Scott backs down after FL protest

Here's some good news: Rick Scott, who should have gone to jail but got elected governor of Florida instead, wanted to privatize the state's parks (along with everything else he could get his hands on).

But he backed down on one park -- Honeymoon Island Park -- after hundreds of Floridians protested.

Tampabay.com reports,

...Scott had defended his decision to push for campgrounds at Honeymoon Island and 55 other state parks as a way to raise revenue for the state...

Yet the opposition grew louder, most notably at a public hearing Tuesday that drew hundreds of people to oppose it. Locally, an officer of the Pinellas chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society vowed to lie in front of bulldozers if the plan at Honeymoon went through.

Finally, about 5:30 p.m. Friday, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a letter to state lawmakers stating that it would not recommend going forward with camping at the park....

...the DEP will also reconsider and possibly revamp similar plans for three other parks where public hearings drew opposition: Wakulla Springs, DeLeon Springs and Fanning Springs.

davidkc at DailyKos gives us the backstory about how Scott and his cronies secretly tried to convert pristine parks into for-profit RV parks. Writes davidkc,

But thanks in large part to the St. Petersburg Times and other local media outlets, people got wind of the proposals before the public hearings and an outcry quickly swept through the state. The plan was so unpopular that even some prominent Republicans in the Legislature spoke out against it.

Read the whole thing here.