My Thoughts on Peter Nehr's Town Hall Meeting

I went to the that State Representative Peter Nehr hosted Wednesday night with mixed expectations.  

In my mind it was unfortunate that the turn out was so low, something in the range of 25 or so people. The conversation that occurred at the meeting was wide ranging, open, candid and covered a host of different topics.  I would certainly re-echo my thanks to Representative Nehr for hosting this event and I would add I hope that he will host events of this nature in the future.  

I would ask that our County Commissioner, Susan Latvala to host a town hall meeting here in Palm Harbor on what is occurring with the county government. Also, I would ask Congressman Bill Young host a town hall on issues he has in Washington DC.

Some of the issues and topics spoken about or not touched on Wednesday night are as follows:

Citizens Insurance and sinkhole policies-  Given the press coverage of late regarding sinkholes, this could have a explosive topic.  I have to give Rep. Nehr full marks for the information he provided regarding sinkholes.  In my mind, the important point he made was that Citizen’s provides catastrophic, the important and operative word is catastrophic, coverage in the event of ground collapse.

Which is the type of coverage that I want for my home.  My home was built 30 years ago, does have cracks, yes.  Are they from a sinkhole?  Could there be some natural settlement over time?

Immigration Reform- Representative Nehr indicated that he feels that there is a needs to have a national e-verification system in place to confirm employment eligibility.  Failing a national system, there should be a statewide system in place. The potential problems that arise with the implementation of either a state and/or national verification program where at best glossed over, or not mentioned.  

We have seen reports in the press that suggest that there needs to be some type of exclusion for certain groups of agricultural workers. Which in my mind then begs the question, is our food production methods dependent on illegal immigrant workers who work for substandard wages? 

Redistricting- The political hot button of the decade is redistricting.  The decisions that are made on this topic will impact everyone for the next ten years. There are very few decisions that have that long of a shelf life.  The complication in this area are the factors that drive how districts will be drawn.  We are going to have to wait for quite some time before maps are released, or so it seems.  This will only serve to further fuel the rampant speculation as to where lines will drawn.  With the methodology in place, the time available to review the maps will likely be short.

Offshore drilling- Almost every elected official in coastal Florida is unanimously opposed to the concept of offshore drilling and Representative Nehr is no different.  The possibility of offshore drilling could potentially bring significant economic and employment growth to the state and to our immediate area.  As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details.  How can there be drilling with an absolute assurance that there will no repeat of the BP oil spill we witnessed in the gulf?

Education-  One of Representative Nehr’s children is a teacher in Pasco county, which I would think would give him a greater window into the needs of the education system.  In my mind, the legislature's moves in the area of education reform last session seems to be an attempt to take away management tools that should be available to a school principal and or school board.  In my mind, decisions on educational policy should be made at the local level and not 225 miles away from here in the state capital.  If there is an incompetent teacher, as is seemingly suggested, then the local schools should have the needed tools to handle the situation.  I have to wonder, specifically how many people are we talking about?  In my mind, of greater concern, is an issue that Representative Nehr touched on.  There are apparently frequent situations where we have teachers in classrooms teaching subjects they are not certified in.  We must have our children taught by individuals who are certified in their subject area.

State Budget and the Performance of the State Legislature-  The point was well made, that each and every year any number of people present numerous good requests for funding with a total dollar value of likely $350 million. The only problem is the state budget is about $70 million or so, and next year it is projected to decline about another $2 million.  Those are not good numbers. There are many needs that will be unfulfilled.  The role the state legislature finds itself thrust into is not dissimilar to King Solomon.  

On Tuesday, there where headlines that certain constitutional officers of the state and others, are able to get health insurance for themselves and their spouse for about four hundred dollars per year.  I have to wonder what the state is picking up in premium costs?  Why doesn’t the state have a single policy that would cover everyone who is eligible for state coverage.  Regardless of the individual, their medical needs are constant - I would suggest.  By increasing the size of the number of eligible participants, the overall cost would be reduced.  And yes that would include Medicaid recipients as well.

There were a number of other topics that should mentioned, which I will do in a future posting.