August 30, 2004
Republicans party, poor suffer
W’s economy has poverty rising, both in Florida and the rest of the nation. Meanwhile, our pResident continues to pursue policies which tend to pull people out of poverty by killing them. Either dead or poor, it doesn’t matter, because hungry, homeless, impoverished people don’t vote.
More Floridians are living in poverty, and Escambia surpassed Miami- Dade as the state's poorest county, according to U.S. Census figures released Thursday.Posted by Norwood at August 30, 2004 06:35 AMThe state's poverty rate was above the national average, climbing to a three-year average of 13.1 percent last year from 12.8 percent in 2002. That means about 2.17 million Floridians are living in poverty.
Another report from the Census Bureau also put Florida above the national average in the percentage of its residents without health insurance.
While Florida continues to lead the nation in job growth, the poverty rate underscores concerns about the number of low-wage jobs being created. The economy could play an important role in what is now a close race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry for the state's 27 electoral college votes in November.
``The statistics can be used by the Democrats to make an economic argument,'' said Matt Corrigan, a political science professor at the University of North Florida.
Corrigan said, however, the numbers would have little sway because ``a lot of those in poverty don't vote.'' Although the difference between rich and poor hasn't improved, he said, the rate of poverty wasn't much worse than the rest of the nation.
Nationally, 12.5 percent of the population, or about 35.8 million people, lived below the poverty line in 2003, according to the bureau. That was up from 12.1 percent, or 34.5 million people in 2002. Only eight states showed a decrease in poverty and 19 had a rate that was in the single digits.
This is the letter to the editor I sent to the Tampa Tribune and to the St. Pete Times today 9-12-04.
How to Prevent Future Spills Into Tampa Bay
Material for the Cargill and other fertilizer plants is mined from the interior of Florida and transported by rail to fertilizer plants near Tampa Bay. After processing, the waste is pumped along with water to the top of the gypsum stack. The stack grows higher as the solids settle out and some of the water evaporates. A break in the retaining rim around the top of the Cargill stack caused by wind driven wave action caused the recent spill of millions of gallons into Tampa Bay.
During a Cargill plant visit in 2003 I asked "Why don't you fill up the returning empty railcars with the waste material and put it back into the holes in the ground that you created during the mining?" The response was "It would be too expensive for the company". What is the true cost of this latest spill and who pays for that?
