| NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ISSUE?
- Gaylan's Corner! - Opinions, comments and Notes from the
field - by Gaylan King
-
BED TAX/CONFERENCE CENTER HISTORY OF EVENTS
- The Freedom Committee's goal is to repeal county ordinance 89-23 that has spawned the
Tourist Development Counsel (TDC) and bed tax (increase), and is also designed to fund the
proposed conference center. The TDC was created with this ordinance and therefore,
by law, will be disbanded with OR 89-23's repeal. In order to do this, a referendum must
come to a vote before the people.
There are four major areas on this website that are designed to do four
things:
1. Present the
FACTS supporting our case that
the Conference Center will be a financial burden to the taxpayers of Okaloosa County.
2. Provide a
HISTORY of the entire Bed Tax
increase/Conference Center and give an historical scope to the issue.
3. To present OUR POINT OF
VIEW as an opponent of the Bed Tax Increase/Conference Center and it's
supporters.
4. To provide a
FORUM
in which others can share their point of view. |
Beach re-nourishment may be more akin to our years in
Vietnam than it is to a cure-all for sick beaches. Our friends in Panama
City have had a less-than-satisfactory experience with this remedy; we could become the
next casualty of this unfounded theory.
Can you imagine being responsible for darkening the snow-white beaches of the
Emerald Coast? Can you imagine risking such an outcome because hotels and condos
don't want anyone other than owners or guests on "their" beaches?
Has anyone
else read the studies, posted elsewhere on this site, which strongly suggests that the
ultimate way to re-nourish a beach is to stop building anything on it, and to leave it
completely alone for a long time? Radical!
It's time for some wisdom and common sense to be applied to this knee-jerk issue
before we kill the patient in the doctor's office. There are many factual studies, readily
available, that specifically address this problem. Everyone from the Corps of
Engineers to various academic foundations have spent serious resources, both monetary and
intellectual, on this problem. We must carefully study these various results before we
act.
And, for the record, there is no recorded instance of a Tourist Development
Council adding significantly to the body of scientific knowledge associated with
successfully dealing with this phenomena. Their favored role is to channel funds directly
to those qualified to do the work.
Cheers!
Gaylan
