Some Issues For Your Representatives

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.

If you want to become active in the processes in government which often have very significant impact on your life and your finances, I am going to offer some suggestions on issues which you can discuss with your political representatives when the opportunity is present.

Your Utility Bill –

The terrible situation which has developed for many residents in Jackson County, especially those around Marianna who must buy electricity from Florida Public Utilities, cannot be resolved by any local action. Our Commissioners have no authority or voice in the determination of electric rates.

As I see the situation, the high electric rates suffered by too many across the State of Florida are the result of a corrupted process which involves excessive control over the activities of the Public Service Commission being exerted by the large utility companies in the state. Through buying political influence with funding from the utilities being distributed to “buyable” politicians via the powerful lobbying organization, “Associated Industries of Florida”, they have gained control of the nominating committee which selects PSC Board members.

As has recently been demonstrated, any PSC Board member who dares vote against the wishes of the powerful utilities soon finds themselves booted off of the Commission by the nominating committee. Ultimately this process shows up in your mailbox in the form of a “sky high” utility bill.

How can this deplorable situation be corrected? The only way I see to instill a degree of fairness into this system is to move as much control as possible back to the local level where citizens can have more influence. The PSC members were once elected positions, but the system was not properly designed and the combination of politics with money soon became a serious problem….as it is today.

I recommend returning to a nine member PSC Board, each elected from nine local districts which are carefully designated on a geographic and population based formula. The elected positions would be non-partisan, with each candidate only allowed to raise campaign funding up to a reasonable limit (Example: $70,000), with full sunshine disclosure of all contributors. Utilities, their employees, and family members of employees would not be allowed to contribute. Voting would be on a District by District basis.

We can encourage our elected State legislators to organize support for a bill which would create this new system for selection of the members of the Public Service Commission. This is the only way I see to ever restore any real protection to the public from these greedy monopolies.

Increased Oversight of the FDEP –

The unregulated, unabated, continual string of expensive regulations, decisions, and over exuberant legislation emitting from the bureaucracy within the federal EPA and the FDEP are consuming property rights, reducing personal liberties, and costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars….all in the sacred name of the environment. The problem is these are accepted and implemented with little or no attention to proof of justification, realization of consequences, or concern for those who the rules impact. Too often our legislators have taken the approach “If it has a ‘green’ label…I’ll vote for it.”

While scientists argue over the validity of global warming, or the proof that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are destructive for the atmosphere…the radical environmental loonies which seem to fill the bureaucracy of the EPA and FDEP are busy enacting rules, laws, and departmental edicts which are seriously impacting our economy, our lives, and our pocket books… with little or no oversight from our elected officials.

It is from this existing weak system of departmental control that costly regulation after costly regulation is bombarding the economy and the public. These are implemented in a harsh, authoritative manner, causing businesses to close, projects to be abandoned, and pocketbooks to be drained. If you don’t think these things are costing you money, or are impacting your property rights, let me list a few examples.

● The incoming septic tank regulations which will cost rural property owners thousands of dollars.

● The retention pond requirements which are applied on a universal basis whether the location justifies it or not. These ugly mosquito larvae infested ponds often are in areas where they will never catch any water or perform any useful task. The construction of these unsightly ponds and the cost of land which is put into a useless condition are increasing the cost of every project by thousands and are costing millions across the state and billions across the nation. Much of it is unnecessary.

● The regulations regarding handling of asbestos border on ridiculous. Through their codes and regulations they have made many simple, miniscule situations into expensive major problems for many home and business owners. The regulators make handling an asbestos tile seem more dangerous than catching rattle snakes. I feel that unless you work in an asbestos mine, or in a factory that creates asbestos dust every day, your chances of suffering medically from handling a few shingles or pipe wrappings are miniscule….excluding those who might falsify a medical claim to use our lucrative legal processes for personal gain through fraudulent claims.

● The same goes for the fear they try to generate over ever encountering any old paint that might have a taint of mercury in its composition. From this they recently enacted a costly procedure for any project done on a structure built before 1978 in which all dust from the project must be contained by placing plastic sheeting over the work area, and only using certified construction people wearing elaborate protective gear. And certainly all of the materials must be carefully bagged and taken to a specially designed land fill for disposal. So, property owners, the next time you get ready to paint your old house, or rebuild that old shed….hold on to your pocket book!

● They forced over 1500 businesses out of business on January 1 because of the unreasonable manner in which they implemented new regulations on gasoline storage tanks for thousands of filling stations and mini-markets across the state. They caused the loss of over 15,000 jobs in Florida, and not a single legislator made a public, negative remark about it. These small businesses had to replace their existing tanks immediately….whether they were leaking or not. As a result, the small, independent gasoline station is squeezed out of existence. Do you suppose the big retailers of gasoline might have been pushing for these rules?

● Remember Freon in air conditioners? It was outlawed because it supposedly hurt the ozone layer…then later they decided there was no problem with the ozone hole and it occurred and varied naturally.

● Every drop of dreaded oil or gas which any business allows to touch sacred mother earth is quickly punished, fined, penalized, and quarantined by the envirocrats, no matter how small or insignificant. Remember the millions spent on the “dirt burners” at the airport because of the small crop spraying business that once operated there. Of course some was spilt and ran off the tarmac onto the ground. It had to immediately be scooped up and burned at great costs. Isn’t it funny that those same chemicals were flown to the fields, sprayed, allowed to run down into nearby ditches which were undoubtedly then as contaminated as the ground at the airport?

● The justification used by the electric utilities for raising your electric rates is to recover the cost of the “scrubbers” they were forced to spend many millions for under the regulation of EPA.

● Every time you fill up your vehicle you pay extra because these regulators won’t allow drilling in Alaska, off shore, and won’t allow mining of oil shale, won’t allow building of nuclear plants, and won’t allow construction of new refineries.

● Just around the corner here in Florida are new bodies of regulations from these loonies which will deal with establishing unreasonable water quality requirements for every Florida river, lake and stream. Then they plan to force expensive recycling laws for all trash from every source.

● Just wait until they finally push through “Cap and Trade” that will surely help our suffering economy.

Ideally, these environmental loonies envision a planet devoid of destructive humanity, and filled with lush vegetation and healthy earthworms. Tell your legislators to get involved in creating a system of oversight and increased pre-implementation justification procedures before the FDEP and the EPA can shove this crap down our throats.

Communicate with your legislators….and you will be “Getting it Right”.

Rudiments – Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning

● I see a lot of political signs still on display from the losers in the August 24 primary. They and their supporters need to pick them up.

● (Say something good)…..Boy! All of this road and sidewalk work really has me stimulated!!

● I congratulate Willie Earl Paramore for being appointed to the County Value Adjustment Board which hears property evaluation complaints before the tax roll is finalized. However, the last time that Board ever adjusted an appraisal for the benefit of a taxpayer was when the Yankees burned the Episcopal Church!

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