Once again, reality bites the governor (Jeb)

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/02/06/a1e_schultzcol_0206.html

Palm Beach Post
Sunday, February 06, 2005

To understand why Gov. Bush has such a prickly relationship with The Post, you have to understand that the paper has an annoying habit of using facts to prove him wrong.

It started just after the governor took office in January 1999. Though he claimed to oppose expanded gambling, he ordered the Lottery Department to boost sales. At the end of that year, the paper reported that poor Floridians play lottery games at a much higher rate than the middle class yet get back less proportionately in what the lottery finances — notably Bright Futures college scholarships. Gov. Bush called the analysis "statistically questionable.'' But he offered no numbers to rebut it, and all objective studies of lotteries reach the same conclusion.

In 2002, the governor gave corporations an income-tax break for diverting money that could go to public education to vouchers for private schools. Beginning in mid-2003, the paper has exposed the program's lack of accountability, despite the governor's insistence that public schools be accountable. Every time Gov. Bush and his then-secretary of education said the state was keeping track of the money, the paper's reporting undercut them.

But now The Post has gone after the governor's deepest ideological belief, the one that has been his guiding principle for the past six years: Tax cuts lead to increased job growth. And once again, the governor is wrong.

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