House District 79 needs a ‘voice of the people’
To the editor:
State Representative Matt Caldwell would have you believe that he is concerned with fiscal conservatism, voter representation and government accountability, but his voting record and actions tell an altogether different story. Like a bad actor on the political stage, Caldwell is deeply entrenched with Tallahassee special interests that unduly influence his decisions and actions on public policy.
Since arriving in the state legislature in 2010, Caldwell learned early how to “game” the political system and his Political Action Committee, Florida Committee for Conservative Leadership, has received lavish contributions from notable industries, including petroleum, pharmaceutical, gaming, tobacco, utilities and Big Sugar.
Caldwell relies heavily on financial support from outside the district he supposedly represents (House District 79) to fund disingenuous and deceptive political campaigns that attempt to portray him as a fiscal conservative and as being concerned for his constituents and the environment. Caldwell’s voting record says otherwise:
1) In an attempt to suppress voters’ rights during the 2011 legislative session, Representative Caldwell supported House Bill 1355, striking at the core of our state’s democracy by disenfranchising voters from exercising their privilege to participate in the election process. HB 1355 shortened early voting from 14 to 8 days, and imposed new restrictions on groups, such as the League of Women Voters, that register voters including punishment and fines on a per-signature basis.
2) In the 2013 legislative session, Caldwell sponsored HB 7065 to amend the 1994 Everglades Forever Act, under the guise of increasing the sugar industry’s funding commitment to Everglades restoration, when in fact his proposed amendment was a smoke screen to ensure that the sugar industry was able to limit their long-term obligation of funding Everglades restoration. HB 7065 provided for the extension of the so-called privilege tax of $25 per acre that the sugar industry pays to continue their discharge of pollution runoff to the Everglades, as well as the Caloosahatchee and coastal estuaries. This amounts to approximately $11 million per year, a truly insignificant sum in comparison to the billions required by the public taxpayers to restore the Florida Everglades. Furthermore, Caldwell’s amended language displaced the “1996 Polluters Pay” Constitutional Amendment that required those primarily responsible for the pollution in the Everglades Agricultural and Protection Areas to clean up their pollution.
3) In the 2015 Legislative session, Caldwell, in violation of the public trust, supported re- directing Amendment 1 funds, intended to protect the public’s water resources and restore the Everglades, to balance the state budget.
4) During the 2016 State legislative session, Caldwell sponsored a ‘Water Policy Bill’ that undermines water resource protection from Appalachicola Bay to the Florida Keys. The bill greatly impedes efforts to cost effectively prevent water pollution at its source while omitting sound water conservation practices. The bill eliminated the regulatory permitting process that included performance standards for potential pollutant loading of lakes, rivers, streams and coastal estuaries. It eliminated a January 2015 deadline, which the state didn’t meet, for compliance with nutrient levels without creating a new deadline, thereby delaying cleanup of Lake Okeechobee. Excessive nutrient levels in the Caloosahatchee and our coastal estuaries results in harmful algae blooms such as toxic blue-green algae and red tide, and fish kills.
In favoring special interests, Caldwell shifts the financial costs of restoring and protecting our land and water resources from the polluters to the public taxpayers. Our elected officials are supposed to represent the public’s interest but Caldwell doesn’t seem to understand the concept of public service. Caldwell’s unholy alliance with the Tallahassee influence peddlers and their dark money has done a great disservice to the constituents of House District 79 and the citizens around the state, who his compromised votes, have impacted.
House District 79 desperately needs a voice for the people and a person that transcends party politics in support of a strong Democracy and a healthy and prosperous economy and environment.
If the times makes the person, then 2016 is calling out for John Scott in House District 79 to provide effective and balanced leadership that is accountable to everyone and beholden to no one.
Ray Judah
former Lee County commissioner