Anticipating a tough visit, Broward Days organizers prepare for their annual trek to Tallahassee

Sun-Sentinel political blog
Posted by Anthony Man at 8:16 AM

With less money coming into the state treasury, it's not an easy year to get anything out of the Florida Legislature - at least not if it involves money.

"It's going to be a pretty tough year up there in Tallahassee ... because of how tough the budget situations are," said Kevin Boyd, of Boyd Public Relations in Fort Lauderdale, one of the leaders of the Broward Days <http://www.browarddays.com/> effort.

That's the group that combines people from the business world with those from government and politics, and attempts to present a united, bipartisan leadership front from the Broward establishment.

The centerpiece is the annual visit to Tallahassee, which is April 22 and 23 this year. It could attract 500 or so people from Broward.

"We have become a voice to be reckoned with in Tallahassee," said Jo Moskowitz, director of community and government affairs for Citrix Systems Inc.

Moskowitz is chairwoman of Broward Days.

Jerome Majzlin, executive director of Broward Days, said it operates differently from many of the other local groups that press their cases in the state capital.

First, it has teams develop positions on legislative issues. Second, it's tried to be bi-partisan in the last 10 years and not seen as a largely Republican organization.

Majzlin said the value of that strategy can be seen in the new way of doing business in Tallahassee since Gov. Charlie Crist took over last year from Jeb Bush. State government is a more open and bi-partisan operation.

Other differences: It's not a government run organization, the way many other such efforts are. The vast majority of its $125,000 to $200,000 budget comes from private sector sponsorships, its leaders said during a visit with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board.

And it doesn't concentrate on things like trade-show style displays in the Capitol Rotunda, instead sending teams to meet with individual legislators on various issues.

Majzlin said it's important for Broward to go to the capital city. He said distance, not political party differences, is the biggest gap that constantly needs to be bridged. "I don't see it as much of an R [Republican] and D [Democratic] issue."

"The more dialog, not hot air, but the more interaction with points of view, the better off we all are," he said