Life is Good!!

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.

They’re starving in Haiti and Africa, rioting in Egypt and Iran, going broke in Europe and America…. And I can barely pay my utility bills…. But Life is Good! Spring is upon us, the flowers of the season will soon be here, bream and bass will begin to bite, golf rounds will be warm and pleasant, and another rebirth in nature will occur. It is easy to get too focused on the bad news, worries, and unpleasant possibilities and ignore the beauty around us. It is important to also take time to smell the flowers.

This is truly a wonderful, beautiful, and magnificent world in which we reside. The boundless beauties and pleasures of nature are truly astounding.

Another astounding aspect of life is the nature of man. True, there are some who dwell in darkness and evil, and live a life filled with peril, threat, conflict, hate, greed, and despair. But thankfully, those are the minority. In general, our population is loving, caring, helpful, cheerful, industrious, and a pleasure to share one’s life with.

To read the rest of the story visit our virtual paper by clicking on this link!

Can You Believe They Are Out Of Money?

Now, on to the subject of the week:

Can You Believe

They Are Out of Money??

Tax his land,

Tax his bed,

Tax the table

At which he’s fed.

Tax his work,

Tax his pay,

He works for peanuts

Anyway!

Tax his cow,

Tax his goat,

Tax his pants,

Tax his coat.

Tax his tobacco,

Tax his drink,

Tax him if he

Tries to think.

Tax his car,

Tax his gas,

Find other ways

To tax his a##.

Tax all he has

Then let him know

That you won’t be done

Till he has no dough.

When he screams & hollers;

Then tax him some more,

Tax him till

He’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,

Tax his grave,

Tax the sod in

Which he’s laid.

When he’s gone,

Do not relax,

It’s time to apply

The inheritance tax.

To read the rest of the story visit our virtual paper by clicking on this link!

The Story Behind Our Shocking Power Bills

The extreme cold weather has once again delivered “sticker shock” to many Jackson County Citizens as they remorsefully opened their monthly envelopes containing their electric bills. This is especially true of those residents and businesses which are located within the service area of Florida Public Utilities. The bills for those customers are some 30% higher than those in areas served by Gulf Power or West Florida Electric. This service area includes all of Marianna and the surrounding area.

These citizens are suffering under electric rates that rank among the highest in the state. The history of how this situation evolved, who is responsible for it, and what can be done to begin to restore a more equitable condition for our citizens is the subject of this column.

In the years before 2008 area customers of Florida Public Utilities enjoyed electric rates which ranked among the lowest in the State. This condition existed because FPU had entered into a very favorable long term contract with its power supplier, Gulf Power. Then fuel costs began to rise dramatically, and Gulf Power was not able to raise its prices to FPU because of the exiting contract arrangement. It is my understanding that they attempted to reopen the contract for renegotiation, but FPU refused. About this time Gulf power was also required by the EPA to install emission reduction scrubbers at their power plants which cost them millions of dollars in added investment.

To read the rest of the story visit our virtual paper by clicking on this link!