Dean Cannon

As you know, last year we passed a fiscally responsible budget that did not raise taxes and protected Florida’s bond rating. And, it wasn’t easy.

We made hard choices, and I hope perhaps one day the federal government will do the same.

We passed and Gov. Scott signed into law the most comprehensive overhaul of the Medicaid system in Florida’s history.

We decided that to help Florida’s economy recover, we had to change the way government does business with business. 

We passed a remarkably aggressive, game-changing growth-management reform. Also, we completely reorganized the state’s economic development entities. Third, we eliminated corporate income taxes for half of the Florida businesses that pay them.

We curbed what could have been a damaging increase in unemployment taxes, created a merit-pay system for Florida’s teachers, and passed the strongest set of pro-life initiatives in years. 

In short, we had an extraordinary session.

And so the inevitable question -- and the reason I am sure many of you made the trip to Tallahassee today to ponder is -- "What’s next?"

That’s a question I’ve asked myself numerous times, and spent many, many hours contemplating.

To be frank, over the past year, we succeeded in accomplishing most of the goals I set for myself and for the institution of the House, but there are others where we made substantial progress, but still have more work to do.

This session, we will face the challenging and increasingly complex process of drawing new legislative and congressional districts.

We will also face another daunting budget deficit. We will again be faced with difficult choices and good and worthwhile programs will have to absorb cuts. 

Last year, for the first time in the history of the Republican majority, the House passed legislation to actually eliminate certain regulations on various professions. Unfortunately, the bill died on the last night of session. I’m hopeful that we will see it revisited this year.

Additionally, while I don’t anticipate as aggressive an agenda this year, I hope we will see the beginning of a serious conversation on higher education reform that can be acted upon in coming years.

Finally, I hope to make more progress toward a personal goal of mine -- which is to leave the Florida House of Representatives better and stronger than when I found it and to ensure the continued success of this institution despite the challenges created by term limits.

One way I’ve tried to do that is to improve the quality and accessibility of information for members of the House, members of the media and our constituents.

I understand that in the media, your work is time-constrained, you have limited and shrinking resources and the value of your industry and your work is often underappreciated. But, that doesn’t justify factual inaccuracies, failing to seek out and report on both sides of a story or giving a less than full picture of an issue.

I could legitimately make the same claims regarding the time and resources available to the Legislature or to state government to justify decisions made in Tallahassee, but you wouldn’t buy it. And that’s because at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to do our jobs, and our actions, choices and words have consequences.

Your responsibility to the people of Florida is no less important. Your written words have as many consequences as my spoken words.

Your stories travel quickly and last forever. Fact errors, however inadvertent or unintentional, can easily cause great damage as they quickly spread beyond the reach of updates you are able to provide, or corrections you have the ability to issue. One thing perhaps even more hazardous than a fact error is telling an incomplete or misleading story.