Governor Reubin Askew surrounded himself with extraordinary talent, as has been mentioned before in this Blog, Quorum Call and my book, The Golden Years…The Florida Legislature, ’70′s and ’80′s. A great deal of credit should go to his running mate, the late Lieutenant Governor Tom Adams and his Cabinet staff. The current discussion of Republican candidate Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 Tax Plan brought back memories of the Governor’s outstanding Budget Director, Joe Cresse. As the experts, after release, analyze the Cain 9-9-9 plan for the winners and losers, it occurred to me that never happened with Askew’s tax policy–Cresse knew the impact before any proposed policy was released, and in great detail. I can recall the Governor’s controversial Corporate Sales Tax–when we in the legislature questioned Cresse about it, he had the answers, and then some. There were political threats with a new tax, but the Governor was such a highly respected leader, that he had credibility when he said, “….it is time for business to pay their fair share.” The new tax was adopted overwhelmingly in the 1970′s.
