Well, now’s your chance!

You tell me what you want asked — and of whom — and I will do my darnedest to get an answer.

Want to know  how much money Rick Scott plans to spend on schools next year … what Buddy Dyer really thinks of Teresa Jacobs … whether your city council member prefers brick streets or paved … what songs John Mica has on iPod … or whether he has an iPod?

Serious or fun. You throw it out there, I will try to get as many answers as possible for an upcoming column.

Feel free to post your questions below. Or, if you’d rather, send them to me directly at smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com.

Afterward, State Rep. Steve Precourt took to his legislative Facebook page to respond with the following:

“Can’t Sentinel come up with any other ideas than tax and spend!?!?!?”

I found this conclusion rather remarkable … remarkably ignorant, that is.

At least I’m going to give Precourt the benefit of the doubt and vote for ignorance. Because the other option is outright deceit.

The column did not call for more taxing and spending. Quite to the contrary, it called for less — of both.

I wrote that bloated spending budgets for buildings had gotten out of control. I suggested that money could be better be used on things like public-safety for our overworked sheriff’s deputies.

I even wrote that, if we better spent the money we were collecting, we could provide “tax cuts.”

The piece really wasn’t that complicated. And yet the best Precourt could come up with was to label a piece calling for less spending and tax cuts more ”tax and spend?”

This, my friends, is the problem with politics — and why I decided to revisit his comment today.

We are living in a sound-bite society where things have gotten so bad that our politicians don’t even bother trying to make their sound bites apropos.

We also elect people who are either not willing or not smart enough to honestly debate these things.

You can make an honest argument against what I wrote. You can say that you don’t want hotel taxes to help deputies or schools. You can say that $2 billion isn’t enough for the convention center — and that you want to spend more. You can argue that we need to beef up advertising. And you can argue that there are precedents that shouldn’t be bucked.

But if the best you can say about a column that contemplates tax cuts, focuses on spending cuts and suggests redirecting money to public safety is to call it just another example of “tax and spend,” it’s hard to take you seriously.

The saddest part, though, this is not only what passes for discourse in Central Florida these days, it’s what passes as leadership.

 Well, USA Today recently crunched all the data  and found that, locally, Democrat Corrine Brown and Republican Cliff Stearns were the big spenders, while Republicans Sandy Adams and Dan Webster ran their offices the cheapest

Specifically, Brown of Jacksonville nearly went for broke, spending 99.4 percent of the $1.4 million her office was allotted. But Stearns of Ocala wasn’t too far behind spending 96 percent.

Spending less were the likes of Bill Posey (85 percent), John Mica (82 percent) and Rich Nugent (80 percent). Spending considerably less was Sandy Adams (72 percent). And spending the least — most walking the walk when it comes to cutting government spending – was freshman Republican Dan Webster, who spent only 66 percent ($930,000) of the $1.4 million his office was allotted.

Most of the offices’ budgets were spent on salary

I’ll let each member’s constituents judge for themselves who got the most bang for their taxpayer bucks, service-wise.

You can see the full study and rankings here - and the chart below.

The Associated Press explained as much in a weekend story on Rick Scott gearing up for re-election – and Democrats gearing up to challenge him.

“The Republican Party of Florida is buying television ads to promote Scott’s policy successes in hopes of reversing the negative impression many voters have of him, and the governor and party are quietly raising money for his re-election. One Democrat has already said she hopes to challenge him and others are not so subtly considering it.”

The GOP TV spots on Scott’s behalf focus on the governor’s focus on education and credit his policies with the improvement in the economy.

Meanwhile, the Demo candidates include State Sen. Nan Rich — and talk and speculation about everyone from Alex Sink and Charlie Crist to former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and Orlando’s Buddy Dyer.

You can read the full AP story here.

It made the case that the Republican Party has had a back-and-forth relationship with Hispanic voters — which was pretty good here in Florida when Jeb Bush was in charge, not so much nowadays.

But no one has made the case about the GOP’s current problems on this front in more starker terms than Steve Schmidt, a former spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee and senior strategist for John McCain’s presidential campaign.

This is what Schmidt said on MSNBC last month: “If you look at the Republican Party as a whole … If we had a deliberate strategy to antagonize every Latino voter in this country, it’s not possible that we could have done a better job.”

Schmidt and the others then cited over-the-top rhetoric in the immigration debate, votes against the Dream Act and even things like Mitt Romney’s plans for “self deportation.”

Continued Schmidt: “The Republican Party can not be a national party if it doesn’t compete in the Hispanic community. And if you look at those numbers, we have big, big problems.”

We’re talking cellar-beneath-the-basement levels here … 8 percent job approval.

Summarized Rasmussen: “Voters continue to voice an overwhelmingly negative assessment of Congress’ performance. ”

You can read a bit more here. But in general, this mirrors one of the great political paradoxes I’ve mused about before: Everyone is convinced that Congress is a mess — even as they largely re-elect the same people back to office.

We see the same thing with the legislature here in Florida – consistently cruddy approval rankings … and then overwhelming re-elections.

Apparently everybody else’s legislators are the problem.

Think about it.

* Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam tells the St. Pete Times that the chances of Rick Scott facing any serious opposition from within his own party in his quest for re-election in 2014 are precisely “nil.”

* Former presidential hopefuls are weighing in on Florida’s U.S. Senate race. Michelle Bachmann has endorsed Connie Mack, while Herman Cain endorsed George LeMieux.

* In case you missed it, National Republican formally punished the Florida delegation for its early primary vote by putting them at a hotel more than 30 miles from the convention …. that the state is hosting.

* As Marco Rubio getsto be more of a national figure, more people are asking questions about his questionable spending and double-billing on RPOF credit cards. FOX News got in on the action this week, asking Rubio to explain. Part of his explanation:  ”Sometimes it was just a mistake — literally just reached for the wrong card.”

* And Alan Grayson continues to make waves in his quest to get attention — and back to Washington after voters kicked him out –  this time going to MSNBC with comments like: “George W. Bush is no more popular than a venereal diseases.”

So the newspaper made a stink. Multiple members of the county commision raised objections. And Jacobs quickly backed away from the idea.

Now compare that to Buddy Dyer. Last week, news broke that Buddy wanted to do essentially the same thing. The Sentinel penned a story titled: “Orlando City Attorney Joins Law Firm that Lobbies City.” There was nary a peep. Not a soul on Buddy’s council raised an objection, and the contract was approved unanimously by the council.

Why the difference? Mainly because: What Buddy wants, Buddy gets — at least as far as his city council is concerned. He plays his council like Charlie Daniels plays the fiddle. He gives them what they want, and they don’t give him any trouble. There were days when a few folks, including Daisy Lynum, Patty Sheehan and Phil Diamond, would challenge Dyer. But those days are long gone.

Jacobs also seems to care more about public perception than Dyer. Dyer has never been one to pay much mind to critics. And I don’t expect that will change, seeing as how he just ran a campaign where all of his opponents blasted him for operating a “Buddy system” at City Hall — and voters didn’t care much … at least not enough to vote for someone else.

I had one person tell me that the other reason Jacobs gets more scrutiny because she essentially promised to be the “queen of ethics.” I understand that — to a point. But if I was a politician watching that play out, the lesson I would learn is: Just don’t promise a high level of ethics … cuz then folks won’t expect you to keep it.

Personally, I have problems with conflicts, no matter who is involved – and think attorneys for agencies this big should be full-time positions, so that conflicts aren’t even an issue. (Keep in mind: City Attorney Mayanne Downs‘ contract was for up to $201,000 for part-time work.) But in Orlando, the standards for what’s proper apparently vary greatly, depending upon which side of Orange Avenue your mayor works.

Lee Corso, Jim Minow, Jim Schott

We start with the Foundation Fighting Blindness’s walk around Cypress Park, hosted by ESPN football guru Lee Corso and one of the nicest guys in town, former Orange County Schools Superintendent Jim Schott. More than 10 million Americans are affected with blinding retinal degenerative diseases — which is why the Foundation has been holding its VisionWalk for 7 years now. More info on this 3.1-mile walk on Sunday, May 6 at 9 a.m. can be found at www.FightBlindness.org/OrlandoVisionwalk .

If you want to get to walking sooner, the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America is holding one this Sundayat 10 a.m. in Baldwin Park. Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups. More info on this event at www.MGWalk.org and 1-855-MGWALKS (855-649-2557) and Info@MGWalk.org

There are also Relay for Lifeevents going on all over Central Florida — from Orlando and Maitland to Winter Garden and UCF. These folks walk all night for the American Cancer Society and can use your support, cheers and donations. To find out which one’s going on in your neighborhood, visit http://www.relayforlife.org/index and search for your hometown.

And finally, if you’d like to join me at an upcoming fundraiser, former Mix 105.1 starlet Erica Lee and I will be co-hosting the Orange Blossom Jubilee for the Winter Park Day Nursery next Friday, April 28 in Winter Park, trying to help a lot of truly deserving and underprivileged kids. For more info on this event, visit here or here.

Thanks for paying attention — and to all those involved in the events above for making a difference.

And again, if you have other events you’d like to promote, feel free to add them below.

Have a good weekend.