Funding Follies

It is Monday morning and the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting agenda has finally been put online for the public to see. We know it is troublesome when city business gets in the way of holiday shopping and party planning, but it is important that the agenda gets posted early enough for the public to react to agenda items if needed. From what we have seen so far from the newly seated commissioners, it looks like the public is going to have a busy couple of years reacting to what government is trying to do.

As we had mentioned in previous articles, the city's portion of funding for the Small Business Development Center is up for discussion at Tuesday night's meeting. We believe that the commission should demand answers be given to business relevant questions and that a better system of accountability should be established to verify the program is having a lasting success. The WayneWho staff has heard that a couple of the commissioners are already planning to vote against the approval of these funds because they do not believe that it is government's responsibility to get involved with the business community. Funny how that has become a convenient argument now that the development community has no more use for our area and small businesses cannot afford the same level of campaign contributions they once did. We would argue that this type of business educational resource is exactly what is needed and provides the smartest way to help create solid businesses and honest economic development in our community. With more and more people losing their jobs and the pool of available jobs drying up, more people will make the decision to start their own business as a means to continue to survive. This would not be the best time to cut off an educational resource that may not only help them get started, but help our community by creating employment for others along the way. Demand answers. Demand Results. Fund accordingly.

Another request for funding to help pay for a bus to help transport the elderly and disabled is also on the agenda for Tuesday night. While we feel this is not the best transportation system to fund, given the lack of other transportation options, this is a must fund situation until commissioners with some basic understanding of public transportation get elected to office. Since local governments have forced Lynx to cut routes because of funding cuts, other transportation options will be needed. While we believe it is vital to fund this request, we are very discouraged that only one group of our community is being considered. There are many Osceola County high school students who relied on Lynx transportation so they could stay late after school for educational or extracurricular activities who have been left stranded. While it is not government's role to provide this transportation, we find it odd that some get transported while others do not.

We would also suggest that some accountability be requested of the Council for this new project. The Council has a tendency to expand its role despite funding constraints. Their "whole family" approach of helping the seniors of our community has made the agency much larger than it needs to be. While we understand that there are large groups of people in our community from all walks of life who need help, the Council needs to stick to its primary role of helping seniors to assure that funding goes where it has been allotted. While this may be a heart-wrenching task, it must be demanded.