Better late than never?

McCollum and Sink have finally vowed to take on illegal debt collection practices. Seems there is nothing like a looming election to get public servants to actually serve…

After a week’s worth of finger pointing, the state’s attorney general and chief financial officer pledged Tuesday to push for changes in state law that would better protect Floridians from abusive debt collectors.

From the Orlando Sentinel

Sink and McCollum trade accusations, excuses

Bill collectors have been busy. And complaints about bill collectors have skyrocketed here in Florida. Fortunately, we have consumer protections in place. The Office of Financial Regulation licenses debt collectors in Florida. OFR is under Sink’s jurisdiction. Bill McCollum, the Attorney General, is in charge of consumer protection, among other things. So his office can tackle out-of-state bill collector abuse.

Sink and McCollum are running against each other for Governor. Neither seem to be going after the debt collectors who have amassed a total of 6,000 complaints to OFR and AG in 2008.

What they have done is accuse each other of failing to do their jobs, according to this Orlando Sentinel story. Maybe they were just busy with other pressing matters: Bill made an important statement here. Sink fired back with this and this. Now if the AG and CFO of Florida could put as much time and effort into regulating the business and protecting Floridians as they do into naked politics, maybe we wouldn’t have 6,000 complaints each year.

Florida Political Orgy of Campaign Spending

Charlie Crist’s announcement opened the floodgates. Politicians are coming out of the woodwork to run for newly open spots on the political ballfield. Political consultants will be hired, polls will be run, media firms will arrange ad schedules, and printers will get to work on millions of yard signs. There will be t-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers.

If Charlie, Alex, Bill, Marco and Kendrick put their money where their mouths are, they could do some good for Florida’s economy. They must pledge to spend all their campaign cash in Florida. Every t-shirt must be printed by a Floridian. Every sign and button must be designed and produced here. The must hire only Florida-based political consultants, ad agencies, media firms, mailing houses and pollsters.

There is no lack of talent in Florida. This is no time to be sending Florida money to China for buttons or Virginia for media advice. If you want to win in Florida, keep your campaign spending in Florida.