Florida's Fair Share
Fighting for Florida and Our Share of the Pie

Peter believes that the importance of this election season can be summed up in one word: Fairness.

It's painfully obvious that this country, founded on the idea of fair play and equality, has been headed in the wrong direction for too long - the rich get richer, and the rest of us get squeezed.

But there's one aspect of the fairness issue that you might not be aware of. It's about how our entire state, and everyone in it, have been squeezed out of the federal budget.

The hard truth is that only three states contribute more in taxes to the federal government than Florida. Yet here are just a few sobering examples of how we don't get our fair share from Washington:

Florida ranks 47th per capita in general federal grant money
That's $5.4 billion below the U.S. average.

Florida ranks 45th per capita in federal education grant money
If we received even the U.S. average, we'd have an additional $299 million. That's 19 new schools, or thousands of new teachers.

Florida ranks 45th per capita in federal housing grants
That's $739 million below the U.S. average - enough to quickly improve the lives of more than 100,000 Florida families.

Florida ranks 34th per capita in federal grants for Florida's veterans
$8.2 million below the U.S. average.

Florida ranks 47th per capita in federal environmental grants
$82 million below the U.S. average.

Florida ranks 43rd per capita in federal transportation grants
$349 million below the U.S. average.

Florida ranks 46th per capita in federal Medicaid grants
$349 million below the U.S. average.

Yes, there's something seriously wrong with this picture. One of the largest, fastest growing and politically important states in the nation gets nowhere near it's fair share of federal dollars -- dollars we all pay in federal taxes! And we are not talking about federal "pork" here. We are talking about basic necessities such as roads, schools, security and assistance for the least privileged among us.

One of the reasons Peter is running for Senate is so that he can help correct this outrageous imbalance. Again, it's an issue of fundamental fairness, not special privilege - why should we pay in so much and get back so little?

As Peter often says - fairness matters. Please join Peter in the fight for every Floridian's fair share!