| NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ISSUE?
-
Gaylan's Corner! - Opinions, comments and Notes from the
field - by Gaylan King
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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. |
It's Like Charley Brown Trying to Kick The Football
- I attended the final County Budget Hearing on Monday night, Sept 20th, and left feeling
that, once more, the "football" of fiscal irresponsibility had been
magically moved beyond reach just as some good citizens were trying to give it a swift
kick..
After a quick budget summary, citizens were allowed to speak. Granted, the newly
proposed Leisure Services Division had been cut more by than than half at the previous
meeting, but that act now seemed like more of a sacrificial lamb than the beginning of a
serious effort to delete or reduce line after line of truly ridiculous expenditures.
Looking back, it seems as if the Commissioner led discussion was always centered on
specific programs (such as the LSD) and never really addressed the problem of overall
largesse and plain wastefulness. I could type in 1000 line items to justify my point, but
many of these items are posted
elsewhere on BeachBrowser.com; you should all spent the time to carefully
examine even a couple of these pages and see for yourselves.
The Conference Center came up several times. One gentleman asked the BOCC to
take it off of the budget. He asked for a show of hands, and everyone in the gallery,
except Rick Deckert, was against it. It made no difference. Commissioner Harrison then set
off on an unintelligible series of questions and comments, and ended by saying that,
"he wanted the people to have a place where they could meet." He acted as if
this was some legacy that only he (or the BOCC) could confer. What balderdash!
Harrison then called on Rick Deckert, Chairman of the TDC, to speak on behalf of
the beleaguered Conference Center. It made no difference that this was a budget
meeting and Deckert wasn't on the agenda. I've heard Deckert's spiel many times but,
now, he makes no pretense that it'll ever earn enough money to be profitable, period. This
being the case, one must ask: for whom is it being built? And, why such a
damn-the-criticism; full-speed-ahead-at-all-costs attitude?
After one citizen speaker gained a light smattering of applause, the Chair
cautioned all of us that we couldn't "get out of hand." He recalled that the first
hearing , in Crestview, had gotten out of hand. It surely did! He then stated
that, at the first hearing, "you applauded a man who had broken into someone's home
in the middle of the night and threatened some people; later, you booed a man who was
handicapped." I wonder if the Chair reckons we booed this man because of what
he said, or because he was handicapped? Conversely, should handicapped people always
be applauded for what they say? Should non handicapped citizens, therefore, be booed for
their normalcy or for the content of their speech? I believe the Chair is onto
something, here!
After a lot of well presented opposition, the BOCC moved the
"football", again, and passed the budget while we picked ourselves up.
Somewhere in this great land, there is a County Commission that holds meetings
which reflect the desires and concerns of the electorate; A BOCC that moves in concert
with and is attuned to the desires of the citizens whom they represent. That BOCC in not
the one in Okaloosa County.
Cheers!
Gaylan
