Editorial Roundup: Florida

South Florida Solar Sentinel. April 18, 2022.

Editorial: For shoppers, one final likelihood in opposition to FPL fee hike

Florida Energy & Mild clients are all the way down to their final shot at aid from the corporate’s extreme fee enhance.

Floridians In opposition to Elevated Charges (FAIR) has filed its temporary asking the Florida Supreme Courtroom to overturn the settlement that the Public Service Fee authorized final 12 months. Below the settlement, clients pays FPL an extra $4.9 billion by means of 2025.

As a regulated monopoly, FPL will be assured sufficient revenue to supply environment friendly, dependable service. FAIR argues persuasively, because it did final 12 months, that the settlement grants the corporate extreme income on the public’s expense.

The PSC allowed FPL a midpoint revenue margin of 10.6%. At roughly the identical time, nonetheless, commissioners authorized settlements with two different investor-owned utilities that gave them decrease midpoint margins. Tampa Electrical acquired 9.95%. Duke Vitality acquired 9.85%.

To place that profit to FPL in perspective, FAIR calculates that Duke’s revenue margin would have meant $477 million much less for FPL and that rather more for patrons this 12 months. Over the 4 years of the settlement, the distinction can be almost $2 billion. At Tampa Electrical’s margin, the four-year distinction can be $1.6 billion.

Regulators supplied no justification for why FPL wanted to make a lot extra money than the opposite firms. FPL argued that the income will permit it to maintain modernizing the grid and make investments extra in solar energy.

As well as, the PSC allowed FPL to make use of an accounting observe referred to as reserve surplus amortization mechanism (RSAM) that FAIR and different critics contend additionally would unduly enrich the corporate.

The settlement permits FPL a revenue margin of as excessive as 11.7% earlier than it must start returning cash to clients. FAIR argues that, utilizing RSAM because the fee permitted, the utility’s revenue might exceed the utmost with out the corporate having to situation refunds.

Such accounting, FAIR claims, exists nowhere else within the nation. The group calls it “an alternate depreciation examine” designed to “keep away from over-earning.” It sounds slightly just like the alternate authorized principle that Gov. DeSantis is utilizing to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts.

Lastly, FAIR challenges the supply within the settlement beneath which FPL robotically might make more cash based mostly on tax coverage modifications in Washington or Tallahassee.

The Public Service Fee dominated in 2019 that FPL might maintain almost $800 million from the 2017 corporate-friendly federal tax lower. If the tax fee rose, clients must pay extra, FAIR claims, “with out regard” as to if FPL truly wanted the cash to take care of its stage of service.

Stacked in opposition to shoppers

We now have defined many instances how FPL, which quickly will ask clients to pay a lot of the $15 billion invoice to additional harden the grid, has labored to stack the regulatory system in opposition to shoppers. The reason bears repeating.

Clients have their very own consultant earlier than the fee, known as the Workplace of Public Counsel. Below J.R. Kelly’s management, the workplace often challenged FPL’s fee will increase, if not at all times efficiently.

Two years in the past, nonetheless, DeSantis and the Legislature pressured out Kelly. A legislative panel changed Kelly as public counsel with Richard Gentry, a former lobbyist for homebuilders with little expertise in utility regulation.

Kelly would have fought the settlement. Below Gentry, the Workplace of Public Counsel accepted it.

So did different teams, such because the Florida Retail Federation, that had opposed earlier fee settlements. Critics declare that the deal shifts roughly $1 billion in prices over 4 years from companies to owners.

FPL has spent 12 years co-opting the system after dropping a fee case.

As information reviews confirmed, FPL has branched out from merely controlling these in workplace. Cash from the corporate appeared to go to teams that ran “ghost candidates” to defeat Democrats in three Senate races. That quantities to interference in democracy, although FPL has denied its workers had any position within the ghost-candidate scheme.

There’s precedent for the Florida Supreme Courtroom overruling the Public Service Fee. It occurred in 2016.

The fee had allowed FPL to invoice clients as a lot as $500 million yearly for a pure fuel drilling in Oklahoma. Kelly argued that Florida legislation allowed FPL to gather just for producing energy, not exploring for gasoline.

The justices agreed. Three stay from that panel. Justice Ricky Polston wrote the 6-1 majority opinion, which Justice Jorge Labarga joined. Justice Charles Canady dissented.

Three of the seven justices are DeSantis appointees. The governor made clear that he wished a business-friendly, anti-regulation court docket, and a take a look at the justices’ resumes means that solely Federalist Society members want apply.

However the case in opposition to the settlement has been sturdy all alongside. FAIR’s temporary, to which FPL nonetheless should reply, properly summarizes that case.

To restate, we consider that the area and state have benefited from FPL’s enhancements to the grid. The corporate’s charges stay comparatively low.

Nonetheless, Florida mustn’t permit a utility to make extra income, particularly now. This settlement is unfair. The court docket ought to agree.

Tampa Bay Occasions. April 19, 2022.

Editorial: The place’s the state’s proof for rejecting 54 math textbooks?

The state Division of Schooling just lately assessed 132 math books.

When is transparency not so clear? Relating to choosing math textbooks for Florida faculties.

Republican lawmakers just lately handed a legislation they mentioned would give mother and father extra say within the books taught in lecture rooms and located in class libraries. They cloaked the transfer in a veneer of pursuing transparency. Final week, the powers-that-be introduced that they had rejected 54 of 132 math textbooks, saying lots of them included references to important race principle and different “prohibited subjects” and “unsolicited methods.” (That’s 41%, since we’re doing math.)

Naturally, you may ask a easy query: What had been the offending passages?

The reply from the state: None of your small business.

In its announcement final week, the state didn’t present any particular examples of objectionable content material from the books, nor when requested did officers fill within the apparent omission. No, no, no. Floridians can’t deal with that form of fact. How’s that for transparency?

The announcement — as clear as a Russian press launch — made it seem to be state schooling officers had been hiding one thing. Might that be? If the books had been so offensive, in the event that they had been so chock-full of “prohibited subjects,” plucking out just a few examples of offending passages for us all to see would hardly have taken a lot effort. As a substitute we’re left to think about the probabilities, like these two we made up:

Offending query: A girl who dedicated a felony has served her time and needs to vote once more, however first she needs to pay all her fines and charges, because the Legislature requires. How a lot does she owe? (Reply: Good query. Typically, nobody can say for positive.)

Offending query: On the finish of March, the state had 5,145,983 registered Republicans and 5,034,448 registered Democrats. There are 28 congressional districts. What number of seats ought to Republicans be favored to win? (Reply: 14. Improper! You mistook this for a math query. It’s all about politics. Below Gov. Ron DeSantis’ private congressional maps, Republicans would seemingly win 20 seats and Democrats 8.)

It’s unlikely the passages the state schooling officers discovered offensive had been that apparent, however why oh why did they need to maintain the proof to themselves? Might it’s that their case was as flimsy as a moist paper towel? Might it’s that they wished to attain political factors with out having to play any protection? Possibly they’ve their very own definition of transparency?

”Present your work!” is the mantra of many math lecturers. They don’t settle for a solution with out college students displaying how they arrived at their conclusions. Relating to rejecting math books, state schooling officers wished you to skip that step. As a substitute, we must always all insist that they at all times present their work.

Orlando Sentinel. April 14, 2022.

Editorial: Florida’s battle of deception on girls’s freedom

For many years, Florida’s leaders have been chipping away on the reproductive freedom of determined girls, utilizing instruments crafted from falsehood.

The massive lie, after all, is that lawmakers are appearing out of concern for ladies’s well being. Each time a brand new abortion restriction comes up, that paternalistic pretense dissolves to show the true goal: Girls’s freedom.

That sentiment was clear throughout the current legislative session, when lawmakers handed HB 5, a near-absolute ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation. The invoice makes no provision for ladies impregnated by means of rape, incest or human trafficking. And it features a biologically implausible definition of conception, which might shave two weeks or extra off that time-frame.

Florida courts ought to be fast to slap down legal guidelines laden with bold-faced deception, particularly once they permit the federal government to intrude on personal medical choices. Florida’s long-established, and unusually sturdy, proper to privateness ought to be sufficient to guard girls from meddling of their medical choices However final week, a ruling by a Leon County circuit decide purchased into the deceptive rhetoric, in a ruling reinstating the state’s necessary 24-hour ready interval earlier than a lady can have an abortion.

Circuit Decide Angela Dempsey’s ruling recited deceptive speaking factors that supported a distressing conclusion: Girls in search of abortions in Florida need to be instructed to assume — no, actually assume — concerning the ramifications of their choice for no less than 24 hours earlier than they will terminate a being pregnant.

As if Floridian girls had been within the behavior of stumbling into abortion clinics on a whim.

Dempsey’s ruling included this apparent whopper: “The plain function of the act,” she wrote, “is to reinforce a pregnant girl’s voluntary and knowledgeable consent…” Baloney. The plain function of the legislation, handed in 2015 as SB 724, is to throw yet one more roadblock within the path of a lady who has already thought-about her choices and is aware of what she must do. For a lot of low-income girls, requiring two physician’s visits inside a 24-hour interval will represent a major hardship. Solely 17 of Florida’s 67 counties have no less than one abortion supplier, which means some girls should journey an hour or extra to discover a clinic.

Dempsey went on to recite a laundry checklist of feelings she says may result from abortion, together with “remorse, extreme despair, lack of esteem, grief and sorrow.” However research of abortion reveal a considerably completely different actuality. In keeping with the American Psychological Affiliation, the true threat to a lady’s psychological well being comes when she needs to terminate a being pregnant — however isn’t allowed to take action.

Most ladies make these choices thoughtfully. And so they can level to stable causes behind their selection. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which research reproductive points, discovered that about three-quarters of girls who’ve had abortions say undesirable pregnancies would have harm their means to work, go to high school or look after different dependents — together with kids they’re already elevating. By the identical ratio, girls categorical worry that an undesirable being pregnant might considerably hamper their financial stability. And there’s a robust connection between home violence and a lady’s choice to abort.

That’s the largest fallacy of Florida’s 24-hour ban, and one Dempsey swallowed complete: The state can’t declare to supply “knowledgeable consent” out of false concern for ladies’s well-being, whereas ignoring the far larger disruption that an undesirable being pregnant can create.

It’s been almost 50 years since Roe vs. Wade promised reproductive liberty to American girls. But these freedoms appear beneath assault like by no means earlier than, and it’s unattainable to understand how far the backsliding might lengthen. That’s why voters ought to put reproductive freedom excessive on their checklist when evaluating candidates. It’s straightforward to take this progress as a right. However as current occasions show, there’s nonetheless loads of floor to lose.

Palm Seashore Submit. April 17, 2022.

Editorial: What’s so particular about this particular session?

If there have been ever a particular session of the Florida Legislature to earn the doubtful distinction of not being all that particular, it’s the one scheduled this Tuesday. In impact, state lawmakers are returning to Tallahassee to kowtow to the governor, who needs to redraw congressional districts to offer Republicans a major benefit within the subsequent Congress.

Partisan politics once more trumps coverage. Final week legislative leaders threw within the towel and warranted Gov. Ron DeSantis might usurp the redistricting course of. After threatening to veto any maps lawmakers had drawn, the Governor will get his means, with a map he drew that reinforces Republican illustration on the expense of Black and Brown voters.

“Presently, legislative reapportionment workers isn’t drafting or producing a map for introduction throughout the particular session,” Senate President Wilton Simpson and Home Speaker Chris Sprowls wrote in a memo. “We’re awaiting a communication from the Governor’s Workplace with a map that he’ll help.”

Hoist the white flag, and maintain a particular session to rubberstamp a brand new map that may find yourself in expensive litigation. A lot for the equal branches of presidency, to not point out any concern about spending $100,000 a day for a suspect session.

For that sort of cash, lawmakers ought to be spending time fixing actual issues, not creating them. The excellent news, if certainly any involves go, is that some legislators are nonetheless making an attempt to handle one situation that eluded them throughout the common 60-day session — the state’s hovering property insurance coverage charges. SB 1728 would have helped nevertheless it died on the final day of the common session, after Senate President Wilton Simpson did not win help for the invoice from Home Speaker Chris Sprowls.

Credit score state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R.-St. Petersburg, for beginning the method of forcing the problem onto this week’s agenda. Utilizing a procedural vote, he and 20% of the Legislature pressured a vote to find out if three-fifths of the Legislature would comply with make it occur. Now, if solely Simpson and Sprowls might come to phrases, which hasn’t occurred but and makes the chance of reconsidering property insurance coverage iffy at finest.

Fixing property insurance coverage is difficult. It takes time and wishes consensus. No marvel Gov. DeSantis has been comfy main from behind on this situation, in contrast to his badmouthing The Walt Disney Co., signing voter suppression legal guidelines on “Fox and Pals,” or going after black majority congressional districts, that are legally rooted in federal legislation and the Florida Structure.

The governor is fixated on creating “race-neutral” congressional districts. Translation: diluting minority votes. His precedence is to redraw congressional districts in north Florida and Orlando, to strip Black and Brown voters there of getting minority illustration in Washington. The change would give Republicans an opportunity at 20 of the state’s projected 28 congressional seats, up from their present, 16-11 majority.

So, residents who’ve seen their house insurance coverage premiums raised past perception or cancelled outright are left to depend on a particular session that won’t deal with their considerations. For Annette Taddeo, a state senator and Democratic candidate for governor, there’s another choice. She’s urging her colleagues to boycott. “If the governor needs to make an actual distinction in Floridians’ lives and deal with the insurance coverage fee disaster or the housing disaster, I’ll see him in Tallahassee,” she tweeted. “However, I’ll be damned if I’m displaying as much as kiss his ring and waste taxpayer cash for an unconstitutional map that erases Black and Brown voices from the electoral course of.”

Lawmakers can nonetheless deal with property insurance coverage however provided that sufficient of them comply with push for it. In any other case, the concept of boycotting a meaningless session is nearly as good as any.

Editor’s Be aware: There’s nonetheless an opportunity property insurance coverage might make the lower on this week’s particular session and we’d like to listen to from you, to let state leaders understand how severe this disaster is. Ship your feedback, detailing the challenges and the steps state leaders ought to absorb making inexpensive property insurance coverage accessible, to letters@pbpost.com. Letters shouldn’t exceed 200 phrases, are topic to enhancing and should embrace your identify, deal with and daytime telephone quantity (We’ll publish solely your identify and metropolis). Let your voice be heard on this important topic.

Miami Herald. April 19, 2022.

Editorial: Hundreds of thousands voted for Florida’s Honest Districts. Lawmakers might wipe it out in a single session

Florida voters mentioned clearly in 2010 that they wished to place an finish to political and anti-minority gerrymandering. Greater than 3.1 million Floridians — 63% — solid votes in favor of the Honest Districts amendments to the state’s Structure.

Now, in 2022, Florida legislators are about to show their backs on these voters by refusing to abide by the Honest Districts amendments throughout the congressional redistricting course of. As a substitute of following the legislation authorized by voters, they’re letting Gov. Ron DeSantis draw the brand new district traces — an abdication of their obligation — and run proper over them in his pursuit of one-man rule in Florida.

Some might shrug off this debacle of a particular session in Tallahassee and say it doesn’t matter. We’re all worn down by the drip-drip-drip of Florida’s authorities eroding earlier than our eyes. However this issues. It’s about truthful illustration and Black and brown individuals’s means to elect lawmakers who they assume will really characterize them. It’s about legislators — who’re elected to characterize us, not the governor — refusing to honor the legislation, refusing to honor the voters who put them there.

And this time, the courts might not save us.

The Honest Districts amendments — one covers congressional illustration, the opposite covers legislative illustration — had been particularly created as checks on legislative energy, to be sure that lawmakers couldn’t use the once-a-decade redistricting course of for their very own acquire. The accountability for drawing new district traces for Congress and the Legislature is meant to be one which Florida legislators take severely as a result of it impacts who can get elected to workplace for the subsequent 10 years, minority illustration, specifically, and the way federal funds are allotted.

However final time round, they let corruption within the door by permitting political operatives to conduct an unlawful “shadow course of” of map drawing behind the scenes, at the same time as lawmakers publicly claimed their actions had been honorable and clear. It took years to type out within the courts. Ultimately, Florida’s courts dominated that legislators violated the Honest Districts amendments.

This time the hypocrisy is even worse. For months, Florida legislators insisted they had been working laborious to give you redistricting maps that may abide by the Honest Districts amendments and restore public belief. Again in September, when lawmakers had been simply starting the method, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican and chair of the Senate Reapportionment Committee, even mentioned this: “I intend for this committee to conduct the method in a way that’s in keeping with case legislation developed over the past decade, is past reproach and free from any form of unconstitutional intent.’’

It appeared to work — for some time. Legislators carved out legislative districts with comparatively little acrimony and no court docket challenges. However the governor has no say over these.

Then got here the carving up of congressional districts, and that’s the place DeSantis big-footed them in a way by no means earlier than displayed by any governor. He has veto energy over that map, and he used it to pressure lawmakers to just accept one which will increase the variety of Republican-majority districts from 16 to twenty. (There are solely 28, complete.) That’s much more ridiculous when that there are 5.1 million registered Republicans in Florida, about 5 million Democrats and about 3.9 million no-party registrations, as of March 31. In different phrases, the voters is way extra evenly divided than his map, which is wildly unfair to voters.

And naturally, his map would additionally cut back minority illustration in North and Central Florida, prompting Black lawmakers together with Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Florida Democrat, to name the governor’s technique “racist.” Much less minority illustration may very well be a part of a slide again towards our Jim Crow previous. The governor appears to haven’t any downside with that.

For a second, the Republican-controlled Legislature truly stood as much as the governor, labeling his map a “novel authorized argument.” Then, maybe weak-kneed from that effort, they capitulated.

And now, regardless of the months of speak about following the legislation, the particular session in Tallahassee this week has grow to be merely a formality for the Legislature to offer DeSantis the thumbs-up on his map.

A court docket problem on this case appears very seemingly. And but there could also be hesitation, as a result of it’s not with out dangers if it occurs. DeSantis has brazenly mentioned he want to see the 12-year-old Honest Districts amendments thrown out in court docket as being incompatible with the Equal Safety Clause of 14th Modification to the U.S. Structure, which in essence says a state should govern impartially. DeSantis, a Harvard-trained lawyer, apparently needs to take his probabilities in court docket, with extra conservative judges in place.

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