Off The Air

Tonight the City of Kissimmee Commission has three very important discussion items on its agenda. We have no doubt that by the end of the meeting some sort of comical keystone cop event will have happened distracting the commission from these issues, but regardless the items are on the agenda. We have been told by reliable sources that tonight's meeting is not the Pay Per View event we have been waiting on, but we expect it to be fun anyway.

The discussion items tonight start with a discussion on the future of Access Osceola. Basically the commission is faced with either reducing staffing and costs, or shutting down the entire project. We believe that shutting down Access Osceola would be a mistake. Scaling it back to its original intent is appropriate. If other funding partners are not going to help to fund the station, then their roll needs to be eliminated from the channel. Access Osceola was intended to help government remain transparent. It was not created so the PIO could have their own talk show. Go back to the slides, we miss those.

The second discussion item is on funding for a legislative lobbyist. This should be cut from the budget. Year after year the lobbyist details the issues they will go to the state and fight for, not the commission, and year after year we see little benefit from the money spent. Developers are the only ones who seem to benefit from the lobbyist efforts on our dime, so we do not see why this should continue.

The final discussion will be the most painful, but the most important. The city will be discussing a layoff policy. We feel that this policy should have been addressed much sooner than this and find it odd that a discussion on All America City came first. Discussion of this policy brings to light another discussion that needs to happen, how did government expand to this level, and why? Were past commissions not paying attention, or did they just believe that everything staff brought forward should be automatically approved? This commission must set the tone as policy makers for future commissions to follow.

We would ask one favor of the Access Osceola crew tonight, make sure if a fight breaks out you keep broadcasting. And if possible, put up the colors of the boxers trunks so we can tell who is who.

A New Low

The WayneWho staff would like to start off by apologizing to our readers for missing the outrageous and slanderous comments of School Board Member Jay Wheeler. After slogging through so may of his "Dear Diary" narcissistic updates, we skipped reading the one from April 21 because we were doing research on the damage School Board Member Tom Greer's actions might have on our community in his quest to support his developer friends instead of our community. We would also like to thank WFTV for catching this story and not passing on exposing the hate speech that it contained. Your service to Osceola County is appreciated.

Although the WayneWho staff believes that the School Board as a whole is mostly incompetent as demonstrated by bad decision after bad decision, we tend to leave them to their own devices because out of all of the governments, they have the most difficult jobs to do. Educating our children is not an easy job, and it is not a job that will be done without making mistakes. Over the past year while the efforts of the school board have increasingly resulted in failure, it has become abundantly clear that their depth of experience has resulted in no substantial improvements in educational standards for our children. We assume this is why the "Hail Mary" issues of low-income teacher housing and school uniforms have surfaced as grand cure-all ideas. Of course hidden agendas of individual board members come into play with many of the nonsensical decisions the board creates for itself, but we tend to ignore most of those false issues in hopes our children will slip through the cracks of ignorances and stumble upon the knowledge that many teachers fight to render every day. If adding a school uniform into the daily lives of students would help teachers teach, or students learn, there would be no question of whether or not uniforms would be accepted, but the problems of our schools run much deeper than khaki pants and button-up shirts.

School Board Member Jay Wheeler, who is no stranger to controversy and has on multiple occasions shown his condescending feelings towards students and parents alike, exposed the true problems facing our schools. The poor and anyone who would question the authority of a school board are threats to our educational system if you are to believe his rants.

While we agree with Mr. Wheeler's assertion that subsidizing parents purchases of uniforms is not the responsibility of government, and in a time of lean budgets, not an acceptable use of tax dollars, attacking the public is unacceptable. In his words, "Everyone can afford Wal Mart, and if they can't they need to think about turning off their Cable TV, or stop buying alcohol, or cigarettes, and spend their money on their children." We denounce this as hate speech and are appalled that the rest of the school board, other local elected officials, candidates, and members of School District 1 have remained silent on this issue. Attacking those in our community that have been the most affected by bad local economic policies and a national recessionary cycle is a new low even for Mr. Wheeler. For many in our community, the very real choice between food for the family and gasoline to go to work has become a daily ritual. We also have to ask about the homeless children in our community who attend our schools. How will they be able to afford uniforms. The WayneWho staff does not consider this a joking matter or one that should be twisted into the political process. We find it sad that the separation of districts has already drug our political process into the depths of class warfare. Just because people are poor or on hard times, does not mean they are bad parents or that they are addicted to vices. If this where the case Britney Spears would be mother of the year instead of an example of the dangers of excess.

We do not understand why the School Board of Osceola County supports these type of verbal attacks on those it was meant to serve and this leads us to question their judgment when it comes to educating our children. The issue is not about uniforms Mr. Wheeler, the issue is about pride in community and pride in ones self. If you had any cognitive power left, you would have understood this point "from the most recent data by Virginia Draa from Youngstown state dated November 2005," which you have wrapped yourself in like a toddlers security blanket. Our children deserve better than being type cast based on data that has had many valid challenges just because Dr. Draa has contacted you about your grand experiment. An experiment that even Mr. Wheeler in his attack denotes he is willing to repeal if it does not work. So much for making the hard decisions and sticking by your convictions.

School Board Member Wheeler, the community awaits your apology.

As SB 474 Moves Forward

For those of you who may have missed some of our posts over the past couple of weeks, we will describe Senate Bill 474. Simply put, it is the worst possible growth management bill ever forced on the citizens of the great State of Florida. This bill would allow school boards to build schools any place they desire with no citizen input, and no regard to citizens who may be negatively impacted by such a school. This bill also creates a situation where school boards would become the ultimate authority when it comes to allowing growth in our communities with no recourse given to other local governments or citizens who again, might be negatively impacted. This bill also forces local governments, including school boards, to inventory property they have purchased and give the lists to developers who may want to build affordable housing units. The developers would be encouraged to build on these properties using tax money that residents have paid, even if current zoning or other restriction would disallow this use now. Again, school boards would become the ultimate growth management bodies in every community in Florida. Locally that means that the same people who could not track cases of tainted meat are going to be responsible for how our communities are going to grow.

There is also another great hidden nugget that has been attached to the bill. It allows for the creation a mobility fee (See Pain Index from November 26, 2007) to handle transportation problems created by the new level of allowable growth. This new fee, or tax as most would call it, would not replace some other tax or fee, it would just be a new tax added to what citizens are already paying.

There is plenty more to this sad excuse for legislation that we are not going into at this point, but just based on these few examples of what we can only call mistakes, one would assume that this bill would have been voted down as it moved through the transportation committee. The answer to that... Nope. It passed with 7 yes votes and only 1 no vote. We guess the claim of some that this bill was not going to move forward was incorrect. Of course it would move forward when you look a the billions of dollars it would open up for developers and the fact that it would allow the creation of a new mobility tax. It also gives some developers a special pass to build without government restrictions if they are supported by a local school board. It is sad that the property owners of our communities are going to take the punch to the kidneys one more time. We can only hope that more people write the legislators to let them know that SB 474 is bad legislation that needs to be stopped in its tracks.

The WayneWho staff would also like to ask what our county elected officials have done to stop this measure, and if the hired lobbyist that all of our governments pay for has taken on this item. We see no evidence that the lobbyist has done anything to stop this bill, and we have to question the value of continuing to pay for a lobbyist that did not know this bill was on the horizon, and has done nothing to speak against its passage.

We also have to question the value of local media outlets that give no space or air time to activities on the state level. Maybe it is because they do not understand the bills, or maybe it is that a pro-developer growth bill that will erode the property rights of citizens is just not sexy enough to waste time on. We do not know. What we do know is that uncontrolled growth has become a problem because no one is willing talk about it honestly, let alone say 'no' to those who stand to gain so much profit from bills just like this on the backs of our hardworking citizens. We would have to guess that since more growth means more people, which translates to more papers in yards and more advertising revenue, that pro-growth bills will continue to take a back seat to important articles on "Epcot's International Flower & Garden Festival". Now that is sexy.

CS/SB 474

Shepherd?

The City of Kissimmee Commission meeting from this past Tuesday was supposed to be as the Osceola News Gazette stated, “uneventful.” But, of course as we have already written earlier this week, the meeting was anything but uneventful. We have already told you about Commissioner Gemskie’s tirade on the Fire Department and Commissioner Irizarry, but what we did not cover were his ramblings. During the rant, Commissioner Gemskie stated that elected officials are the “Shepherds of tax money.” So the WayneWho staff has to ask the question, does that mean the taxpayers are sheep?

We would have to agree with Mr. Gemskie that we are sheep and the elected officials are the shepherds. With the way politicians want to constantly cry wolf to scare us, then shear the wool from us, we feel that Mr. Gemskie spoke the truth of how politicians view the citizens. Roll us over and shave our bellies because we are too scared to say a thing about it.

We find it sad that politicians think of themselves as shepherds instead of stewards of our tax money. The main difference is that stewards protect while shepherds wave a big stick and do a lot of yelling. They don’t really do much else, but that is what we as sheep have come to expect. Maybe one day we will elect stewards. Till then, beware of the shears because government always wants its cut.

Smackdown

Once again in a bid to improve its Nielsen ratings, Access Osceola is pushing the envelope of the Government Broadcast Network. Programming on the edge is nothing new to Access Osceola, but some think they may have pushed too far in last night's episode of the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting.

Last night's show aired as normal, but at the end of the meeting a raw and explosive shouting match erupted between Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry. The skit started with Commissioner Gemskie trash talking the Fire Department, which led into taunts directed towards Commissioner Irizarry. The taunts were for a position Irizarry had taken at the last impasse meeting held by the City Commission and the Fire Department Union. The commission meeting was then adjourned which is when the twist in the plot was revealed. Commissioner Gemskie stood up and approached Commissioner Irizarry shouting that he needed to keep his comments to himself when he (Gemskie) was talking. Commissioner Irizarry fired back in true WWE style that if a comment was made towards him, that he would say something. Then, in a true cliffhanger fashion, the govcom (government situation comedy) ended as the battle between the titans escalated in the background. It appears that this was a scripted event, like most commission meetings, that could lead into a possible explosive Pay-Per-View cage match event where the two will go head to head.

"We feel that this match up is going to be a real hit with our viewers," noted one insider close to some source in Access Osceola. "A cage-match is what they want to see. It was either we do this, or we introduce Ted McGinley as a replacement commissioner."

As of blog-time, the WayneWho staff could not confirm a date or price for the match, but we can't wait to place our order. If it is a good enough bout, we recommend that we send the video to the All-America City Pageant judges for review. A win would be almost certain with a cage match under our belts.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!!!

Top Ten Ways You Know It Is Tax Day In Osceola County

10) People risk drinking St. Cloud Water to get that envelope taste out of their mouth.

9) People ask accountants if they can claim a charitable donation for watching Access Osceola.

8) Men on street corners selling "Turbo Tax Accounting Monkeys."

7) Most common phrase from the Wal-Mart tax cubicle is "Yeah, I got your long form right here!"

6) Mattress stores pop up offering last minute tax shelters.

5) Emergency rooms busy from paper cuts sustained from tax form accidents.

4) Math teachers across the county busy on the phone answering questions related to that "Carry-The-One" thing.

3) Arguments ensue at Joni's Diner involving the claim that the credit allowable under subsection (A) for any taxable year shall exceed the excess of the regular tax liability of the taxpayer for such taxable year reduced by the sum of the credits allowable under subparts A, B, D, E and F of this part, over the tentative minimum tax for the taxable year... Come on! How ignorant is that argument?

2) Frequency of the use of the word "eleventeen" has risen to epidemic proportions.

1) Three Words: Fishing Expense Deductions

Better Neighbors

It is often said that good neighbors are made by good fences. The WayneWho staff does not believe that this is the case when it comes to multiple local governments working together. Our systems of government are intended to mesh together, not in perfect harmony, but in a way that protects citizens from what unchecked government powers can do. This is why we have independent governments that are focused on specific areas such as city, county, or school needs. These separate local governments do not exist so those who are elected to represent them can work to build their own private empires that remove the best interests of those governed from the process. While things may not get done as quickly, and special interests may not get paid as quickly as some would like, this is a form of government that was designed by those who understood the dangers of empires. Our Constitution protects this system of checks and balances that were designed to protect government from the rule of the mob, and the people from a government that becomes a mob.

And so the story continues with the School Board working to remove itself from the confines of a constitutional form of government. They are misrepresenting facts to state legislatures to change laws so they can remove themselves from growth controls established to protect our communities. We are not sure at what point governments and elected officials decided it was their job to misrepresent us instead of represent us, but we are sure this instance is not the first. We also find it absurd how local elected officials are now downplaying the fact that lies were told by the school board to create a false need of this legislation. A lie is a lie. While lying may have become the expected norm for elected officials, it is obvious that the public can no longer financially afford the problems that have been created because of this practice. The WayneWho staff pondered this issue and wondered if regular citizens could begin a practice of misrepresenting the value of their own property for their own financial benefit? Would this be acceptable under the rules of the new empire?

What is most sad about SB 474, and the elected officials of the school boards across the state that are pushing it, is the fact that what they are really trying to do is stop being good neighbors in our communities. Besides the amendment to the bill that would guarantee school boards could get into the business of building affordable housing, or launder property to developers who would do it for them, the meat of this bill would create a situation where citizens would not be able to address problems created when a school is built. This bill would stop the public from being allowed to address their concerns and would give the school board the ultimate authority.

The school board would have you believe that since the schools are an infrastructure item, that they should not have to go through the same development or zoning process as say a road, a government building, or heck, even a hospital. They also seem to claim that since they are not developers, that they should be exempt from these rules because they are just too difficult to understand. While we do believe their claim of ignorance, we do not feel that ignorance of the law is any excuse. It is a reason to be removed from office, but not to pull a fast one on the residents who live here and who work hard to be the best neighbors they possibly can.

Tear Down That Wall Mr. Greer.

Not About The Children

Even though the WayneWho staff enjoys a good scoop now and again, sometimes we find the depths at which elected officials are willing to sink appalling. And so the story goes with an un-news item we had published this past week titled "School Board Rulez" about the School Boards attempt to remove the limitations of law that taxpayers of a community have agreed on, allowing them to essentially override local governments and the will of the people. You may in a momentary lapse of American Values believe that steps such as these should be looked at if the school governments are to protect and teach our children, but the new legislation that is being pushed right now has nothing to do with children. This legislation, Senate Bill 474, allows School Boards to build low-income housing anywhere they wish. The amendment to the bill has been left so wide open that the public would have no recourse in stopping a school board housing project from being built, and it gives them incentives to become an unstoppable low-income development force. If this bill passes, they will be able to do all of this development without ever having to prove how it is going to help in the education of our children.

We have not yet been able to confirm the actual author of the amendment, but it is pretty easy to assume that it is connected to developer Johnathan Wolf who was one of the architects of the legislation that made the state (your tax) money available to build the "Preserve" housing project in St. Cloud. This is an idea that is also being pitched in other communities and all ties back to the same developer. This developer recently lost the battle to construct a housing project in St. Cloud, so now it seems that the campaign contributions have gone out, and the elected official help has come in to create legislation that will cripple the public's ability to protect their quality of life and the value of their own property.

And again we will repeat the fact that none of this helps our children in any way.

The legislation in question is Senate Bill 474 that has already been approved by the Community Affairs Commission. The bill is now going to the Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee, which if approved will then go on to the floor.

The lines of the amendment are 353-355, 660-661, 744-753, and 3869-3912. Starting with line 3868 the amendment currently reads as follows:

Notwithstanding ss. 1013.28 and 1002.33(18)(e), the properties identified as
appropriate for use as affordable housing on the inventory list adopted by the
district school board may be offered for sale and the proceeds may be used to
purchase land for the development of affordable housing or to increase the local
government fund earmarked for affordable housing, sold with a restriction that
requires the development of the property as permanent affordable housing, or
donated to a nonprofit housing organization for the construction of permanent
affordable housing. Alternatively, the district school board may otherwise make
the property available for the production and preservation of permanent
affordable housing. For purposes of this section, the term "affordable" has the
same meaning as in s.

420.0004.
Section 21. Sections 339.282 and
421.615, Florida Statutes, are repealed.

Section 22. Subsections (13)
and (15) of section 1013.33, 3885 Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
1013.33 Coordination of planning with local governing bodies.--
(13) A
local governing body may not deny the site applicant based on adequacy of the
site plan as it relates solely to the needs of the school. If the site is
consistent with the comprehensive plan's land use policies and categories in
which public schools are identified as allowable uses

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

To see the full bill visit this Web Page .

You may believe that a bill so ludicrous would never be passed, but this bill does have support. Local state support that we have been able to find is from Representative Frank Attkisson and State Senator Mike Haridopolos. Even if they did not support the amendment, the entire bill is bad legislation because it does such things as "absolving a developer from responsibility for mitigating school concurrency backlogs or addressing class size." You might ask yourself how bad legislation like this can be passed to favor developers? Simple, follow the money. Follow the campaign contributions. Remember the donors who supported Donna Hart's campaign for mayor that the media had questioned and that many believe were unethical? The same donors can be found on the contribution lists of many of the committee members who hold our communities fate in their hands with this legislation.

And again we will repeat the fact that none of this helps our children in any way and this bill is a growth management bill that actually makes it easier for developers to choke our community. As typical for a republican controlled governmental body, the titles such as growth management, mean the exact opposite of what they say. "Growth Management" really means "Growth Unfettered." Again we are witnessing bills being passed and approved without ever seeing the light of day, and with no elected official lobbying for the rights of the people.

It is up to you to stop this. It is up to you to at least voice your concerns about this bill and especially about this amendment. The school board should be in the business of teaching our children, not developing housing projects.

Below is a list of the members of the Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee. You need to contact them and ask them "not to calendar this bill for their committee". You should also express that you are not for the school board being in the development business. We recommend that you contact all of our Central Florida State elected officials and tell them the same.

Committee on Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations

Chair: Senator Mike Fasano (R)
Vice Chair: Senator Gwen Margolis (D)
Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla (R)
Senator Anthony C. "Tony" Hill, Sr. (D)
Senator Daniel Webster (R)

Local State Officials:
Senator Mike Haridopolos
Representative Frank Attkisson

We would like to thank all of you who contributed information to this entry. Your efforts are appreciated and welcomed. We look forward to working with all of you to protect our community.

Skipping The Middle Man

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the Osceola Charter Review advisory Commission was disappointed at the lack of public participation and attendance at its final public meeting this past week. The eleven member commission has been discussing issues ranging from ethics reforms, expanding the seats on the County Commission in an attempt to subvert the ruling set down by the United States Justice Department, and whether or not the county should be able to create ordinances that supersede city ordinances so the county can continue to carve up our community to meet the needs of their development friends.

Sounds more like a bad Soap Opera instead of serious government issues that should be focused on making our community better for the residents who live here, but hey, local governments act like they are in a big Soap Opera anyway, so many citizens just decide not to watch. Sub-boards, like the Charter Review Committee, are usually worse to watch than the grown-up commission because they are filled with special interests, political hopefuls, and political has-beens hoping to make a political comeback by making the grown-up commissioners happy. What is sad about these boards are that the voices of the few honest citizens who give of their time to serve their community is lost to the ramblings of the board-mongers.

So this past week on "As The Board Turns" (we also liked the title 'Misguided Government') the public was once again blamed for not taking time off from their second job, risking not being able to make their mortgage payment, so they could attend a sub-board meeting that is about what suggestions should be given to the County Commission. The people know that they are going to have to show up at the grown-up commission to argue their case anyway, so why would they take another day off work to listen to developers cry about how the cities are forcing them to follow development codes that are too strict? Of course the people are not going to take a sub-board seriously. They have learned that it is easier to cut out the middle-man board and fight the battle for good government with those who are actually elected.

School Board Rulez

At last night's Kissimmee Commission meeting the City Attorney was asked to explain an amendment to a growth bill that is being pushed through our state government. From his description, the amendment would make School Districts autonomous governments that would no longer have to follow any land development, controlled growth, or concurrency policies established by county and city governments. Basically, as it was described last night, the School Board (the same people who still cannot account for the lost packages of tainted meat that they had in their freezers and may or may not have fed to children) would be the new supreme government controlling your life. With this amendment, they would no longer have to answer to other governments or citizens about where they were going to put a school or how they were going to do it.

As the story was told last night, School Board Member Tom Greer held a whine fest with Senator Mike Haridopolos where he balled his eyes out about how much the local governments were bullying the school board around. Forcing them to adhere to procedures for zoning, neighborhood compatibility, and public safety compliance issues are just too much to ask from a school board it seems. The City Attorney explained that School Board Member Greer lied about issues that had developed between the City of Kissimmee and the School Board on a couple of school projects such as the Sports Authority School. Mr. Greer's claim was that the City caused the school to be delayed by six months when it was actually the School Board that created the delay by not filing the appropriate paperwork that any other developer or citizen would have to file. So much for honesty in politics.

Senator Haridopolos realizing that this issue would make a perfect campaign issue has put forward an amendment for a growth bill that will remove all constraints from the school board and allow them to drop any type of school any place they want. Some of the e-mails we have received since this revelation also point to the fact that this may allow the school board to build workforce housing any place they want because if the rules of development do not apply to them, then there is really nothing standing in the way for them to develop anything they want. Regardless, the issue that comes before the people that Mr. Haridopolos does not understand is that governments are not supposed to be all powerful. The school boards across Central Florida barely do the jobs the people have tasked them to do, and now they are going to be given even more power? There is a reason that the different governments are forced to work together and that reason is called "Checks and Balances."

The WayneWho staff would like to thank the city staff and the city commission for catching this one and informing the community about this issue. We would hope that any of you who have had dealings with the School Board will drop Senator Haridopolis a line and let him know what a bad idea this amendment is. Use small words and short sentences if you want him to understand your message. We would also like to recommend that you email Mr. Greer to let him know you do not like the idea of him ditching the Constitution of the United States of America for his own liberal playbook, but we are concerned that he might really start to cry, and none of us want to see a sight like that.

E-mail: Senator Haridopolos
mike@senatormike.com

Fog of Governing

Tonight there are a couple of items on the agenda for the City of Kissimmee Commission meeting that will probably receive little attention if things go as normal. The commission has a long standing tradition of resisting the temptation of asking questions (at least of any relevance) during commission meetings. One of the goals of the commission is to keep meetings short, as not to intrude into Access Osceola prime time, and another is to keep from looking silly by asking a question that might confuse other commissioners.

The first item of little importance is the discussion of Goals and Objectives for all of the city departments. For this item, the commission will adopt its typical cheerleading roll in an attempt to avoid asking any questions that my be construed as governing. Just in case the commission is so inclined to slip a question or two in between hand clapping sessions, here are a couple. Why is Toho Water Authority spending money on billboard advertising for their utility? Are there other competitive water authorities in the area that we are not aware of? Could we lower the stormwater fee if they were to cut out advertising?

The second item that has even less significance is the discussion on budget cuts for the city's public information office, better known as Access Osceola. We know many of the defenders of the status-quo will say that Access Osceola is separate from the public information office, to which we would point to the backup (commission script) which paints a contrary picture. The listed goals for the PIO as stated in the discussion item above this one reads as follows, "Goal 2: Continue efforts to improve programming and increase viewership." Under these goals they list their objectives to make sure that Access Osceola improves. "Objective 1: Explore Closed Captioning, Objective 3: Heighten Advertising to promote channel, Objective 4: Incorporate logo bug on channel." Logo Bug?? The community is saved! Maybe the logo could be the picture of a fountain? If nothing else, we have an idea where you could cut the budget of the Public Information Office and also reduce the responsibility level in that department. And if that is too hard of a discussion item, explain to us why you are going to cut out advertising about what the city is doing in favor of advertising for Access Osceola?

Of course we know the big issue that will be discussed tonight is the All-America City budget that started as almost nothing, but once again has jumped to $15,000.00. We just hope that these other issues we've mentioned do not get in the way of such serious issues as the bus seating chart on the way to Tampa, and which group gets to go to Busch Gardens first. We hope that real governing does not get in the way of such important taxpayer topics.

Try Harder

Much has been said over the last year about the Lake Nona biotech cluster and how it will bring many, many needed professional jobs to the Central Florida area.

So it was with great anticipation that we were to read an article in Business Facilities magazine about "The New Biotech Clusters" and how "locations outside the traditional biotechnology capitals are proving their worth to a growing industry."

Certainly, we thought, there would be a cute tag line on how Central Florida was no longer just the home to theme parks.

Guess what? We didn't make the list.

The mentioned markets? St. Louis. Houston and San Antonio. Phoenix. Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada). India - home of technology outsourcing.

Then they wrote a separate article on what it takes to attract biotech clusters, a list which includes:

* Strong research
* Venture capital
* Incentives for commercialization
* Highly educated workforce
* Specialized real estate
* Tax and other incentives

And they go on to list a number of areas which are using these types of incentives to try and make the growing biotech cluster list. That group includes North Carolina, Central Kentucky, Roanoke Valley (Virginia), Kansas, and Iowa, as well as the aforementioned San Antonio and Austin TX.

So that's not to say we're completely shut out. After all, there are certainly regional theme parks throughout the country that do a fine business, but none of them are Disney. We just need to know as we move forward that we're not the only ones in this competition for biotech outside of the "traditional areas" of San Diego and Boston, and that there are many other areas that seem to be further along, and manage our expectations accordingly.

Labelology

Yes, the Toho Preserve project has been approved. Now we are going to hear from commissioners and our local media about how there was nothing that could be done to stop the development and that the "anti-development" forces need to just suck it up. That is a an American Ideal if we have ever heard one.

We tend to agree with the Gazette that the restrictions and conditions that were imposed on the project because of the tenacity of the public and the realization from the commission that they could not just rubber stamp another development are a great first step in controlling growth. We would also agree that now that the precedent has been set in these types of restrictions that further developments should be viewed under the same scrutiny. We also hope that the other DRI's and any other developments that are brought forward receive equal time and equal discussion. We would not call this a trial, and we would never discourage the public hearing process from being in depth and thoughtful.

Where we have a real problem with the Gazette's slanted view with the labeling of those who will be adversely affected by this development as "anti-development" or in other words crazy for going up against the pro-development machine. While the Gazette might declare "anti-development" as just a populist fad, we believe that these voices are much more than that. These voices are the ones that will steer our local government back from the brink of its own failure. These are the voices of reason that if heeded years ago, could have kept the county from having to scramble to keep people employed and scrambling to find money to keep our public safety services operational. Common sense voices are what we need. The Gazette's own editorial hints to the damage this development is going to do our local economy and the home values in our community but then states that this is the kind of "Smart Growth" development we need. Maybe it is just us, but that does not seem very smart, and it does not make common sense. Of course if you are a commissioner receiving campaign contributions from the developers involved with the project, then this all makes good sense to you. Maybe the Gazette should find a label for that instead labeling concerned citizens with anything but the term "American."

Local Governments Figure It Out

In a shocking turn of events, the Kissimmee City Commission has changed their agenda for the meeting that is to be held tonight. They have decided to remove all discussions about districts that are not needed in our community. Sources within the administration report that the commission will move to reverse previous expenditures on the All-America City pageant, the soon to be installed round-about fountain, and they intended to use a common sense approach to trim back city budgets to meet the obligations of tax breaks created by Amendment 1. Mayor Swan will also announce sweeping personality reforms and will pledge to treat those who come before the commission with dignity. He will also make a public apology to everyone he has bullied into silence as they tried to express their views and opinions before the commission. The commission will also put forward motions tonight that will finally put the City of Kissimmee on a "true and proper" economic development coarse and they will set aside all non-essential bickering.

We have also heard through background channels that other local governments such as Osceola County and the School Board have caught wind of these sweeping reforms and have pledged to do the same.

It seems that common sense and good government will finally be part of daily life in Osceola County. The WayneWho Staff has discussed this turn of events and has decided that since good government will now be a standard practice and not just something you find on candidate flyers, we will no longer need to post entries to our blog. We thank you for your loyal readership and we would like to offer our heartfelt good-byes. We have enjoyed our time posting our opinions.

April Fools'!

We thought it was better than a rubber spider.