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Report
by: Daneen Regna
Quarterly Executive Board Meeting, Dec. 5th, 2011
The meeting was called to order by President Tony Fransetta at 9:05 AM. After the pledge of allegiance and roll call the Minutes were moved and approved unanimously.
President Fransetta introduced Representative Mark Pafford (District 88) and thanked the Representative for helping to arrange our press conference in Tallahassee each year. He also thanked him for his help with recognition of the affordable housing programs.
Representative Pafford advised us to not pay so much attention to the redistricting maps, that we ignore other issues. 80,000 people are on wait lists for low income, senior housing. 20,000 people with disabilities have been on wait lists for more than 10 years, while the state continues to cut funding.
The wait list for Early Learning is also in the thousands. He stated that when the Florida legislators tell you there is no funding source they are not being honest; the Republican legislature just doesn’t want to tax anything that hurts some programs, and/or the wealthy. He admonished us to pay attention to the issues and how our legislators vote. He also said that you should not make friends with you legislators, because it is harder to tell a friend that they let you down when they don’t vote for your issues.
Representative Pafford went on to say that the leadership is using redistricting as leverage to get their bills and/or issues passed. Ultimately there will be lawsuits. The courts may make the final decision, probably sometime around May.
The Governor is projecting a $2 billion budget deficit and Representative Pafford anticipates that the most vulnerable will be hurt the most. The legislators don’t see the budget until shortly before they have to vote; the budget is controlled by only a few people.
President Fransetta welcomed Charter Winter Haven Club members Joe and Delores Boyer, and also Fred and Judy Kohler who just received a new charter for their club FLARA Mid-County. Brief remarks were made by those who had been welcomed.
A video was shown that included TV WPEC news coverage of the Rick Perry Protest organized by FLARA. Mr. Perry was in town to allege that Social Security was a Ponzi scheme. The video also included coverage of President Fransetta receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Barbara Easterling President of the national ARA, at the ARA Convention in Washington, D.C., in September. It was awarded for his strong leadership of Florida’s seniors. Ms. Easterling described her visit to one of Tony’s meetings, which was very well organized. President Fransetta’s acceptance speech was also imbued with some history of the ARA. Retiree leaders of all the unions have access to the ARA. “Leaders must remember who they represent and advocate for those people.” Members of the ARA are the most “unselfish” people, we don’t believe in intergenerational warfare. The Congress attempts to win senior support by telling us that we are okay and “think that we are dumb enough to walk away from our children.” We want Social Security for them too. He also related some of his family history, telling the delegates that his family worked in the coal mines of West Virginia. He took his immediate family back so they could see where he came from. The purpose was to make them understand how important it is to support working people, and to keep moving forward. FLARA has 216,000 members in Florida and we will continue to work to expand that number. President Fransetta stated that, “We need to go out and do what we preach.”
He then gave his President’s report. He began his report by honoring all of our military veterans and stating that many veterans have come back and are homeless. “Our returning veterans come home and join ranks with the 99%. Many of them are jobless. Part of the reason is that American manufacturers no longer produce goods in this country.” He wanted to thank Obama for “getting us out of a war that we should never have been in, in the first place.”
He also stated why the Ryan Budget was not fair to Seniors: “take Medicare; why would anyone want a voucher instead of a paid in full insurance policy? Making Medicare a voucher program will destroy the program. The voucher will be paid to private insurance companies-kind of like the Medicare Part D program, which by the way gave us the Donut Hole. What dreaded hole will a new voucher system create?”
Regional Director Bill Cea reported that North Carolina ARA has a new president, and he is doing a good job. Bill was a speaker at the South Carolina ARA, where they are working on a membership strategy. The Georgia ARA is having elections next month in Atlanta. The Regional ARA Conference is scheduled to be held in Orlando in May, 2012.
Mr. Cea reported that income increased for the upper 1% by 275%., while 118,000 people in Florida will lose their unemployment benefits if Congress does not extend unemployment benefits. Congress wants to cut payments to doctors’ by 27%. How many doctors would leave the program if this happens? This will effectively mean that over the next 10 years there won’t be any doctors left in the Medicare program. Mr. Cea also lamented voter apathy stating that many voters just stayed home during the last election. This may be the lowest turnout percentagewise. “If we can get the voters who support our issues to vote, we can win the 2012 election.”
One of the board members told the delegates to make sure their signature matches the one on their voter registration, or they won’t be allowed to vote. Some people’s signatures have changed over the years, so they may need to re-register.
Steve Protulis, Executive Director, EHDOC reported that 26% of properties are worth less than they were evaluated at 3 years ago. 16% of low income seniors are living in homes for the homeless, and grown children are begging their parents to move back home so they can use their Social Security to buy food, and also to babysit their grandchildren so the parents can work 2 jobs. Things continue to get worse.
Mr. Protulis has over 5,000 people living in his properties. He is going to start building houses in conjunction with the AFL-CIO.
He stated that he had just returned from a trip to Greece, and contrary to what you see in the media, the Greek people are happy. They enjoy huge social programs and unions are also huge. There are those in Greece who feel that capitalists are trying to destroy social programs around the world.
Legislative Director Tony Kiwak did not attend as he was ill, but he did send his written report. He mentions that Florida appears to be in a “Race to the Bottom with Nevada and Virginia to see who can recapture the lowest return on their federal tax dollars.” Florida received approximately $500 less per capita in funds than the average per capita nationwide. Governor Scott and Florida legislators have already rejected tens of millions of dollars in federal health care dollars this year, and have indicated that they will reject any future stimulus dollars.
Governor Scott who ran on a platform of “Let’s get to work” has not created any job growth. Normal job growth would be 1 million jobs, but under Scott’s plan only 700,000 new jobs would be created after 7 years, resulting in a net loss of 300,000 jobs.
At the national level President Obama has been advocating legislation to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work, but so far Republicans in Congress have rejected every offer, in spite of the fact that surveys say that the populous supports the $447 billion Obama job plan with a surtax on incomes of millionaires. Only one in four surveyed opposes the plan. The Congressional budget office has reported that from 1979 to 2007, after taxes, income for the wealthiest Americans grew by 275%.
ARA State ARA Organizer Jennifer Kenny said that she and President Fransetta are working on a co-ordination plan that would enable them to reach the entire state. They will work with the Area Vice-Presidents, who in turn can work through their CLC’s to achieve this goal. They are going to continue to travel around the state to meet with our affiliates.
President Fransetta introduced several candidates for public office.
Area Vice-Presidents Mark Boston, Syd Bykosfsky, Sarah Jones, Donessa Jackson, and Rick Iocino all gave reports of activities in their areas. They have been working on bringing different groups into the FLARA. Tony explained there are many different ways to do that. Rick stated that to get clubs to join FLARA you just have to be persistent. Another aid is to have the Congressional voting record handy to point out how legislators one may like have actually voted against them on senior issues. The message from everyone who spoke was, “We must all work together to be successful.”
President Fransetta said that unemployment among college graduates is 9%. The 1% wants to destroy those who built this country, and the young people have got it figured out. That’s why so many of them have joined the “Occupy” movement.
Marna Davidson gave the treasurer’s report. We have a balanced budget. She remarked that it is close to the time of year when the clubs and affiliates must pay their dues.
Mark Boston moved the report, seconded by Vivian Silbiger, and unanimously approved.
The meeting adjourned at 12:06 PM
Our sponsors were Searcy, Scarola, Barnhart, and Shipley, PA and the Palm Beach Treasure Coast AFL-CIO.
Lunch was provided by Searcy, Scarola, Barnhart, and Shipley PA. Brenda Fulmer a member of that firm passed out pamphlets on the dangers of drug interactions. We also received a booklet entitled “Eat Great & Lose Weight, The Natural Cure for Diabetes.”
Ms. Fulmer gave a lecture and slide show on the dangers of drug interactions and what we need to do to protect ourselves, while we enjoyed the lunch that her firm had provided.
Additional information may be accessed by going to the FLARA website at www.FLARA.org.
The FEA-R members present were: President Vivian Silbiger, Vice President Marilyn Warner, Secretary Daneen Regna, and David Staples.
Respectfully submitted,
Daneen Regna, FEA-R Secretary
FLARA Board Member
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