Read our story about the speech here and go to The Forum to see what the state’s top political strategists thought about Crist’s address.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s upbeat state-of-the state speech highlighted his budget recommendations and pushed lawmakers to approve three deals _ the CSX/Central Florida commuter rail, the Seminole gambling compact and the U.S. Sugar purchase _ that would cost the state more than $3 billion.

He encouraged Floridians and elected officials to “lift from our shoulders fear and pessimism and take up the mantle of persistence and determination” and pushed lawmakers to be more bipartisan.

“We should not ask what it means to be Republican nor should we ask what it means to be Democratic but rather we should ask what it means to be a good decent human being,” he advised.

But both Republicans and Democrats reacted to Crist’s speech with considerable skepticism.

“The governor does a good pony and dance show but he has not really focused on those issues we know will generate revenue and this is closing tax loopholes,” Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee said.

Lawson’s House counterpart Franklin Sands was even more direct.

“I was underwhelmed,” Sands, D-Weston, said.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican, said that Crist’s budget ideas could be eclipsed by harsher numbers when state economists meet in two weeks.

“He expressed what many of us would like to be able to do,” said Alexander, but “I suspect it will be more challenging.”

Tags: Charlie Crist, State House

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Charlie Crist, gambling, legislature, State House, State Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.