Shaking down drivers

Boy, does this bill have stink-bomb written all over it. It's a plan to create a statewide bad-driver fee. Innocuous enough. When you first hear about it, you'd almost think it was a tax on drunk drivers (who would pay would pay $1,000 annually for three years). But in fact, you could be mailing in $100 a year to the state for getting only two speeding tickets. Except, that you'd probably be mailing the check to ACS of Texas, not the state of Florida. That's because ACS, which might as well change its name to Politically Connected ACS, because that's what it tends to get called anyway, wants to administer the program. After donating at least $240,000 during the 2002 election, including $145,000 to the state Republican Party, ACS has beefed up its Tallahassee lobbyist ranks. Al Cardenas, former chairman of the state Republican Party, and Cynthia Henderson, former secretary of the state Department of Management Services, are among more than a dozen lobbyists registered to push the company's efforts with the Legislature. ACS, has had a few setbacks lately, but nothing $240,000 in campaign contributions can't solve. Oh, and look, the always-lands-on-her-feet Cynthia Henderson is working for them. (Or jar your memory by checking The Vault of Memory.) Sounds like more crony capitalism not dissimilar to the type Troxler drew attention to just last Thursday. Lane | 23.2.04 |

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