cast a pall of doubt over one of the most popular means of financing government building projects in the state.

At issue is the legal status of quasi government bonds known as certificates of participation, or COPs for short.

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