Quasi-democrat

Confetti's strewn on the floor. Empty strings with deflated balloons. Campaign banners hanging limply from the walls. All that's left of the state of Florida's Presidential Primary is to clean up the mess. The janitors have the easy job of tidying up campaign halls, with the clutter left behind by the entourage of republican candidates but who is going to clean up the turmoil left behind with Governor Crist's 11th hour endorsement of John McCain?

Political pundits have been spouting the demise of the conservatives in the republican party all day with the win of McCain last night. They are conveniently ignoring the hard, cold numbers of the Florida campaigns. Yes, McCain won but his margin of victory was slim, at best. Looking at it realistically, 64% of republicans that voted in yesterday's Primary did not agree with McCain's brand of politics.

It is apparent that the republican guru's at the top of the food chain have forgotten the message the voters sent them in 2006 which gave the majority control over to democrats in Congress. Republicans are still smarting from the pain of holding our noses in 1996 after Bob Dole's failed bid for president. What's next? Asking republicans to vote for a quasi-democrat under the guise of the republican banner?

The one bright spot in yesterday's election was the passage of amendment 1 that will help jump start our sagging economy.

Precinct 1

This morning when I drove up to my precinct to vote I became concerned because my elderly neighbor was not sitting outside. Much to my relief, he was attempting to stay warm just inside the door. This neighbor has been a poll worker since before I began voting in Precinct 1 in 1992. His name is Orville "Buck' Sharp and is lovingly called the mayor of Nobleton. After giving Buck a big hug we chatted briefly about his well being. Although Buck is close to 90 years old, he still works at our polling place from sun up to sundown, along with many more of my elderly neighbors. Else Howell was there this morning checking identification of the voters along with my neighbor Maxine Milliken. As much I consider voting my civic duty being a pleasure, I find just as much joy going to the polls to visit with my neighbors who have volunteered at our precinct for more years than I have lived in Hernando County. My thanks go out to these kind souls that give their time to our community!

.

Please vote "Yes" on Amendment 1

on January 29, 2008

Election results tomorrow

I received this press release from Hernando County Community Relations Coordinator, Brenda Frazier concerning tomorrow's Presidential Preference Primary Election:

PRESS RELEASE
Monday, January 28, 2008
Local Election Results

The local government channel, Bright House Channel 622, will show Hernando County's results in tomorrow's Presidential Preference Primary Election, including Amendment 1, as soon as the tabulation has been completed. According to the Supervisor of Elections Office, the results should be finalized by 9:00 p.m. The results will also be posted on the Elections website: www.hernandovotes.com.

Quid Pro Quo

Endorsements, endorsements, endorsements, etc. Has everyone heard enough about the Presidential Preference Primary slated to take place tomorrow? My email box has been full everyday with campaign literature. My phone has been ringing off the hook with that last minute candidate promotions. Radio stations have been blaring last minute campaign ads to get the attention of the voters. Every TV station has inundated our brains with mindless drivel about the candidates. Every candidate is the best thing since sliced bread was invented if you believe the ads.

I thought I had heard it all until Saturday night. Fox News interrupted their regular broadcasting to show Governor Charlie Crist endorse John McCain at the Pinellas County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. That's when I snapped and started to scream at the television. What does Charlie Crist think he's doing endorsing a candidate before our Florida Presidential Preference Primary Election? It doesn't matter which candidate the Governor endorsed, its the fact that he endorsed a candidate at all before the Primary. This endorsement sure looks like quid pro quo. "I endorse you and you pick me for the vice president on your ticket". This type of "back door politics" is what has been wrong with the republican party for years. They just don't get it...

Weeki Wachee

I received this press release from Weeki Wachee Springs earlier this afternoon and thought you might be interested in the progress of their negotiations with Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Weeki Wachee Springs and the State Reach Agreement


WEEKI WACHEE, FL- Yesterday, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of Recreation and Parks hosted officials from Weeki Wachee Springs, L.L.C. At the conclusion of the meeting, an agreement was signed by both parties, bringing Weeki Wachee Springs one step closer to becoming a state park. The agreement is now pending approval of the agreement by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

“We are pleased with yesterday’s meeting and we remain optimistic about the future of Weeki Wachee Springs. We look forward to continuing our work with all partners to preserve this cultural icon as part of Florida’s award-winning state park system.” ~ Sarah Williams, DEP.

For more information, please contact Weeki Wachee Springs Public Relations Director John Athanason at (352) 427-3299 and DEP Press Secretary Sarah Williams at (850) 245-2112.

Picky...

Let's see if we all understand this morning's lead story in the Hernando Today. The article relates to the choice of the new county administrator and the headline reads, 'County bosses plan to be picky'. Commissioner Rocco was quoted as saying, "You don't want to jump and make a hasty choice." Commissioner Rowden agreed with Ms. Rocco.

The Hernando County Commissioners voted last October to have a six-person committee of local business executives and a Pasco County government official review candidates for the open position of county administrator. This committee was tasked with reviewing all the candidate applications and to submit a short list for the county commission review. After wading through almost 40 applications, this appointed committee offered the names of David Hamilton, Tom Marko and Kathy Rice for the administrator's position.

These three candidates were brought to Hernando County at taxpayer expense for personal interviews with the county commissioners today. Mr. Hamilton was flown in from Minnesota. Ms. Rice came in from Arizona. Mr. Marko is here from south Florida. If Commissioner Rocco and Rowden were incapable of making a decision after four months into the search, is it unreasonable to ask just how long they intent to take picking a new administrator?

Leadership quality for elected officials depends primarily on their character and integrity. Leadership means being able to make sound decisions, without arbitrary changing their minds, otherwise they lose the trust of their constituents that voted into office in the first place. All your constituents want you to do is make a firm decision and not waffle on every item that crosses your desk...

Poll

Tampa Bay Business Journal has been running a Presidential Preference Poll this week. Here are the results:

Hillary Rodham Clinton
14%

John Edwards
5%

Rudy Giuliani
18%

Mike Gravel
0%

Mike Huckabee
6%

Duncan Hunter
0%

Dennis Kucinich
0%

John McCain
16%

Barack Obama
17%

Ron Paul
3%

Mitt Romney
11%

Fred Thompson
6%

Other
1%

Belly up to the bar...

Isn't it time our county commissioners belly up to the bar, so to speak, and start making some decisions on their own? After spending over $100,ooo of our taxpayers money on an outside consultant for a countywide fire master plan, the Hernando County Commissioners have now decided to appoint another volunteer board. Why? Is it too much to ask for our county commissioners to make some executive decisions on their own without calling for another study, committee, commission, consultant, whatever? Appointing new committees has become synonymous with waffling on issues for the commissioners. Apparently their wasn't enough discussion from the public yesterday to officially throw this master plan report in the trash so they appointed another committee to talk the issue to death.

Does anyone remember the citizens appointed by the county commissioners to Committee of 25 to review capital improvements and a workable Facilities Master Plan? These dedicated individuals spent months to compile data for long term plans, including the outcome of the old Brooksville Regional Hospital. The county commissioners completely ignored this report and sold the old hospital for $1.2 million. We are now being told a private-public partnership would be the answer for the judicial space crunch by Interim County Administrator, Larry Jennings. David Russell was quoted as saying he wants to see the facility built downtown to keep the county government services in one area. Too bad he, and the other commissioners, didn't think of the 10+ acres of prime real estate they sold in Brooksville which just happened to be the old hospital.

Is it too much to ask of our local elected officials to make some sound decisions in the name of the public they represent instead of worrying their political backsides on every issue that comes down the pike?

Public apologies...

Kudos to Interim Hernando County Administrator, Larry Jennings for the suspension of the Human Resource Director Barbara Dupree. His actions in this matter have served to reinforce his superior management ability for Hernando County government. This long running cat fight between Ms. Dupree and County Commissioner Diane Rowden has been a public embarrassment to the county. Public apologies should be forthcoming from both women to mark an end to this tacky behavior the public has witnessed for several years.

Alt. Minimum Tax

Normally, I do not include an entire press releases from an elected official but I believe this message from the desk of Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite needs to be seen in its entirety by the public. This one-year patch on the Alternative Minimum Tax is welcome relief to the middle class tax payer who is getting caught up in our antiquated tax system.

Stopping Democrat-Led Tax Increases and Fighting to Keep Your Taxes Low

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for individuals was originally enacted to ensure that high-income taxpayers pay at least a minimum amount of federal taxes. The AMT functions as a parallel tax system to the regular income tax. Taxpayers calculate their regular income tax and then calculate their AMT. If their AMT liability is larger than their regular income tax liability, then they must pay the AMT. However, the AMT is not indexed for inflation, and this factor, combined with the recent reductions in the regular income tax, has greatly expanded the impact of the AMT. The number of taxpayers subject to the AMT would have increased from 3.5 million in 2006 to 23 million in 2007.

On December 19, 2007, after numerous bi-partisan negotiations, the House passed the final version of a one-year AMT patch. I was proud to support passage of this legislation, which prevents more than 23 million Americans from being hit with this outdated tax provision. You will also be happy to know that Republicans fought to ensure that the Democrat proposed $55.7 billion tax increase did not make it into the final version of the bill, which was signed into law by President Bush on December 26, 2007.

There is no doubt that our current tax code is antiquated, confusing, and cumbersome. Each year, Americans spend too much time navigating this complex labyrinth, with the result often being a tremendous burden on their time and hard-earned money. Some groups estimate that Americans will spend 3.5 billion hours individually, or 26 hours per household, filing their taxes. Additionally, individuals and businesses spend a staggering $250 billion each year to remain in compliance with tax laws. The bottom line is that Americans deserve a more clear and efficient tax system.

Since coming to Congress in 2003, I have made simplification of the tax code one of my highest priorities. Therefore, I applaud the efforts of those like Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and the Cleanse the Code Coalition, toward achieving tax fairness for millions of Americans. Given the divisive nature of tax reform, bipartisan support will be necessary in order to accomplish this goal. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to ensure that this occurs, and you can rest assured that I will keep your concerns in mind.

Welcome relief...

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I read the column written by the new editor of the Hernando Today, Chris Wessel, calling for civility while printing hard hitting news articles on December 31, 2007. This first column of Mr. Wessel's outlined a testimonial, of sorts, of the things to come under his command a new editor-in-chief at the Hernando Today.

One can only assume the hiring of Mr. Wessel by Hernando Today's publisher, Duane Chichester, was to change the direction of his paper. Maybe the slumping market share for the Tampa Tribune and the Hernando Today under the direction of their previous editor, Robert Nolte, had a lot to do with the new direction of this newspaper. Maybe it was pressure from the local business community for change after the Hernando Today became in tangled with the Government Gone Wild seminars last summer with Robert Nolte's relentless attack on the county government. No one will know for sure except Mr. Chichester and Mr. Nolte but the change in leadership at the Hernando Today is a welcome relief over the many months of negative, nasty articles which were riddled with half-truths about our county government.

With that, I say welcome, Mr. Chris Wessel, to Hernando County and may your reign at the Hernando Today be a prosperous one...

Yes on 1

Several days ago, I received an email from local realtor and businessman, Gary Schraut asking for my support of the "Yes, on 1" amendment for the property tax reform. This appeared to be a blanket email sent to everyone in Mr. Schraut's address book but the message itself speaks volumes. Here is a short comment from his email, "No matter how much you like another proposal, the soonest anything else can get on the ballot would be Nov. of 2008 taking effect Nov of 2009.......almost 2010!!! Florida cannot wait that long for a "start"! Being an astute businessman, Mr. Schraut has taken the initiative to assist in the passage the property tax reform legislation that will give almost everyone with Homestead Exemption tax relief in this slow economic trend.

It was reported in the "Buzz" of the St. Petersburg Times, the Florida Association of Realtors has donated the largest check, to date, for the "Yes on 1" campaign with their contribution of $1-million dollars. This political committee working for passage of the property tax amendment has collected almost $3-million to promote the passage of the property tax reform on Jan. 29, 2008. If you want more information about this campaign to pass Amendment 1, click on http://yeson1florida.com/

The passage of this amendment would give immediate tax relief and would give Florida businesses a jump start to recovery from this housing slump. Voting yes on this amendment would enable homeowners to keep more of their own money with the proposed $50,000 Homestead Exemption. So what are you waiting for? Pass the message on to everyone to vote yes on Amendment 1 on January 29th!

More in tax dollars

Last week, my son dropped an article on my desk concerning the 3 percent withholding law that requires any government entity with an operational budget of $100 million or more (federal, state or local) to withhold 3 percent from any contracts doing business with that entity. Before you say too bad for Big Business because they should pay, think twice. This 3% will not be absorbed any business entity but will be an added cost of doing business with the government entity. This added cost means it will cost more for the government vendor service which will cost each of you more in tax dollars.

I am certainly glad that my son was astute in bringing this to my attention since it is slated to be implemented in 2011. Many members of Congress have initiated the repeal of this 3% withholding but to date none has been effective in passage to eliminate this 3% withholding law. I emailed Congresswoman Ginny Brown Waite last week concerning this law. My email is below, along with the reply that I just received from the Congresswoman's office:

My email:

Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite:

What is your position on H.R. 1023? This bill would repeal the 3 percent withholding from any contractors doing business with any government agency (federal, state or local) with an operational budget of over $1million or more? If this allowed to go into affect in 2011 it will have devastating affect on our economy. Business will not absorb a 3% loss right off the top, and thus, these fees will be added to the cost of the service to the government entity.

The state of Florida is already charging a 1% transaction fee to all contractors which we have dubbed the "extortion fee" for doing business with the state of Florida. By the way, this 1% is included in the cost of doing business which drives our cost up to the state costing the taxpayers.

Anna Liisa Covell
A.L. Covell Electric, Inc.

Her reply:

Dear Anna:

Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. I appreciate the time you took to contact my office on this important issue and welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you know, the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 included a provision that would require government entities, whether federal or local, to withhold three percent of payments to certain vendors with whom they have contracts. In response, Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-FL) introduced H.R. 1023, which would repeal this language. Currently, the House Committee on Ways and Means is reviewing this legislation.

Like you, I worry about government regulations that adversely affect businesses, especially when they take the form of taxes, as is the case here. Should the House of Representatives vote on this measure, I will be sure to support it. In the meantime, rest assured that I will keep your concerns in mind as Congress examines our nation's tax policy.

Throughout my tenure in public service, I have always kept an open door and an open dialogue with my constituents. As Congress addresses the many challenges facing our nation, I hope you will continue to share your thoughts and views with me. Accordingly, I encourage you to visit my Web site at http://brown-waite.house.gov/ to email me and find useful information about our 5th Congressional District.
It is my honor and privilege to serve the people of Florida's 5th Congressional District and my offices and staff are here to provide you with any assistance you may need.

Sincerely,
Ginny Brown-Waite

Member of Congress

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Happy New Year to Everyone!