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 Latest Scam to Save the TDC - I got a call today, Wednesday, 15 Sept., from local attorney Doug Hutchinson. He was all chatty and wanted to know how the petition drive was going. I met Doug some months ago when he took on a project that I thought worthwhile, and I assumed his interest to be genuine.  I told him the drive was going well and we'd just mailed out to 4,000 people.  (I  later realized the actual figure was 6,000.) He mumbled something about getting petitions, himself, to stop the  proposed Conference Center.

I couldn't quite figure what he was trying to say and replied that County Ordinance 89-23 made no provision for petitioning for the Conference Center. I also said that The Freedom Committee had already gotten petitions signed, so why do that?  He then stated that he wasn't going through CO 89-23, but was going to "get a bunch of petitions and take them to the Board of County Commissioners." His implication was that they would accept such a petition. I knew, at that moment, that his call represented the latest effort to short-circuit our petition drive. In fact, I received my first "under-the-table" offer for a referendum on only the Conference Center, on the 6th of July, the very morning the intentions of The Freedom Committee first made the newspapers.

Why is the BOCC willing to entertain such a petition at this time, after two years of denial? And, I believe them to be behind this attempt to divert the efforts of The Freedom Committee. I've come to the conclusion that some of its members are desperately trying to save the TDC; that they would have "tossed" the Conference Center some time ago, after it became apparent the activities of The Freedom Committee would put the TDC at risk. Why is the TDC, a malfunctioning bureaucracy of questionable value, worth so much contradiction of effort on the part of highly visible politicians?

I truly believe that they underestimated our resolve from the very beginning, that they didn't immediately realize the risk we presented to the cash cow, the TDC. I also know  they will be surprised at the sources of support for our efforts. Make no mistake about it, no matter what else is done, we'll have our referendum.

ON ANOTHER NOTE...

Will someone explain to me why the Tolberts were among the first contributors to Mr. Sansom's campaign for State Representative? If the Tolbert family wants the Conference Center, they would hardly support the Commissioner who supposedly tried to stop it. It is of some importance that Mr. Sansom never, to my knowledge, took a public stand on the TDC, and yet the TDC is inseparable from the Conference Center issue, by law.  I haven't yet figured out the entire plot of this contradictory production, but the last act has yet to play.

Could there be some truth to the rumor that, at some point, a coalition was reached which made it more profitable to privately develop the north side of HWY 98, and without a doomed-to-fail Conference Center cluttering up the plan?

Keep your eyes on the stage, folks, there's at least one more act to this play.

Cheers!
Gaylan

Top of Page