Editor’s note:  As of today, officials with Florida Tax Watch have yet to respond to my inquiry. Did a generous contribution from Florida Power & Light influence the organization’s “report” on a state audit of the Florida Municipal Power Agency?  We may never know.

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Reading Florida Tax Watch’s “report” on a state audit of the Florida Municipal Power Agency, I could not help but suspect the influence and bias of Florida Power & Light.  After all, given FPL’s track record of influencing public policy, one wouldn’t be surprised to learn the politically active, powerful and often heavy-handed utility giant put Florida Tax Watch up to issuing its so-called report.

As previously reported, not long after contributing $50,000 to State Sen. Joe Negron, FPL directly lobbied the senator for the appropriation of $200,000 to pay for a state audit of the FMPA. At the time, Negron was chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

Several years ago, FPL orchestrated the removal of two members of the Florida Service Commission who refused to approve a $1 billion-plus rate increase for the state’s largest investor-owned utility.

FPL, run by a president whose background is not in generating and distributing electric power but in exercising political power, has also meddled in local elections from Miami Beach, to Vero Beach, to Daytona Beach, to north central Florida.

To persuade Vero Beach voters to sell their electric system, FPL spent more than $150,000. The company’s investment in controlling politics in Vero Beach is dwarfed, though, by the nearly $500,000 it spent changing the charter of the City of South Daytona to prevent leaders there from exercising their contractual right to buy their electric system from FPL.

Put simply, FPL is not reticent to use its considerable economic power to buy political influence across the state.

Florida Tax Watch claims its report was prompted by a letter from State Rep. Debbie Mayfield. One has to wonder who wrote the letter for Mayfield, or who put her up to it.  Was she following direction and advice from political operatives at FPL? Does she plan to accept a lucrative job lobbying for FPL when her term as a legislator end in 2016? Are these questions Florida Tax Watch bothered to consider?

Yesterday, I wrote Florida Tax Watch asking if the group will make public its membership and donor list. The people of Florida, who are being asked to take seriously the organization’s claim to be looking out for the interests of taxpayers, have a right to know who is funding FTW.

FTW’s stated mission is to, “provide the citizens of Florida and public officials with high quality, independent research and analysis of issues related to state and local government taxation, expenditures, policies, and programs.”

If FTW is confident its research and analysis is truly independent, why would the organization not be transparent about its membership and donors?