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.

Odds and Ends -  I walked the beach on Holiday Isle today, Monday, Sept 6th, and spoke with 5 of the beach services who make their livelihood from the tourists on the beach. They all said the same thing: business was 'way down over this Labor Day weekend.  Two of them said that they had "little or no business." Something is going on out here, folks, and it's important!

I need to add a "P.S." to yesterdays piece when I was referring to the NWFDN letter which stated that we'll need ever-more tourists until we have full occupancy  for twelve months out of each year. I then spoke of the dismal cycle of build, gripe, tax, advertise, bring in more people, and, then, start the whole cycle over again by triggering the developers to build more units... What I meant to add in was the fact that there are some 3000-4000 additional units already approved between here and South Walton County, and these units are in the "pipeline," regardless of what we do in the future.  Therefore, you can't even look around you and see the extent of the damage done through over-development.

Another odd fact reveled itself today.  If you read my piece about the rude man, with the thick European accent,  at the Destin Post Office, I saw him, today, on a local television news spot about tourism. I believe he is the manager, or one of the managers at the Ramada Inn on Okaloosa Island. You know, the one right across from the proposed Okaloosa Island Conference Center.  Why doesn't that surprise me?   You can be nasty and run, but you can't hide!

The mail-out pieces will be ready this week. We're finishing our names database and will be off to have them labeled and mailed by the end of this week. Please reproduce them and pass them around to friends who are sympathetic to our cause. The forms must read the same, but their source can be from anywhere.  If you know friends who want a petition mail-out, use the form, below, to tell us their name and address, and we'll include them in the mail-out. And, above all, follow the enclosed instructions EXACTLY as we ask, or they'll be thrown out!

Don't forget the Budget session tomorrow evening in Crestview.  I hear that two of the Commissioners are going to vote against the budget, as proposed. Since both are running for some office next year, I'd be a lot more impressed if three of the would vote against it. It's easy to take a popular stand when it causes no consequences to the point in question!

Cheers!
Gaylan

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