LOCAL and Florida Politics

[jack]

On 11/2/2021 at 7:30 PM, spenser1058 said:

Still close in District 3 but Stuart has a lead. It looks like those of you who like the status quo may well get your wish. Congratulations!

Incumbency is very powerful. Besides, Orlando is a pretty well ran City and most people are happy with it. 

[spenser1058]

Moved.

Edited November 6, 2021 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

Scott Maxwell notes that the good ol’ boy way of running Orlando is on borrowed time:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-prem-op-hotel-taxes-orlando-eskamani-scott-maxwell-20211112-z22us2opm5aunh4d4whm5qigmu-story.htm

Residents are just as important as tourists. If Las Vegas of all places figured that out (not to mention Florida cities and counties like Key West), why do we keep indulging the fat cats?

From The Sentinel 
 

[jack]

On 11/12/2021 at 4:15 PM, spenser1058 said:

Scott Maxwell notes that the good ol’ boy way of running Orlando is on borrowed time:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-prem-op-hotel-taxes-orlando-eskamani-scott-maxwell-20211112-z22us2opm5aunh4d4whm5qigmu-story.htm

Residents are just as important as tourists. If Las Vegas of all places figured that out (not to mention Florida cities and counties like Key West), why do we keep indulging the fat cats?

From The Sentinel 
 

Eskamani said the current system of funneling tax dollars to tourism interests while local workers struggle “prioritizes tourists over residents.”

That is why it is called tourist development tax and not general fund taxes. If you want to do more for residents, raise taxes on actual residents. She, like most people around here want a free lunch and see tourist taxes as a way to get something for nothing. It's gross. 

[spenser1058]

1 hour ago, jack said:

Eskamani said the current system of funneling tax dollars to tourism interests while local workers struggle “prioritizes tourists over residents.”

That is why it is called tourist development tax and not general fund taxes. If you want to do more for residents, raise taxes on actual residents. She, like most people around here want a free lunch and see tourist taxes as a way to get something for nothing. It's gross. 

Hardly. There are costs associated with bringing so many low wage workers into the area. If they won’t pay a living wage, the tourists will have to pick up those costs, especially since so much money has been wasted on the white elephant OCCC ( there’s a reason only a handful of cities have decided to  participate in building facilities that big). 

In any event, cities across the country AND EVEN IN FLORIDA are allowing multiple uses of resort taxes now.

Just as Republican Mel Martinez pointed out years ago, the fact Walmart collects sales taxes doesn’t mean it gets to decide how the money is spent. That’s why we have a county commission. The current setup in OC is nothing more than corporate welfare.
 

Edited November 15, 2021 by spenser1058

[popsiclebrandon]

Downtown party girls are going to need to find some new sugar daddies. These dudes have always been gross,  now they can also be felons.

 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-joel-greenberg-keith-ingersoll-james-adamczyk-indicted-20211115-q45is5ob3rbjpcmpyezo5dmlka-story.html

[jack]

4 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Hardly. There are costs associated with bringing so many low wage workers into the area. If they won’t pay a living wage, the tourists will have to pick up those costs, especially since so much money has been wasted on the white elephant OCCC ( there’s a reason only a handful of cities have decided to  participate in building facilities that big). 

In any event, cities across the country AND EVEN IN FLORIDA are allowing multiple uses of resort taxes now.

Just as Republican Mel Martinez pointed out years ago, the fact Walmart collects sales taxes doesn’t mean it gets to decide how the money is spent. That’s why we have a county commission. The current setup in OC is nothing more than corporate welfare.
 

Totally agree. Abolish the TDT (mostly)  and raise the sales tax. Our commissioners should step up and tell the citizens everyone needs to pay for services. No more free lunches. 

Keep a small portion of the TDT to pay off the debt service and maintenance. The general fund of the County can pay for marketing tourism if necessary. 

There are plenty of other industries that have low wages. Food service is example. Should we tax restaurat patrons to offset their low wages? 

[spenser1058]

Scott Maxwell looks at Florida’s toll boondoggle:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-prem-op-infrastructure-stimulus-reduce-florida-tolls-scott-maxwell-20211117-2jakj5kv6rcjtohb4q7ngirgmq-story.html

He also notes just how regressive tolls are, the impact falling disproportionately on the working poor. Given Orlando is dead last among the nation’s top 50 MSAs in average wages, you might suppose we’d work to avoid tolls. Oh, but how wrong you’d be.

From The Sentinel 
 

[orange87]

A bill to withdraw Florida from OSHA is awaiting DeSantis's signature. Unbelievable.

[spenser1058]

Apparently, even if Florida withdraws, they have to  meet OSHA standards and be monitored by OSHA.

Bottom line: this is political theater so DeStupid can run for prez in 2024.

Imagine if we had a government in Tallahassee actually, you know, working on stuff instead of constantly playing these silly games.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/466724-can-florida-ditch-osha-lawmakers-are-considering-it/

From Florida Politics
 

Edited November 18, 2021 by spenser1058

[orange87]

55 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

Apparently, even if Florida withdraws, they have to  meet OSHA standards and be monitored by OSHA.

Bottom line: this is political theater so DeStupid can run for prez in 2024.

Imagine if we had a government in Tallahassee actually, you know, working on stuff instead of constantly playing these silly games.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/466724-can-florida-ditch-osha-lawmakers-are-considering-it/

From Florida Politics

DeSantis isn't even governing at this point. Everything he does now is using the power of the Florida state government to further his campaigning efforts. One-party rule in Florida needs to end.

The only way things are even getting done in Florida now is by voter ballot initiatives. The Florida GOP is well aware of this which is why they've bent over backwards to try to make it impossible for voter initiatives to get approved for the ballot in Florida, let alone pass. They were furious when medical marijuana and $15/hr minimum wage passed.

Edited November 18, 2021 by orange87

[popsiclebrandon]

4 hours ago, orange87 said:

A bill to withdraw Florida from OSHA is awaiting DeSantis's signature. Unbelievable.

Not the worst or stupidest thing he did today. This state is not heading in a good direction.

[orange87]

26 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Not the worst or stupidest thing he did today. This state is not heading in a good direction.

A very frightening thing I realized recently is that it's not about Trump-ISM. It's about Donald J. Trump and him alone. Imitators get cheered by the Trumpers, but make no mistake, they will turn on anyone Trump tells them too. It's not sensationalist to say that it is a cult. It really genuinely is a cult; and it's terrifying. I'm talking Jim Jones-esque except at a much larger scale. Jim Jones got his followers drink poisoned KoolAid, Trump is telling his followers to drink horse dewormer (ivermectin). Trump said he could murder someone in Times Square and his followers wouldn't care. And sadly, he's absolutely right.

Edited November 18, 2021 by orange87

[JFW657]

19 hours ago, orange87 said:

DeSantis isn't even governing at this point. Everything he does now is using the power of the Florida state government to further his campaigning efforts. One-party rule in Florida needs to end.

The only way things are even getting done in Florida now is by voter ballot initiatives. The Florida GOP is well aware of this which is why they've bent over backwards to try to make it impossible for voter initiatives to get approved for the ballot in Florida, let alone pass. They were furious when medical marijuana and $15/hr minimum wage passed.

And worse yet, the media is totally silent about what a political hack and Trump sycophant he is.

I think they're afraid of accusations of being parrt of the "lib'rul media" if they tell the truth about him. 

[JFW657]

16 hours ago, orange87 said:

A very frightening thing I realized recently is that it's not about Trump-ISM. It's about Donald J. Trump and him alone. Imitators get cheered by the Trumpers, but make no mistake, they will turn on anyone Trump tells them too. It's not sensationalist to say that it is a cult. It really genuinely is a cult; and it's terrifying. I'm talking Jim Jones-esque except at a much larger scale. Jim Jones got his followers drink poisoned KoolAid, Trump is telling his followers to drink horse dewormer (ivermectin). Trump said he could murder someone in Times Square and his followers wouldn't care. And sadly, he's absolutely right.

Some people (I will count myself among them) saw what a dangerous psychopath he was before he was elected. 

[orange87]

41 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Some people (I will count myself among them) saw what a dangerous psychopath he was before he was elected. 

I didn't see it at first. Like most radicals, Trump started with some fairly reasonable points. Who isn't tired of career politicians? Who isn't tired of open borders? Who isn't tired of shrill SJWs? I, like many Americans, said "finally someone is speaking on these issues." Fast forward after several years of slowly inching towards a full blown cult, and once Trump was banned off social media and after the Jan 6th attack, it's like I snapped out of it and finally realized how far everything deviated from the original starting point. I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent and logical person; and it made me dumbfounded that I was able to be duped so badly. I now understand how dictators throughout history were able to brainwash so many people who thought "it could never happen to me."

[jack]

23 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Apparently, even if Florida withdraws, they have to  meet OSHA standards and be monitored by OSHA.

Bottom line: this is political theater so DeStupid can run for prez in 2024.

Imagine if we had a government in Tallahassee actually, you know, working on stuff instead of constantly playing these silly games.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/466724-can-florida-ditch-osha-lawmakers-are-considering-it/

From Florida Politics
 

Its a marketing bill to show he is on your side. They all know its theater. 

[jack]

On 11/17/2021 at 5:47 PM, spenser1058 said:

Scott Maxwell looks at Florida’s toll boondoggle:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/scott-maxwell-commentary/os-prem-op-infrastructure-stimulus-reduce-florida-tolls-scott-maxwell-20211117-2jakj5kv6rcjtohb4q7ngirgmq-story.html

He also notes just how regressive tolls are, the impact falling disproportionately on the working poor. Given Orlando is dead last among the nation’s top 50 MSAs in average wages, you might suppose we’d work to avoid tolls. Oh, but how wrong you’d be.

From The Sentinel 
 

That s not going to happen. Maxwell may have written a piece about it but the expansions in Central Florida never met projections to issue debt. It had to be subsidized by the existing roads like 408. The tolls on the 408 should have been removed years ago with only a couple of tolls with a nominal fee to pay for maintenance. I hope the older ones get removed but I am not optimistic. 

Its more than likely that we will go on another road building spree. 

[spenser1058]

The latest generation of the Stuarts (and the Republican wing no less) addresses  just how ridiculous things have gotten in Tallahassee:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-republican-paradox-mandates-20211120-7jwpgwtdindincf224fipv6ouq-story.html

From The Sentinel 

Edited November 20, 2021 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

23 hours ago, jack said:

That s not going to happen. Maxwell may have written a piece about it but the expansions in Central Florida never met projections to issue debt. It had to be subsidized by the existing roads like 408. The tolls on the 408 should have been removed years ago with only a couple of tolls with a nominal fee to pay for maintenance. I hope the older ones get removed but I am not optimistic. 

Its more than likely that we will go on another road building spree. 

Of course, much of the early problem with roads not covering themselves might have to do with building roads to enable sprawl instead of actual needs.

In any event, I4 was initially under projections as well but taxes more than took care of it over time.

In any event, we know that, when asked, citizens tend to prefer any option other than tolls (in Florida, Duval, Hillsborough, Seminole and Dade, for example, all had concerns).

This is once again all about what the real estate industrial complex, not the populace as a whole, wants. It’s not an accident developers (especially evil ones like Chris Dorworth) do their darndest  to get named to the expressway authorities.

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by spenser1058

[codypet]

Didn't see this one coming. City of Orlando on SNL

Edited November 22, 2021 by codypet

[spenser1058]

Our own UP poster, @klstorey, takes a deep dive into FL Rep. Anna Eskamani’s bill to set the TDT free for the most pressing needs in each city or county’s tourist areas:

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2021/11/20/central-floridas-anna-eskamani-wants-to-use-tourist-tax-dollars-to-fix-orlandos-lingering-problems

From Orlando Weekly 
 

[spenser1058]

An interesting stat from the Sentinel:

”…Poinciana’s Liberty High School, where about 86% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.”

It’s not difficult to believe that a significant proportion of Poinciana families are employed in the tourism industry. The above stat shows just how badly our largest industry is failing its workers, which has a chilling effect on the community.

Edited November 24, 2021 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

In an “I told you so” editorial about sports betting, they note Ron DeStupid is the worst Florida governor since Claude Kirk.

That’s a disservice to … Gov. Kirk. He was at least good on the environment.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/editorials/os-op-seminole-gambling-compact-thrown-out-20211123-h36hy2aolvbpddnpm3nyfsdf4e-story.html

[orange87]

7 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

An interesting stat from the Sentinel:

”…Poinciana’s Liberty High School, where about 86% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.”

It’s not difficult to believe that a significant proportion of Poinciana families are employed in the tourism industry. The above stat shows just how badly our largest industry is failing its workers, which has a chilling effect on the community.

Thank goodness Florida's minimum wage is going up rapidly to $15/hr and there's no state income tax. I'm sure that's helping a lot of families.