Rudiments, Rudiments, More Rudiments

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-

Let’s put a few facts together and then do some deductive reasoning…or would it be inductive? Anyway, First Fact…the President of the SEIU, (Service Employees Union) has met with the President 22 times since he took office. Second Fact….health care workers in unionized hospitals constitute approximately 50% of the SEIU membership. Third Fact….the SEIU was a huge donator and supporter of the President during his campaign. Forth Fact…. the health bill passed by Pelosi and her band of followers is replete with conditions which help the SEIU. For example, one provision involves criteria for a hospital to receive funding for special training for nurses requires that only unionized hospitals are eligible for federal funds. Now, can you logically deduct that this is one small “payback” to the unions for those donations and not really a health care issue?

Once again the Jackson County Value Adjustment Board met to process complaints from citizens who had disputed the values used on their property tax bills. This year there were more citizens appealing for relief than normal, with 23 local property owners entering appeals. Once again, none were recognized as valid, and no adjustments were made. It has been this way year after year. They should change the name of this Board to “The Property Tax Appeals Denial Board”…or just drop the meaningless procedure.

All property owners in Jackson County should have their 2009 tax bill in hand by now. We were one of only a few counties in the state to have property values somehow go up instead of decline in this terrible real estate market. Please pay the bill in peace and harmony….the bureaucracy needs your hard earned money.

Marianna Police Chief Baggett and his men reaped over $6000 for the bureaucracy last weekend by giving out tickets to 52 hardened criminals who dared drive their cars with their seat belts unfastened while driving around the city at 35 MPH. Oh well, the city needs the extra money they will gain from this rigorous enforcement. If they get enough, maybe they will lower our outrageous sewer rates….Nah, they won’t do that!

I have decided to sell my bass boat. I am disgusted with the cost of fishing with the new truck tag, trailer tag, and boat decal fees. And then when you do finally go fishing the Fish and Wildlife Commission has made the limits so low and the size restrictions and seasons so complex, that you have to be a marine biologist and a lawyer to determine if you are breaking a game law or not. And if you happen to have an empty beer can in the boat…you are really sunk. Big Brother has made it so expensive and so over regulated ….it just isn’t fun anymore!

A few weeks ago we wrote about the stump which is in a county drainage ditch off of Lake Seminole Road which is causing water to divert into a fashionable home located on the lake shoreline when we have a heavy rain. In order to be sure there was no problem with taking this stump out of the ditch, the county first got the permission of two federal agencies (EPA and Corps of Engineers), two state agencies, and the County Commission before this lonely stump could be removed. Well, the stump is still there. The property owner, Karen Strong contacted us and said the county lawyer, Frank Baker, now wants her to sign a release from any damages the county might do to her property as they remove the pesky stump. Well, she feels that if their trucks mess up her yard or drive they should be willing to restore it back to original condition….so the “Saga of the Seminole Stump” continues while they struggle to “Get it Right”.. Isn’t the bureaucracy great!

From Walt Spence:

“Due to the rising cost of gas, oil, and electricity, we regret to inform you that THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN TURNED OFF!!

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.