Hard times in Florida deflate Governor Crist's approval ratings

TALLAHASSEE --
Rising gas prices, the falling real estate market and deep state budget cuts have not only brought South Florida's economy to a crawl, they've deflated the once sky-high approval ratings of Gov. Charlie Crist, according to a new Miami Herald poll.

The governor is doing a fair to poor job of handling South Florida issues, according to 52 percent of the people surveyed by Zogby International in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. That compares with 43 percent who say he's doing a good to excellent job.

It's the first time in Crist's 18 months in office that more people give the Republican a negative rating than a positive one. The one area South Floridians criticize him most: property taxes.

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Zogby's previous polls in South Florida had Crist's approval ratings at 54-36 percent in September and 54-40 percent in December in the three counties surveyed, making him one of the most popular Republican governors in the nation. In January, the governor blanketed the state with a high-profile push to pass Amendment 1 to cut property taxes and vowed that it would result in taxes ``dropping like a rock.''

Today, 59 percent of South Floridians say the governor's handling of property taxes is fair to poor while only 30 percent say it's been good to excellent. The poll surveyed 807 South Floridians and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Several high-profile constitutional amendments are also on the skids, according to poll results.

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Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, was quick to praise Gov. Charlie Crist's announcement today that the state would buy out U.S. Sugar Corp. for $1.7 billion.

"I applaud Gov. Crist and Secretary Sole for their innovation, long-range planning, and commitment to our state's environmental heritage," Pruitt said in a statement. "When we secure this land, we will not only build upon the significant clean-up effort by the state, but we will accelerate and enhance the systematic restoration of the River of Grass to the condition Mother Nature intended it to be."

But of course, you can't please everybody. The Florida Democratic Party, for one, isn't ready to let the governor shift the media focus away from the offshore oil-drilling furor he created last week by reversing his opposition to drilling off the coast.

"With his poll numbers tanking, Empty Chair Charlie Crist suddenly announces a secret deal to buy the Everglades, curiously just days after he got panned for offering up our shores to McCain-Bush's big oil buddies," state Democratic spokesman Mark Bubriski said in a statement. "It's sad that, after last week's egregious flip-flop, we have to wonder if Crist will offer up the Everglades to drilling, too."