Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan may be a fellow Republican who served on Gov. Rick Scott's Law and Order Transition Team, but he doesn't agree on how the governor is handling the state's budget deficit.
In a Feb. 22 letter to Scott, Morgan offered what he called "blunt advice" on Scott's sweeping proposal to cut $5 billion in spending from the state's $70 billion budget, including eliminating about 8,600 state jobs.
"Our house is on fire, Governor," the sheriff wrote. "Others and I stand ready to lend a semblance of sanity by forming a fire brigade. We must seek, identify and implement alternative approaches."
Morgan expressed his concern with Scott's proposal to greatly scale back funding for education, mental health facilities, children and family services, and law enforcement.
I heard the Sheriff being interviewed about his concerns and ideas. He made a lot of sense about how to approach budget reductions. I think if the Tea Party people who claim to be "regular folks who are concerned about the spending" would approach the problems with some of these kinds of solutions, then they would find others who agree. Morgan's kind of "common sense" really does sound like common sense to me, and apparently to others: http://www.pnj.com/article/20110303/OPINION/103030304/Editorial-Score-one-Morgan?odyssey=obinsite
Credit Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan with one of the more remarkable political documents in recent Florida history. Either Morgan is amazingly secure in his office, or he has unusual political courage. Maybe both.
Or, perhaps, Morgan is a truly rare politician who says exactly what he thinks, and if that isn't good enough for voters, so be it.
Whatever it is, our hat's off to him.
