Organized labor weighs in on local politics

It seems like nearly every day when I open the local news, I see a new opinion column, either in the Tallahassee Democrat or a rival news outlet, aimed at City Commissioners Jeremy Matlow, Jack Porter, or the chair of the Leon County Democratic Party, Ryan Ray.

Frankly, as a labor leader, I do not care to get too bogged down in party politics and would much rather concern myself with policies that affect working people. I have no way of knowing if the likes of Jared Willis, former board member of Grow Tallahassee, Bob Lotane, ostensibly a progressive political blogger, and Jon Ausman, begrudged former chair of the Leon County Democratic Party, are coordinating these attacks, but I have a hard time believing that they have such a drastic misunderstanding of local politics. Are they just playing coy?

In state and national politics, the fault lines are usually drawn along party lines, either Republican or Democrat. However, the fault lines of local politics are drawn between developers and everyday people.

When organizations such as Grow Tallahassee and the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce lobby local government for tax dollars, those dollars come directly out of the pockets of local workers and residents and go into the hands of some of the wealthiest people in North Florida. It does not matter if the person promoting this spending is a Republican or a Democrat – this is a wealth transfer from the people to the elite, and it is wrong.

Two things matter in politics: power and policy. The current 3-2 split on the city commission has led to bad policy for working people. We were initially told that the Tallahassee Police Department headquarters would cost an outlandish $46.5 million. Now that number has reached a staggering $135 million.

Combining a police station with a community center was always a bad idea, now it is unconscionable. Blueprint projects such as $27 million and $134 million for Doak Campbell Stadium and Welaunee Boulevard, respectively, all primarily benefit developers and wealthy stakeholders. This spending for development projects has led to an 8.5% increase in property taxes which makes housing more expensive for working homeowners and renters, alike.

It also comes with the opportunity cost of future spending on things we really need, like affordable housing, public transportation, utilities, and improved workers’ salaries and benefits. Speaking of workers’ salaries, while Tallahassee firefighters struggled in contract negotiations for fair wages with the city, two commissioners, Matlow and Porter, stood with the firefighters while three others stood against them.

More: The ‘pious babble’ of Jeremy Matlow | Bob Lotane

More: One Tallahassee: A way out of a ‘toxic political environment’ | Jeremy Matlow

As it stands now, Matlow and Porter do not have the votes to enact policies that would benefit workers. However, organized labor – both the Tallahassee Professional Firefighters and the Big Bend Labor Council, AFL-CIO – have endorsed Porter for re-election and Dot Inman-Johnson for City Commission Seat 2 because we believe that they can help us right the ship.

Politicos such as Willis, Lotane, and Ausman are not ignorant of power or policy in politics. They are actively deciding to side with developers over workers. Fortunately, workers, not political pundits, will always be the majority.

Jordan Scott is president of the Big Bend Labor Council, local chapter of the AFL-CIO. He teaches Political Sociology at Florida State University. The Big Bend Chapter of the Northwest Florida Federation of Labor will be teaming up with Family Promise of the Big Bend to collect donations for homeless veteran services and hosting a panel on the state of politics and labor in Florida on Labor Day from 9 a.m. to noon at the American Legion Hall in Tallahassee.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Organized labor weighs in on local politics