Officials briefed on budget, voting
Vote by mail to avoid lines Aug. 26
By LESTER R. DAILEY
| Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008 |
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CLEARWATER – Mike Fasano, a state senator whose district includes northern Clearwater, delivered his 2008 legislative session report to the City Council at its Aug. 7 meeting.
It’s not easy governing a state whose budget has been cut by $6 billion, he said.
“We tried to do it without too much pain,” said Fasano, R-New Port Richey. “We tried to prioritize, and I think we have done a pretty good job of doing that . . . (But) we don’t see anything brighter in the future, especially in the near future.”
Fasano added that he oversaw a $60 million affordable housing program that helps first-time home buyers with down payments. He also blasted those insurance companies that have pulled out of Florida or raised their homeowners’ premiums to unaffordable levels.
“Sadly, those companies are not good corporate citizens and we need to hold their feet to the fire,” he said.
He invited homeowners who are having insurance problems to contact his office.
Fasano reported that he had prevented the state’s Transportation Trust Fund from being raided for other purposes, and Mayor Frank Hibbard praised Fasano’s efforts on behalf of mass transit. And that was a perfect segue to a report by Sandi Moody, executive director of Bay Area Commuter Services, which promotes alternative transportation in five Bay-area counties.
“Gas at the $4 mark is really difficult on somebody who is not making a lot of money . . .” she said. “We’re all in this together and we’re trying to find things to do right now, until those wonderful things that are coming in the future are ready.”
BACS advocates walking to work, car pooling, public transportation, telecommuting, flexible work schedules, compressed work weeks, and bicycling. Employers should support this, Moody said, because hard commutes make it hard to recruit and retain good employees.
“The most important thing we have to do between now and the election is teaching the voters how to use yet another new voting system,” Deborah Clark, Pinellas County’s Supervisor of Elections, told the Council.
The ballots will be paper because the state Legislature decreed that optical scanning machines should be used.
“One thing I can promise you is there will be lines on election day,” Clark said.
To alleviate the lines in the past, the county offered early voting at several locations, but it was expensive. In 2006, the last year it was used, the program cost $500,000, or $29 for each voter who used it.
“(Remote-site early voting) was a great thing to try, but it didn’t work,” Clark said.
Instead, the county is now encouraging residents to vote by mail.
“Voting by mail is available to every voter in Florida,” Clark said. “It’s convenient and we’re encouraging our voters to sign up to vote by mail and relieve the pressure on election day.”
Her office has already sent out 70,000 mail ballots for the Aug. 26 election. Voters who don’t trust the mail may drop off their completed ballots at 11 sites.
“I encourage everybody to vote,” Mayor Hibbard said. “The new system is different, but it’s not hard. I’ve tried it, and even a mayor can do it.”
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008
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