Florida's senators found wanting

What do Floridians see in Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio? Mostly mute, (notable exception of Rubio’s flaccid comments on Martin Luther King Jr. while obstructing voting rights legislation) they tacitly protect white supremacy, insurrection, sedition, and corruption of the electoral process. They play perfect possums for their party. Florida could do better being represented by senators who would actually work for the people.

Debbie Shapiro, Boynton Beach

State investment in the arts critical

The arts are critical to the human experience and quality of life. In Palm Beach County, they also mean business. In a healthy year, our sector has an economic impact of $633 million and creates over 14,000 jobs. Our team visited Tallahassee to advocate for full funding of Florida’s Division of Arts & Culture matching grant program in the 2022-2023 budget. The total request: $69.2 million for 752 vetted grants across the state, which generates $4.7 billion in economic impact and supports over 227,000 jobs.

If fully funded, $8.6 million would be invested into Palm Beach County through 62 grants to cultural organizations and professional artists. National studies indicate the cultural sector was one of the hardest hit by COVID-19. The Council is also finalizing a study using data from 37 local organizations. The pandemic has caused a loss of $360 million in economic activity and over 11,000 jobs in Palm Beach County (2019-2021).

The Division of Arts & Culture grants have not been fully funded since 2014-2015. Now is the time to invest in the arts. Funding partnerships are critical to a nonprofit’s sustainability and our community’s access to the arts.

Dave Lawrence, President & CEO, Cultural Council for Palm Beach County

FPL running roughshod over lawmakers

On the Jan.18 front page of the Post, Hannah Moore writes about the Republican Legislature selling out to Florida Power and Light. Not only effecting Republicans but all citizens. A bill prepared by FPL and introduced by Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Orange Park — a recent recipient of $10,000 in campaign funds from FPL — will take away one the biggest incentives for citizens in Florida to put solar panels on their roofs. The bill will negatively impact net-metering, which pays the homeowner by selling the unused electricity back to FPL.

This allows the utility to benefit from the power you produce, and they intend on setting a standard rate for those with roof top solar for what they say is to maintain the grid. This is a for-profit utility the people of South Florida have no choice but to use. They have become so powerful they command the attention of this Republican Legislature. FPL is beating up most South Floridians with rate hikes and other ways to build on the bottom line. Instead of buying massive land areas for solar panels, they should be looking at ways to use the roof tops for added power. This is also a slap in the face to the environmentally conscious taking one of the best ways to lower our carbon footprint.

John Adler, Royal Palm Beach

Whatever happened to ...

I keep hearing about "The Big Lie" being the claim by former President Trump that the 2020 election was rigged. I always thought "The Big Lie" was "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

Gerald Farmer, Ocean Ridge

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and found wanting in helping Florida