District 47 State Rep. James Grant Hosting Community Forum

For an hour on Thursday evening, Rep. James Grant will hold a forum at the Carrollwood Cultural Center to allow residents from Carrollwood, Citrus Park, Westchase and Northdale the opportunity to discuss issues that affect the community. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m. on June 30 at the center, 4537 Lowell Road.

Grant says that everyone should take advantage of the chance to share their concerns with him so that each individual can be properly represented in the legislative process.

“People can talk to me no differently than they talk to their spouse or their children at the dinner table,” said Grant. “It doesn’t go through email or a phone call. They can come and talk straight to me and look me in the eye and tell me why I’m doing a terrible job or why they’re proud of the job I’m doing.”

Residents will also get an inside look at how the government works at the state and federal level.

“I think a lot of people are uninformed or sometimes confused over the state of Florida and the federal government,” said Grant. “It is important to get people to understand the debt limit at the federal level, the debt ceiling, the continuing accrual of federal debt.”

Grant says that legislators faced some tough choices about whether to raise taxes.

“We made a commitment as a legislature that we were not going to entertain options of raising taxes in this recession,” said Grant. “We made tremendous reform and improvements to the public education system, and what we did with unemployment compensation to protect small businesses.”

Walking through the process of balancing the budget and addressing decisions that legislators were made will be part of Thursday night's discussion, said Grant.

Grant says that he hopes to hear from small business owners and employees.

“I hope that they recognize and see some of the commitments that we made this year to making Florida a business friendly state,” said Grant. “We are open to businesses that want to come be a part of our state.”

Also, there will likely be some discussion about issues that can be unclear to the general public.

“I expect to hear about the education bill, the growth management bill and the property insurance bill. Those are probably the most misrepresented or misquoted bills in the legislature or in the legislative session,” said Grant. “So those are often the bills we have the most questions about when I’m out dealing with constituents or speaking in front of different groups.”

Grant re-emphasized the importance of a dialogue between the local community and government representatives, citing the Anthony Weiner scandal.

“I think we live in a climate right now where people are frustrated by politics. The Anthony Weiner situation transcends parties and ideologies,” said Grant. “The American public is really fed up with politicians that don’t want to listen, politicians that think they know better and that essentially live in a bubble.”

For those who would like to preview the current issues and prepare personally relevant questions about new laws, Grant offered some advice: Go to myfloridahouse.gov.

“Click on the bills tab and put the bill number in, or if you know that a particular representative has sponsored it, you can click on the representative’s tag. Click on their sponsored bill, and you’ll see the bill come up right there," he said.

When asked what he thought was most important about the community forum, Grant, a lawyer with a business degree, had a direct answer as to why he wants to hear from constituents.

"(The forum) is a tremendous opportunity to get away from the political rhetoric and hear from the people who are living in the society that we are charged with the responsibility of governing."