“Now is Not The Time”

In this time when the national economy is experiencing threats of failure which rival the times preceding the Great Depression, our County Commissioners should take the “Path of Caution”.


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.


Local Issues:

Next Tuesday morning (January 12, 2010) at 9AM, our County Commissioners will once again approach the issue of whether or not to enter into millions of dollars in debt to finance construction of a new “County Administration Building” on the site of the old jail and the existing Farmers Market.

Some feel that this choice is inappropriate, involves spending millions in extra costs over options of renovating other existing facilities, compounds an already untenable parking problem in the Court House area, and involves the Commission spending money for offices for themselves and the bureaucracy instead of spending money on roads and other needs which benefit the taxpaying citizens of the county.

Others argue that the downtown area businesses would be hurt if these administrative county functions were moved out of the downtown area to an existing vacant building in a nearby shopping center. They feel the downtown area needs this activity. Some of those in Administration argue that being in close proximity to the Court functions is advantageous.

The Commissioners will hear the report of comparative costs between renovation of existing space and construction of new space which is being prepared by Ajax Engineering, the company which would build the proposed new building. Some feel this data should have been prepared by another, uninvolved engineering firm instead of the firm which stands to make higher profits if the new building option is chosen.

Personally, in previous columns I have made it clear that I feel new construction is wasteful and unnecessary when other, suitable space is sitting vacant. However, another issue has risen while these old arguments are being voiced…….The Sky Is Falling!!

Until we know that our national banking system, our monetary system, our national economy, and our national survival is assured…….I feel we should not enter into any significant long term debts….personally or as a local government! It is time to be ultra conservative. It is not a time for risk taking.

It is easy for career bureaucrats and politicians to believe that the flow of tax revenues and grant funding from the state are eternal and enduring. However, this is not the case. If our economy fails, these funds will cease to flow into the county’s bank account. The debt load caused by an ill conceived and ill timed construction project based on the presence of many millions of future taxpayer dollars, could be a decision which would place terrible hardships on the county and its residents.

Other debt laden counties around the nation have already experienced the inability to meet their obligations and have been forced to severely cut back on services and lay off county workers. Birmingham’s Jefferson County in Alabama is an example. Incurring this huge debt could endanger the job security of the very bureaucrats which it was built to house.

So to the Commissioners I say, “Let us fight this battle on another day. This is not the time!”

If you do not want the Commissioners to proceed with this construction project, please take time to voice your opinion to them. You can do this directly, or by being at the next meeting on Tuesday, January 12. Those who want to proceed will be there.

Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning -

● I recently read the results of a $1.3 million dollar scientific study funded by stimulus funds which provided irrefutable data proving that the immoral behavior of Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, the Governor of South Carolina, David Letterman, John Edwards, Bill Clinton, and others is being caused by an over abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These emissions were found to stimulate the primitive animal instincts in a man. Thus, it wasn’t their fault… it was global warming!

● FPU customers! That whirring noise you hear when you go outside of your house is your electric meter…. It is trying to calculate your next bill with the combined impact of the cold weather and their new rate structure which was just approved by the Public Services Commission.

● “Say Something Nice” 2010 New Year’s Resolution – I want to commend Chief Bagget and his MPD staff for the work they have been doing to detect, stop, and apprehend vehicles in Marianna in which the occupants are using and carrying illegal drugs. They have made several significant arrests during the past few weeks. This is REAL police work, much better than spending all of their time giving citizens tickets for minor traffic violations.

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