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.

This morning, Monday, 31 August, I collected a $250.00 donation from a realtor in Walton County. This gentleman rents a sizeable number of units to tourists in both Walton and Okaloosa County. He also lives in Walton County and cannot sign our petition or vote in the referendum.  So much for those who assured me that no one in the tourist industry would ever support our cause. You'd be surprised at some of the names of people who support our petition drive to rescind County Ordinance 89-23 and, therefore, the Conference Center and the Tourist Development Council.

My donor told me a story that I've now heard numerous times in Okaloosa County. He never counts on either TDC for anything. As he put it, "why would I trust my livelihood to a government bureaucracy?" He, like many others, spent $100,000 for his own advertising campaign this year. He didn't "buddy up" to either TDC for any of their programs because he doesn't feel that they are effective.

It's as if the TDC doesn't exist! For whatever reason, these businesses tend to ignore the TDC and go their own way. That multi-million dollar, tax-derived, TDC budget always gets spent and is completely ignored by the very ones who are supposed to benefit from it the most!

Say, what!

Could it be that those TDC performance claims are smoke? You know, the claim that there'd be no tourism on the Emerald Coast without the TDC programs! Tell that to my friends from Mississippi who have been coming here for four generations. Their great-grandchildren just bought a home and opened a business in Destin. They signed our petition!

Isn't it refreshing that a business owner, like my $250.00 donor friend, is still willing to determine his own fate? 

It's time to do away with the TDC. Next year, an election year, all of Okaloosa County should be allowed to vote on the TDC issue.

Cheers!
Gaylan

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