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.

The Keeper of Truth - Today's NWFDN (Thursday, 14th) quotes Rick Deckert as saying, again, that "they have Truth on their side." He further charges that our "propaganda confuses people," and that our information is "inaccurate!"  These stances indicate, to me, that they've finally awakened to our "bear" in their "honeypot." I challenge him to prove those remarks. Mr. Deckert is fortunate to live in a society that no longer tolerates duels.

 In answer to Deckert's charge that people are calling him to see how they can rescind petitions signed before they knew the "facts," I have a simple solution.  If Mr. Deckert will send me the names of those individuals, I'll return their petitions to them and they can tear them up. This again illustrates how little understanding there is of this issue. We don't hold anyone hostage; the ones who've changed their minds can also simply not vote in the referendum. C'mon guys, this isn't a rocket science issue!

Our whole effort is devoted to getting these issues on a referendum which will terminate the Conference Center and the TDC that generated it. But the second goal is to then get these issues before the whole county on a ballot to be assured that the results represent all of us.

I began that process by speaking to the Legislative Proposal Committee last night. It'll be a long process to change the state statute, but I took the first step last night.

We are to the point that we would welcome volunteers to help us with the mountain of administrative chores associated with handling thousands of petitions before we turn them in to the BOCC.

Cheers!
Gaylan

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