Thank God We Live in Jackson County (It may not be as good as it once was….but it is better than a lot of other places.)

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.


Good Ole’ Jackson County-

There may not be as many industries here as there once was, and the farmers may not be making as much as they used to make off of peanut crops, and the price of gasoline may be much higher than we would like, and our electric bills may be making us not use our air conditioners and read by one light, and our taxes may seem outrageously high, and our home values might have slipped downward somewhat, and there may be far too much drug activity around the county than we would like, and our car licenses, trailer licenses, boat tags, and all other fees may be way too high, and the state troopers and many city police forces may be writing tickets because the legislature has steadily multiplied all fines for infractions so that more revenues could be generated, and too many businesses may be closing, and insurance costs may be busting our budgets, and our life savings may now be worth a fraction of what it was once worth, and the banks may be ripping us off with fees, credit card interests, and lack of willingness to extend credit when it is needed, and there may not be as many oyster bars in the county as there once was……..but it is still MUCH better than many other parts of our nation.

If you don’t believe me, just take a trip to South Florida, or to Michigan, or to bankrupt California, or almost any place in the Northeast. Their job situations are much worse since they depended on our national industry base (which now relocated and is creating prosperity in China), and they are left with worthless properties, very high taxes, no job opportunities, and a bleak future. That condition is some of what Ernie Padgett saw on his trip to Boston and wrote a column about in our last issue.

So, here in Jackson County things might not be as bright and rosy as they once were…but we are still doing much better than most other areas. This is further demonstrated by the fact that our unemployment rate is only 7.2% instead of over 10%. (Did you ever think we would be feeling good about a 7.2% unemployment level?)

On the good side, our farmers had a fairly good crop year, and there were no love bugs or hurricanes to contend with.

The Education Solution –

Some of our national leaders have proclaimed that one part of the solution to our national economic problems can be solved if everyone upgrades their skills and acquires more education. Since there are no job opportunities for our graduates, many more are staying in school and obtaining higher degrees in the hope that conditions will be better in a few years.

This reminds me of a phenomena I encountered about ten years ago when I was working as an interim Director of Manufacturing for a large New York based apparel company. I was helping them source their product line in several Caribbean, South American, and Asian countries as they closed their domestic plants in Virginia. I was approached by a representative for an apparel manufacturing company in Jordan. He explained that Jordan has a trade agreement with the US which allows them to bring their finished product into Israel, and then to ship from there with no duty or restrictions. He also mentioned the fact that 90% of their sewing operators were college graduates.

I couldn’t imagine why they would have a factory full of well educated college graduates sewing zippers, flys, and collars. Then he explained, “In my country there are very few factories. There are no jobs outside of Government jobs. Thus, our young people stay in the education system as long as possible, and when they finally graduate….they have to take any work that is available. My factory is one of the few places available to work, so my operators are all college graduates.”

At the time, I thought is was unique and sad for those college graduates.

Now I hear our politicians stating that education will help our population, and I hear that students are staying in school because there are no job opportunities. Could we be evolving into a condition similar to that which exists in Jordan and other deprived nations?

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-

• Sharon Cox, Property Appraiser, has informed me that all of the 23 appeals to the property appraisals for this tax roll, which were to be reviewed by the “Value Adjustment Board”, were from out of area, commercial tax appeal services. There were no local, residential value appeals. “We begin working with residential appeals when they are filed, and often have the issue resolved before they get to the Value Adjustment Board,” Cox explained.

• At the encouragement of the City Commission, Main Street Marianna has purchased screens to place in the show windows of empty downtown retail buildings to beautify the downtown.  These screens prevent those on the street from seeing into the empty store and seeing the ugly, desolate, abandoned interior.  I think a better way to beautify these buildings would be to create incentives and a business environment in downtown Marianna which encouraged businesses to locate there.....and thus fill these empty stores with merchandise and customers.

• Main Street Marianna is also involved in a program to encourage area shoppers to "buy local" instead of going out of town.  I'm not sure exactly what their definition of "local" is.

• For the Christmas parade on December 5, Main Street Marianna and the City Commission have designated our home town sports hero, Jeff Mathis, as the “Grand Marshall” of the parade. In this matter, they “Got It Right”. We should all turn out to recognize this young man who is doing such a great job representing Jackson County on national television as he plays for the Los Angeles Angels. It is our understanding that autographed balls will be available.

• I hope everyone has a great, family style Thanksgiving.





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