No Money Down

Politics is not about honesty even though government is supposed to be. This past week we watched as the "Convention Centers for No One" was moved forward by the Osceola County Commission as if their soothsayer wisdom was unquestionable. Of course after Osceola County finding itself as the worst hit area in the country during this housing crisis, investigations into 'quasi-governmental' agencies for both improper acquisition and expenditures of taxpayers money, and savior bowling alleys that just can't seem to get off the ground in the middle of an economic downturn, the WayneWho staff believes that the 'ah-shucks' bumbling government official routine is wearing thin and more questions should be asked. The problem is, who will ask the questions?

The Osceola News Gazette has seemed to slip back into its pre-election mantra of investigative press release-ism by which they work as quickly as possible to fill up any non-advertising space with anything that comes via fax or email. By returning to its roots as the local government mouth piece, its dwindling readership will miss out on relevant discussions of the issues that could drastically impact the future of their surrounding community. Projects like the Destiny housing development, government subsidized housing, and now convention centers will all be approved with flimsy evidence such as, “I think it’s going to be a tremendous benefit to the community, now and in the future,” from Commissioner Paul Owen. Mysterious analysis reports commissioned by those who stand the most to gain are always brought forward to calm the public by stating such things as "the combined projects would generate $470 million in direct and indirect revenue over the next 30 years, including a 134-percent return on investment for the county." and "The study by Real Estate Research Consultants predicted a direct impact of 1,000 new jobs and a $34 million annual payroll produced by the projects." Oh really? And should we expect that monkeys will fly out of our butt because some 'consultant' says it is estimated that it might happen? We guess the News Gazette would report it as fact without ever asking a question if it appeared as a press release. When has the county seen any return on any such 'investment'?

The problem that we have is that there is never any long-term thinking with any of the local Osceola County governments. They always go for the temporary quick fix using tax dollars as their own personal crystal ball. Just because a project can be built, does not mean it should be built and rationalizing a project because taxpayers will not have to directly contribute to it is the exact thinking that put us where we are today. Sure the county might be able to fund the construction of the projects, but who is going to pay for running them? The idea that regular every-day hardworking taxpaying residents of our community will never have to pay for anything in these facilities is ludicrous. Recent history has shown that the taxpayers are nothing more that bailout engines for failed private-public gambles and even more recently backstops for businesses that can afford the campaign contributions to the right candidates. And all of this while telling the taxpayers that everything is going great and "This won't cost you a dime".

Many of our readers will assume that the WayneWho staff is against the convention center project(s). We are not. The voters approved the money for a single convention center project so it should be built. Our concern is with the lack of honesty and transparency as these project(s) slip through the process. We believe that the after the financial meltdown we have all witnessed and been affected by, phrases like "no money down" do not mean what they used to.