Local Government
What I Like About Sandy Murman
August 20,2010 | 07:52 PM
What I like About Sandy Murman
by Johnnie ByrdWith a nickname like ‘the Murmanator’ you’d expect high energy, and that’s what you get with Sandy Murman.
When we served together in the State House, I used to kid Murman that whenever I had an idea for a great bill - she had already filed it. Just take a look at Sandy’s profile page while she served in the Florida House. You can see that no mere mortal could keep up with Sandy Murman for legislative and community service, not to mention endless accolades from every known constituent support group.
I like Murman’s platform. It’s conservative and straightforward; it’s solid and measurable. She wants a performance based budget and 5% less taxes. On the economic development front Sandy knows that most new jobs in any community come from growth of existing small businesses, and she will require that economic development programs are accountable, not millstones around the neck of taxpayers and their children and grandchildren (that would be a first).
But, knowing Sandy as I do, there is something more profound going on with her these days. What do I think? Sandy has finally realized that the silk stocking crowd is out of touch with the people she wants to represent.
Yes, Sandy is more conservative today than ever, and I am proud of her for it. She’s come a long way from being the moderate darling of the Tampa Tribune and the Davis Island crowd. Sometimes it is a wake up call when the Trib dumps you like last years prom date and the in-crowd has move on to a newer, younger, stronger golden boy. It hurts, but it awakens. Now we’ll see the real Sandy Murman.
How do I know that Sandy believes in the fundamental righteousness of conservative, free market philosophy? Because, she was there when I brought in the big name free market economic gurus, like Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer, to address our Republican caucus meetings. And, for those of you who wonder about her stands on social issues, there’s never been a doubt that Sandy is a social conservative. She was our ‘go to’ member when a pro-life bill needed to be moved through the Florida House. (I’m sorry Sandy, the silk stocking crowd may not have heard this.)
This time Sandy knows that the ‘folks’ count - Yes, the ‘folks’ that don’t read the Trib and have never been on a host committee for a ritzy downtown fundraiser. But, Sandy knows that the folks have the final say on just who THEY want to lead.
Sandy’s become a ‘believer’ and that’s what I like about Sandy Murman.
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Tampa Tribune Lipstick
July 30,2010 | 08:04 PM
As the downtown Tampa ruling class continues its push for a massive tax increase on Hillsborough’s ‘great unwashed’, the Tampa Tribune dutifully endorsed all of the pro-tax county commission candidates it could this week.
As a preface to their high praise for Republicans who dared to support taxes, the editors lamented that, “Although only one in three voters registered in the county is a Republican, the party is positioned to wield disproportionate power, giving the primary extraordinary importance.” Let me read between the lines. This is what the Trib means: “Why on earth are lots of Democrats voting Republican or just not voting? Man, it’s just not fair! Just think of the People’s Republic of Hillsborough we could create with a few good liberal Democrats on the commission. Well, we will have to settle for a few tax and spend Republicans instead.”
After pouring praise on Commissioner Sharpe for being a ‘natural leader’ (I wonder if he would have received the ‘natural leader’ award if he had voted against the tax?), the editors crank up the doublespeak apparatus with this curious observation, “While a proven fiscal conservative, Sharpe broke ranks with some Republicans to support giving county voters a chance in November to increase the sales tax.” I’ll interpret. Sharp is not really a strong fiscal conservative, but if you are gullible enough to believe it when the Trib says it, the joke’s on you.
If you need more study on the definition of “fiscal conservative”, then my condolences, but here’s the wiki definition:
Or, you might just take a look at the real fiscal conservative in the race... Read More...
As a preface to their high praise for Republicans who dared to support taxes, the editors lamented that, “Although only one in three voters registered in the county is a Republican, the party is positioned to wield disproportionate power, giving the primary extraordinary importance.” Let me read between the lines. This is what the Trib means: “Why on earth are lots of Democrats voting Republican or just not voting? Man, it’s just not fair! Just think of the People’s Republic of Hillsborough we could create with a few good liberal Democrats on the commission. Well, we will have to settle for a few tax and spend Republicans instead.”
After pouring praise on Commissioner Sharpe for being a ‘natural leader’ (I wonder if he would have received the ‘natural leader’ award if he had voted against the tax?), the editors crank up the doublespeak apparatus with this curious observation, “While a proven fiscal conservative, Sharpe broke ranks with some Republicans to support giving county voters a chance in November to increase the sales tax.” I’ll interpret. Sharp is not really a strong fiscal conservative, but if you are gullible enough to believe it when the Trib says it, the joke’s on you.
If you need more study on the definition of “fiscal conservative”, then my condolences, but here’s the wiki definition:
“Fiscal conservatives often consider reduction of overall government spending and national debt as well as ensuring balanced budget of paramount importance. Free trade, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes, and other classical liberal policies are also often affiliated with fiscal conservatism.”
Or, you might just take a look at the real fiscal conservative in the race... Read More...
Choo Many Options?
July 16,2010 | 08:10 AM
Transit summit draws mayor, questions
15 July 2010 By Brittany Cerny The OracleWho better to flesh out the fate of Hillsborough taxpayers for decades to come than...... USF students and faculty! Ouch! And, a ‘summit’ no less. Well, this important event did not slip by the ever-present USF Oracle.
All forward thinking USF students are deeply concerned over the County’s transportation needs. They probably stayed up late the night before doing their pre-summit homework online. Enlightened by the wiki for ‘summit’ most probably thought the meeting was either a symposium on the Cold War board game by Milton Bradley called “Summit - The Top Level Game of Global Strategy", or at least a discussion group on the 1999 episode of The Outer Limits TV show entitled “Summit” (plot about Humans from Earth and a genetically engineered race from Dregocia meeting to work out a peace accord). Maybe that’s being too harsh.
At any rate, although the article features a photo of the always in-charge Mayor Pam (and a bureaucrat), for some reason the following photo of the students was omitted:
Here’s the article:
“USF students, faculty and members of the Tampa community attended the University Area Transportation Summit at the University Research Park on Wednesday to discuss a 1 percent transportation sales surtax referendum aimed at improving transportation in Hillsborough County. The referendum will be on the ballot in November and will give voters the opportunity to provide the state with the tax money it needs to fund various transportation improvements.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said that the issue of improving transportation is the “most important issue” that Hillsborough and the surrounding region will face for many decades.“We can’t afford to stick out like a sore thumb as the only major metropolitan area in the country that does not have a modern transit system,” she said.
Oh, my aching thumb! WAKE UP somebody! Make a few phone calls before the hammer comes down hard (and it won’t be just your thumb). If you are going to buy something, say a coffee maker, don’t you usually check it out online or ask someone who has bought one. “But we’re spending $10 billion, Dude. That’s not real money. It’s only taxpayer money. Why would we check it out.” Try calling Consumer Reports, or maybe call someone in Trenton, New Jersey or San Jose CA., or, read the light rail study entitled, “Great Rail Disasters” by Cato Insititute.
Iorio said the referendum would not only bring improvements in transportation but also be an investment for the future. “It’s going to be increasingly important in the 21st century for people — young and old — to have mobility options,” she said. The referendum would provide commuters with options like improved bus services through Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), light rail transportation and improvements to current roadways and bike and pedestrian pathways.
No, I don’t hate my car. (I do hate that stinky carbon dioxide [Johnnie, CO2 is odorless]; Well, I hate that pesky carbon dioxide.) I’m quite satisfied with less options. I was quite satisfied with the old fashion 20th Century mobility, really. You know, around a hundred years ago there was the hue and cry that, “Canals are the future! We need to dig more canals. If we only had more taxes...and Plant City will have to wait for its canal.” you get the point.
“The referendum will take the current HART system and create something new,” Iorio said. “Something it’s currently not.”
That sounds like an inspirational slogan: “HARTLINE - Something it’s Currently Not!” But Pam leaves no stone unturned. There is a search afoot to find the right slogan for the tax campaign. I like this online post best: "Orlando and South Florida get a FREE RAIL RIDE and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt and a tax increase."
To fund these “mobility options,” David Singer, campaign manager of Moving Hillsborough Forward, a county-wide coalition to support the tax, said the 1 percent sales surtax will be put into a trust fund where it will be further divided: 25 percent for roads and 75 percent toward transit.
“The tax will be paid by both local citizens and tourists alike,” he said. “We’ll all share the cost.”
Holy Cow! That term ‘mobility options’ sound creepy, like ‘mandatory mobility option counseling’ or ‘mobility options sensitivity training’ or ‘enhanced interrogation’ or ‘revenue enhancement’ or ‘mobility option allotment’ ... but why do I need a rich downtown lawyer like David Singer and his ‘county wide coalition’ to tell me about my options. Who said I have to ‘share’ with David; I don’t even know him.
Singer said there will also be a “citizen oversight” committee to ensure that the money that is allocated for transit serves that purpose. “There will be 11 members on the committee, all of them citizens of the community and all of them with experience in transit, public finance and public accounting,” he said.
The new central committee is already vying for air time on Hillsborough County public TV (Honey, get the popcorn.) where the committe can hold sway over citizen requests for variances in their alloted ‘mobility options’ and the like. (“Please, I don’t want to ride the bus any more.&rdquo
The new and improved bus services funded by the referendum will be an overall increase of “service on all existing bus routes.” Singer said it will add “bus rapid transit,” which is a “fast and frequent” bus service that will stop every half mile to every three-quarter mile.
And, what’s stopping them from doing this, say... beginning next week?
He said it will also add “flex service,” which is a “neighborhood focused” bus service. This service allows commuters to call bus drivers and have the driver pick them up at their house, where they are then chauffeured to a business located within that neighborhood.
I absolutely love this idea. Why don’t they just leave a bus at everyone’s house, or maybe just a small car or something like that. In fact, if you divided the total budget of HART by the ridership, you could afford to buy each rider a 2003 Lincoln Town Car and gas for a year, but that sounds too much like private transit.
I can see it now: “Hello, I would like to make a flex service appointment to pick me up.”
HART operator: “Sir, you know the flex service is already booked for the next 7 years.”
“I’ll take the first Tuesday in August, 2018, but can I have it in the afternoon?”
HART operator: “It’s 7 years away, what difference does morning or afternoon make?”
“Well, I have an appointment with my Obama-care doctor that morning.”
Ugh.
Singer said the light rail would also be funded by the referendum and would be completed in phases.
Let me interpret this statement. No one alive right now over age 55 (no member of AARP) will ever ride a train in Tampa (unless you go down to Ybor and ride the trolley).
It would provide service to downtown Tampa, USF, New Tampa, Westshore/Tampa International Airport, northwest Hillsborough County, Brandon and South Tampa.
I can’t wait. China has a train that goes 245 mph. Just think of traveling from the airport to downtown in, let’s see, 90 seconds! I’m in on that one. Wait a minute. What about Plant City??? I think there’s a side-deal to throw several million bucks at Plant City to breath life back into its bus line to nowhere. I hear the rail will make it there about the same time as the canals.
Singer said the referendum will bring “tens of thousands of permanent construction jobs” to the region and will “attract billions of dollars in investment” money to the area as well.
A feeding frenzy at County Center.
“It’s getting increasingly expensive to own a car in our area — (the referendum) gives people options that they don’t have right now,” he said.
Ray Chiaramonte, executive director of Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization, said that the plans could take at least 20 years to complete. “The buses would come first,” she said. “Then work on the roadways and then the planning of the light rail.”
Let me repeat myself, no one alive right now over age 55 will ever ride a train in Tampa (unless you go down to Ybor and ride the trolley).
Joanne Brown, a senior majoring in international studies and economics, said her major concern with plans for the new HART buses and routes would be security — a concern addressed by Iorio. The new buses would require a new network of security,” Iorio said. “This would mean adequate lighting, cameras and a network to support it all.”
Sounds like it may be time for Obama’s National Defense Force. As the President has said, “We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded [as the military]." We could hire ‘tens of thousands’ of civilian defense forces at the direction of Mayor Pam and the bureaucrat.
Brown said she frequently uses the Bull Runner to get to both her job and off-campus housing and thinks that more students could benefit from mass transit.
However, not all those present at the summit were entirely pleased with the proposed fixes for the region’s transportation problems.
Deborah McCarthy, director of disability services at USF, said, “Tampa doesn’t have a history of responding well” to the needs of the disabled community. “If you work with HART now, it’s difficult to believe that HART is going to reorganize itself so that it will be reliable (in the future),” she said. This is only going to make it all the more difficult, McCarthy said, to get the young generation she works with to “pay an extra penny” for a system that may not be worth the change.” No Duh and No Duh.
Copyright 2010 The Oracle
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Josh Burgin - Lionheart
July 02,2010 | 08:27 AM
We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one. Herbert Spencer
A courageous young man named Josh Burgin has qualified to run for the Hillsborough County Commission on a platform of fiscal and social conservatism, including his opposition to the proposed Hillsborough County Transportation Sales Tax increase.
I am told that 60% or more of Republican voters in Hillsborough County oppose the tax increase, but only one Republican stepped forward to fight for the rest of us. If anything, Josh Burgin deserves the respect of those who are too timid to join the battle against this anti-Republican idea.
He will obviously be pounded by the local media who never saw a boondoggle they didn't like. Yet, win or lose, Burgin will look back at this his finest hour.
While serving as Speaker of the Florida House, a good friend and supporter gave me the book ‘Those Dirty Rotten Taxes’ by Charles Adams. A personal note on the inside cover quoted the French writer Montesquieu, whose writings had greatly influence the American Founding Fathers. It read,
“The real wants of the people ought never to give way to the imaginary wants of the State. Imaginary wants are those which flow from the passions, and from the weakness of the governors, from the charms of an extraordinary project, from the distempered desire of vain glory and from a certain impotency of mind incapable of withstanding the attacks of fancy."
During my first legislative session I took a strong stand against raising taxes to make up budget shortfalls resulting from the 911 attacks. Fighting against the ‘tax and spenders’ in Tallahassee proved to be unrelenting battle against not only liberals, but fellow Republicans who had begun to see the 'imaginary' needs of government before those of the people we served.
I was pounded by the liberal media to join the so-called 'moderate' Republicans in the State Senate, and raise taxes and rob various trust funds in order to maintain government spending in spite of the reduce government revenues. Even the liberal St. Pete Times noted in an article that I kept a copy of Those Dirty Rotten Taxes on my desk in the state Capitol.
"By standing firm, Byrd looks like the winner of the tax brawl.A new St. Petersburg Times poll shows more voters agree with him than disagree, but it is a mixed message. A majority of 55 percent said they do not support an increase in state taxes, but 52 percent said they would support higher taxes to avoid layoffs or cuts in summer school.“The bottom line is that a majority of the people put Republicans in office, and the Republican philosophy is one of fiscal restraint,” said Byrd, who keeps a copy of the book Those Dirty Rotten Taxes on his desk in the Capitol. “You don’t raise taxes in the bottom of a recession. You cut taxes.”
I counted these negative articles as a badge of courage and never flinched or gave in to new taxes. It was our finest hour. The Times finally had to admit that: Read More...
Hillsborough Transportation Tax - Part II
June 25,2010 | 09:19 AM
Hillsborough County Transportation Sales Tax - Part II
The proposed Hillsborough County Transportation Sales Tax Increase is a bad idea on so many levels it’s hard to find a starting point. As I discussed in Part I, the Keynesian economic theory of economic stimulation through government taxing and spending has been thoroughly discredited. (If fact, if Keynesian theory worked the national economy would be booming now after the staggering spending going on in Washington. Judge for yourself. )
Besides being bad public policy, there are always winners and losers when the government decides to use its coercive power to extract wealth created by the private sector.
So, who will benefit from this regressive, job-killer?
The winners include:
- The County Administrator
- Public Employee Unions
- Lawyers, engineering firms and consultants of every stripe
- Sellers of rail equipment and services
- Property owners near the rail line
- Transit consumers
- Businesses near terminals
The losers are:
- Future County Commissioners - who have to deal with the burden of bad ideas
- Small businesses - whose gross income is reduces by 1%
- Families, mainly low income families, whose buying power is reduced by 1%
- Taxpayers who don't use transit - that's most of us
- Taxpayers saddled with the cost of more government - again, most of us
- Future taxpayers to prop up this boondoggle in years to come - our children
