2 Florida GOP lawmakers want golf courses in state parks

[seafan]

Source: Miami Herald

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Two state legislators have filed bills that would require the state Division of Recreation and Parks to build golf courses in state parks in every region of Florida.

Bills filed last week by Sen. John Thrasher and Rep. Patrick Rooney would create a Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail around Florida.

The bills call for at least one Nicklaus-designed course to be built in state parks in all five regions of Florida. Rooney's version specifically names one park that has to get a Nicklaus course: Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County on the east coast.

The bills also say each course will be designed in an environmentally sensitive manner, and may include a hotel.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/10/2107234/2-fla-lawmakers-want-golf-courses.html

---

Florida is dying.


And the murderers are in charge in Tallahassee.

[monmouth]

1. Does Jack give money to Repubs?. I'd bet he does...n/t

[subterranean]

26. Most pro golfers are right-wingers.

Jack is no exception. He's given over $10,000 in campaign contributions in the last two elections -- all of it to Republicans.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/jack-nicklaus.asp?cycle=10

[jpak]

2. No money for education but millions for golf courses - more GOP suckage

yup

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. Republican job killers and education killers

[ixion]

3. hotels and golf courses in state parks? Ugh.

So much for state parks. :(

[Dappleganger]

4. Of course this will be a no-bid republican-style contract.

That's the way the GOP rolls in the state of FL, from city/towns/counties and the entire state.

While they continue to screw over the nickels and dimes in the state workers' couches.

[RockaFowler]

5. Wait a second

First of all how many golf courses do we need in this friggin state?? And second - Jonathon Dickinson State Park is one of the greatest parks. Why mess it up with a golf course?? And third - how can adding a hotel be environmentally sound?? You just bring more traffic and more people to an area that is environmentally sensitive to begin with.

[Roland99]

9. All one needs to do is answer this: Who stands to benefit, financially, from this arrangement?

[Scottybeamer70]

7. The insanity

in this country increases by the moment.

[HopeHoops]

8. Well, that would give the weeping orange boner a reason to visit Florida.

[Joey Liberal]

10. Republicans hate our planet. nt

[1776Forever]

11. You think Florida is bad - you're right - BUT Kasich wants to do fracking in State Parks!

Believe it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=585538&mesg_id=585538

Shale (Oil) Lifts Prospects in Ohio - Gov. Kasich wants to drill in State Parks

..............

They only see $$$$$ signs!

[Ready4Change]

12. I golf, and even I see this is wrong.

Not only requiring the building of a golf course (as opposed to other public use options) but requiring specifically a Jack Nicklaus designed course in a specific park? That sends up my red flags all over the place.

[rucky]

13. Florida needs golf courses

like Glenn Beck needs cocaine.

[seafan]

14. Cut schools. Bust unions. Imprison pregnant women. Tout guns. Pave the state. Let corporations rule.

Howard Troxler in the St. Petersburg Times does, indeed, know the score.


He also reports that this revolting idea was cooked up in a conversation between Rick Scott and Jack Nicklaus.

There will also be hotels alongside these golf courses in our state parks, shielded from any and all regulations from environmental damage, surprise, surprise, and paid for with borrowed money. It's a legacy thing, for the "Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail", don'tcha know. Hey, he'll even design one course for free, and the others for a discount.


Nevermind the destruction of Florida's state park treasures. Never mind the drought parching the state (and golf courses use lots of water). Nevermind the destruction of our environment. State parks are important to the people of Florida. And that is why the radical nutcases want to destroy them.


Troxler writes:

.....

Either this is what the people of Florida want, or else sooner or later they will do something about it. That does not mean D instead of R. It does mean actual grownups instead of sheer nutbags.

.....

At this point, words fail.

Parody is now dead in Florida. Irony is dead.

What good are parody and irony? What good are words?

What good are alligators?

What good is sawgrass?

What good are spoonbills, black bear, panthers, eagles, gopher tortoises, manatees?

None of it matters. The state is dying.

The weirdest and saddest thing is the hostility that the Legislature has toward the physical Florida itself.

To tear up the state, to pave it, to block the wetlands, to replace them with drainage ponds — to divide up the habitat of panthers and bears — to repeal the growth laws — to kill Florida Forever — and now, even to redevelop the state parks as golf courses! — this is "conservative." Sure.

.....

Pick your issues, Floridians. There are many. Take them to Tallahassee. And be prepared to stay a while.


If we don't stop these people now, it is over. For all of us.

[Nitram]

15. sounds like a bad joke

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Conservatives think nature is a golf course and gold is exercise.

[Useless in FL]

16. Right....

This will surely save taxpayers a lot of money....

Speaking of money, follow it and see who stands to benefit!

Bunch of crap....

Chris

[Incitatus]

17. of course they do nt

[KamaAina]

18. This is without a doubt the dumbest idea since, well, since putting repukes in office.

There are already over 30 Jack Nicklaus-designed courses throughout the state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jack_Nicklaus_designed_golf_courses

All that is required is to market them along the lines of Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. No shoddy construction or environmental havoc needed.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

19. How can this be?

Florida is a big state. Plenty of room for golf courses. NOT IN MY PARKS DAMN YOU!!!!

[lonestarnot]

20. Paradise Valley AZ largest consumption of water in the WORLD due to golf fucking courses.

[Zorra]

21. Republicans - (*snort* *tee-hee* *giggle*) bwaaa haa haa haa!

:P What kind of an absolute fucking jerk do you have to be to be a republican?!?

Being kind, and generally speaking, I am now fully convinced that republicans are shallow, stupid, boorish, selfish, clueless, insensitive assholes. (See "moran")

I don't like to generalize, but given recent events, there is no longer any doubt about it.

This is no longer simply the general opinion of most of the people on this planet. (And probably the general opinion of sentient beings on any other inhabited celestial bodies or dimensions as well)

It has become a stone cold fact, and it has become embarassingly obvious to anyone with half a brain.

Golf in State Parks. During a devastating recession. Yuh.

Those wacky repubwicans...what will they think of next?
:D

[fascisthunter]

22. damn are these people selfish or what? They are grotesquely self-centered

[kayakjohnny]

23. golf courses are a great place to ride mountain or dirt bikes

[seafan]

24. March 11: Florida GOP legislators withdraw bills that would put golf courses in state parks

Keep up the pressure, people. This is no guarantee they won't dust these bills off again when we're not watching.


Legislators withdraw bills that would put golf courses in state parks

Craig Pittman reports:

March 11, 2011
04:38 PM

A week after they introduced bills to let Jack Nicklaus build golf courses in state parks, Sen. John Thrasher and state Rep. Patrick Rooney Jr. withdrew it Friday.

A Rooney spokesman said that after news reports highlighted HB1239, Rooney's office received lots of calls, letters and e-mails about it.
"After much consideration and listening to the citizens of Florida, I have decided to withdraw HB1239," Rooney announced on his Twitter account Friday afternoon.

.....

Thrasher made no announcement, but on the Legislature's website is a notice about SB 1846: "Withdrawal from further consideration pending on Friday, March 11, 2011 4:04 PM." A spokesman for his office said he had left for the day and would have no comment.

.....

This bill contained the language:

.... "may include a hotel." The new courses also will be eligible for liquor licenses, according to the two bills, and they will be exempt from any city or county regulations.



These people should be run out of Tallahassee on a rail.

[Dappleganger]

25. John Thrasher has his only special brand of stupid.

He was the one pushing the HB6 bill last year and has re-tooled it to push it through again (the one Crist previously vetoed). That man wages backroom deals with people from different counties, pitting one against the other. I really do believe that he is the anti-Christ of the South.

[seafan]

27. John Thrasher pushed for hotels, bars, clubhouses; wanted to issue bonds for taxpayers to fund it

Until now, the information on the origin of this preposterous bill pointed to a conversation between Rick Scott and Jack Nicklaus.


Today, we learn that it was the brainchild of John Thrasher, Jeb Bush's wrecking ball in the state Senate.


Scott Maxwell at the Orlando Sentinel reported some interesting facts late last night.

.....

It started March 5, when I got a text message from a legislator. "Did you see the bill from Thrasher to build golf courses on state park lands?" it asked.

"The state wouldn't even sell off the land to make money (a bad idea also), but literally issue bonds to build golf course resorts (hotel, clubhouse, etc.) on park lands!"

Introducing Senate Bill 1846.


Maxwell continues:

.....

Veteran politician John Thrasher, former head of the Republican Party of Florida, wanted to develop golf resorts inside at least five state parks.

Never mind that Florida already has such a glut of courses that many have gone bankrupt. Never mind that others are struggling — and would've had to compete with these new ones.

The state senator from St. Augustine wanted more golf courses.

And he wanted his friend Jack Nicklaus to be the only one to design them.

The legislation specifically excluded other designers and PGA pros with a clause that said every course "must be designed by Jack Nicklaus."

So much for free-market enterprise.

But Thrasher didn't stop there. He also wanted to give the courses the right to have hotels and bars — even if local laws otherwise would have prohibited liquor sales.

And he wanted taxpayers to underwrite the whole thing by issuing bonds.

.....

While Dean Cannon, Mike Haridopolos, John Thrasher and Rick Scott are slashing funding from school children, the poor, the sick, the disabled, the veterans, pensions and collective bargaining, environmental protection and infrastructure, they want taxpayers to help John Thrasher's friend Jack Nicklaus pay for building a string of gorgeous new golf courses in our state parks.



According to Maxwell, who contacted Arnold Palmer, a statement issued from Palmer Friday morning looks to have torpedoed Thrasher's bill. Apparently, Palmer didn't take kindly to the monopoly Thrasher mandated for Nicklaus, and Nicklaus only, to design the courses. And the Palmer statement also stated that this project should not involve state park lands.

By Friday afternoon, Senate Bill 1846 was dead.




Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, center, with fellow Republican Sens. Don Gaetz, left, and Sen. Mike Haridopolos on the Senate floor, March, 2010 (AP)



If I had to choose one individual to remove from the levers of power in Florida, it is John Thrasher.