Four Florida outrages: the wealthy flourish, the poor die | Editorial

South Florida Sun Sentinel (FL)

With President Trump’s impeachment hearing dominating the news, four other developments deserve attention -- and outrage -- from the people of Florida.

First, nearly 3,000 of our neighbors have died because former Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The estimate, based on several solid data sets, comes from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive voice in Washington. In the 14 holdout states, it puts the death toll at 19,200 between 2013 and 2017.

Florida’s 2,776 victims were second only to Texas. The numbers are so high because so many people here -- some 850,000 -- earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to receive insurance subsidies under Obamacare.

Florida stands in contrast to 11 other states that expanded Medicaid under the control of Republican legislatures. Louisiana is one of them. There, Democratic Gov. John Bell Williams’ pledge to protect the program helped him win re-election last Saturday despite Trump’s vocal campaign for his Republican opponent.

Josef Stalin reportedly said that “one death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic.”

What might it take for Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders to see the individual men and women in Florida’s ghastly statistic? Must someone die of cancer or pneumonia in the Capitol rotunda?

It’s not that they’re unaware of the issue. House and Senate leadership have applied to the Florida Supreme Court to be heard on whether a voter initiative to expand Medicaid belongs on the 2022 ballot.

They’re opposed. So is Americans for Prosperity, the political lobby started by David and Charles Koch, who were tied as the world’s 11th-richest people before the former died this year.

Second, speaking of the Florida Supreme Court …

When DeSantis was appointing new justices, most of his nominees and all three of his picks had ties to the Federalist Society, an arch-conservative lobby that effectively controls appointments to the federal bench, and now to Florida courts, as well.

At the society’s annual convention in Washington this month, DeSantis proudly declared that the society’s co-chairman, Leonard Leo, influenced his choices.

“I had a group of people that I trusted. Leonard was one of them,” the governor said.

Staunchly opposed to government regulations and anything liberal, the society is the legal arm of today’s uber-rich, who use their money to manipulate political power as they amass extraordinary wealth.

Such external influence on the courts was one of the evils Gov. Reubin Askew (1971-79) meant to avoid when he established Florida’s judicial nominating commissions. He wanted to keep the bench as free of politics as possible. When someone pointed out that one of his justices had turned out to be very conservative, Askew replied, “I didn’t appoint him for his politics. I appointed him for his integrity.”

Third, speaking of the rule of the wealthy few …

An estimated 99 percent of corporations in Florida manage to pay little or none of what they should owe under the state’s 5.5 percent corporate income tax, another Askew achievement that has since been sabotaged. They can thank the Legislature for allowing the schemes to continue. And indeed, they do give thanks -- by the millions. Corporate money rules the state.

Heroic research by our Orlando Sentinel colleague Jason Garcia, whose articles appeared in the Sun Sentinel this week, has revealed for the first time the gross dimensions of this tax scandal.

With $34 million of profit in Florida in 2014, E-Bay should have paid more than $1.8 million, not $18,810. Pasteur Inc., a major vaccine manufacturer, paid nothing on $55 million in Florida profits. Mastercard saved $20 million by pretending none of its sales happened here. Verizon Wireless saved $23 million. HCA Healthcare Inc. avoided more than $28 million by parceling money through subsidiaries. Why isn’t that called money laundering?

Then there are at least 100 companies like Circle K, which paid itself royalties through a holding company for Florida stores that use its own trademarks. The Department of Revenue considers the trademark tactic illegal. But the department lost a lawsuit to Circle K, which then reached some sort of confidential settlement with the state.

By one estimate, the legislature could raise more than $1 billion a year by closing the loopholes -- more than enough to pay the state’s share of expanding Medicaid with plenty left over.

The full impact is unknown because corporate tax returns are kept secret even from the Legislature. It’s time to end that, too.

And fourth, speaking of bending the rules to benefit the wealthy …

Under a federal law intended to prompt new investment to help the poor, former Gov. Scott gave an immense set of “opportunity zone” tax breaks to four wealthy investors, including Wayne Huizenga Jr., for a superyacht marina on the West Palm Beach waterfront. Huizenga also plans to build luxury apartments on the site. In favoring the Rybovich marina area, Scott rejected some poorer tracts requested by West Palm Beach.

Research by ProPublica uncovered a lobbying letter from Huizenga to Scott. He and two others and their families have given at least $1 million to Scott and the Florida Republican Party, ProPublica said. Scott announced his opportunity zone picks barely a week after receiving the letter.

Scott, now a U.S. senator, said it was all for “low income job creation in low income areas in the state…”

That’s questionable. Most certainly, though, the beneficiaries will include Huizenga, his partners and the owners of those superyachts.

You don’t find such watercraft in low-income areas. The two that burned at the Fort Lauderdale Marina last weekend had a combined value of $24 million, according to the fire department.

Opportunity zones, indeed. But for whom?

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

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