Market Makers

According to the Osceola News-Gazette, the Downtown Business Association's (DBA) board voted unanimously to close the downtown farmers' market last Thursday due to issues that developed during the lease renewal discussion for the Toho Square market location. We were surprised to learn about this, and engaged the WayneWho Investigative Blogging Unit to look further into the issue.

Apparently when the lease renewal came up as a discussion item at the Commission meeting, at least two commissioners expressed an opinion that the DBA was not doing enough to grow the farmer's market. According to the Gazette's article, the suggestion was made that...wait for it...a local government funded organization, Kissimmee Main Street, should run the market instead. This represents a true shift in local government policies. It has now become the apparent purview of elected officials to step in and recommend the transfer of not-for-profit events to different organizations when those officials believe they can do it better. Perhaps this reasoning only extends to events held at city facilities, but even so, those who operate events at the lakefront should be wary, as the commissioners may be looking for "bigger and better" from you as well.

Perhaps it was the intent of the commissioners who recommended this course that the potential fundraising of the farmers' market would reduce the city's future fund allocations to Kissimmee Main Street, making this another case of "revenue neutral" bookkeeping. To this we say there is a difference between an event being able to pay its own expenses vs. being able to generate excess revenue, or daresay, "profit."

We are disappointed that the DBA had to make the decision to discontinue their operation of the farmers' market, but we wonder if it hadn't run its course, with business people making a business decision that it was no longer self-supporting. If this is the case, we hope that various governmental grants won't be used to artificially support the event. After all, we already have fountains, birthday celebrations, and All America City competitions to pay for.

Just some random thoughts today...

The new traffic light at Vine & Orange Ave. is a big help to those trying to turn left into Target or Home Depot. Thanks to the city or county or FDOT for that one. Hopefully it will keep some of the retailers around a little longer.

Did you know that last week was Florida City Government Week? We didn't either, until we saw the press release that the city released on Thursday announcing that they had been celebrating all week.

In the sparse employment section of the Sunday Sentinel, we noticed that KFD is hiring. Know any firefighters? Send them over to the city for an application.

The big intergovernmental school concurrency meeting is tonight. Hopefully someone brings along some coaches to show all of the teams how to play well together. And we hope that some real work is accomplished, although we know all of the elected officials will be glancing at their watches, wanting to run to the nearest TV to find out what happens with the property tax discussions in Tallahassee. Perhaps they can look up that info on their wireless devices and/or the city's free WiFi network.

Kid Nation: Bonanza is Disgusting!

This week at Kid Nation, they're burning off a bunch of footage for the mid-season shows. We see the kids dig a pit to dispose of the town's trash, and learn that some townspeople just dig in their heels when asked to do any work. The Town Council finally learns that the only power they may actually have is to withhold paychecks when their team members don't do their jobs.

It isn't until about the last five minutes of the show that we see the actual subplot, and perhaps the more clever explanation for the episode's title. One of the townspeople has been working in the background, helping out his team's elected leader, counseling other townspeople, and moderating disputes. We see that the Town Council has met and decided to award him the coveted gold star for the week. But we also discover that the same level of involvement that makes him popular is causing him to debate whether he wants to continue as a resident of Bonanza City. We hear him say that the ongoing negativity makes him want to be somewhere else. And so, when the host asks his weekly question over whether anyone wants to leave Bonanza City, he raises his hand. It is only through the quick intercession of some of the townspeople and Town Council that he is convinced that he should stay and help make the town better.

Does anyone share that townsperson's thought, that while he tries to be an involved member of the community, the grass may be greener somewhere else?

Smile for the Voter

As our readers are aware, the Kissimmee City Commission has proposed some changes to the city charter that will be on the ballot in January. All of the proposed changes are related to how elections are held in Kissimmee, covering issues such as how candidates qualify to run, when the election will be held, and a random lottery to determine the order in which candidate names will be placed on the ballot.

We thought of this when we recently read an Associated Press story about a Princeton University study in which participants were shown pairs of photographs for a very quick glance, and then asked to pick the individual they thought was more competent. The photos were those of candidates from governor and senator races around the country, and the participants picked the picture of the winner of the election more than two-thirds (66%) of the time.

What do you suppose would happen if a picture of each candidate was printed on the ballot?

Alexander Todorov, the psychologist who ran the study, commented "The findings suggest that fast, unreflective judgments based on a candidate's face can affect voting decisions. Voters are not that rational, after all. So maybe we have to consider that when we elect our politicians."

Sound of One Hand Clapping

Another Tuesday evening passes with no Kissimmee Commission meeting, and we had to wonder is there any difference between an evening with no meeting and one with a full meeting. Would the city grind to a halt as some believe, or would the lack of commissioners even be noticed. Besides the obvious cost savings for the city by not having to refill the commission snack trays, and the fact that no new fees can be assessed to the citizens when there is no meeting for them to be conjured up at, we had very few thoughts on the benefits of the traditional meeting structure. This brought us to talk about an old Zen proverb, "What is that Sound of One Hand Clapping?" We wondered if this proverb could apply to our local commission.

First we had to address what the two hands would consist of to make this proverb make sense in our context. We concluded that one hand was the commission and the other hand was staff. When they work together, or clap as the case may be, a sound is produced. In essence, if the commission and staff come together, things get done. So the next step is to determine if one of either the staff, or the commission, is not present, is there still a clap, or in this case, do things still get done?

The simple logic to follow is that if there is no agenda, can the commission function? What would the commission do if there was no back-up and no agenda in which to follow? Could they function? Would they panic without staff recommendations? And since staff are the ones who create the agenda and the back up for the commissioners, does the agenda mean anything if there is no one there to vote on the items it contains, or at least give direction?

These questions actually lead us into other proverbs such as "Which came first the commission or the agenda?", "Don't put all you commission snacks in one basket," and our personal favorite "Is an agenda that nobody reads still and agenda?"

These thoughts are well beyond the insight of the staff at WayneWho. The debate did lead to someone ordering pizza, so we were still pleased with the outcome of the discussions and pushed forward with writing down our thoughts. We leave finding the true answers to you.

Reading, Writing, and Representing

We read Mark Pino's column this weekend about the question of single-member districts for the school board, and one line kept coming back to mind. "And if it goes the wrong way, the district may still end up in a federal courtroom." Since the only group that has threatened legal action are a group that supports single-member districts, it must be implied that the "wrong way" is continuing with an at-large School Board.

We don't know the question yet, but single-member districts aren't the "right" answer to every question about elections. There is movement in Orange County to have an elected superintendent. Lake County had an elected superintendent, but is moving back to an appointed superintendent. Osceola at one point had an elected superintendent, but is back with an appointment. There is no one correct solution.

But Mark is right on the point that most Osceola residents are bored with or not interested in the issue. Why? Because we are asking the wrong question. Outside of those who follow politics for career or sport, election strategy and organizational structure are pretty dry topics. To the average Osceola resident, there are much more pressing questions regarding our schools:

• How do we improve our schools to give better opportunities to succeed for our students, a better workforce for our employers, and a better educational reputation for our community?



• How can we cause our School Board to work cooperatively with our other local elected officials, rather than constantly being at odds and negotiating through attorneys and threats of lawsuits?



• How can we improve our school construction program, such that school buildings regularly open and operate without last-minute road construction and other variances?



• How do we improve financial accountability within the school district, so that we do not continue to lose funding and spending money on projects that require various and lengthy approvals?

The school board candidate who can answer these types of questions will have our vote, even if they have a third eye in the middle of the green arm growing out of the center of their forehead. Conversely, the candidate who does not have answers shouldn't be wasting time in the election process, regardless of who they claim to represent.

Access Osceola Sweeps Clean

In the ongoing ratings battle faced by our local government access channel, Access Osceola has made many changes before the start of Nielsen Media Research sweep dates for November 2007. "Our new season is going to be about flashy colors and drama. Our new slides and shows will both delight the senses and sharpen the mind," revealed one Access Osceola insider close to the source.

It appears that the replays of the ongoing government meeting situation comedies, or sitcoms as they are called by avid TV fans, are out and new flashy slides and additional programming have been added to replace them. "Gov-Meet sitcoms, or 'govcoms' are a thing of the past. They represent the early days of the reality TV craze and the fans have moved on to shows with more advanced story lines. In the early days, the fans loved the alliance building and the surprise twists and turns created by political maneuvering, but they have grown tired of the series. When a show loses it's edge, it is time to cancel it. We have introduced new characters, new plots, and we think we jumped the shark some time ago."

(For those who are not aware of the term "Jump The Shark", the simple explanation is that single point in your favorite Television show where it passes its peak. The term itself refers to the moment in the Happy Days sitcom when the character Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis. This is the point at which most historians will agree that the show took a downward spiral. Some argue that the introduction of Ted McGinley to the cast of the show was its ultimate doom, but the shark jumping episode is still considered to be the end of the shows success.)

Research that has reportedly been done by the Access Osceola marketing department has shown that flashy informative slides test well with the general public. This format has attracted more non-profit tax subsidized advertisers which has added a new depth of intergovernmental funding into the mix. This will allow Access Osceola to compete with other local antiquated profit based broadcasting outlets.

Some data suggests that since the removal of the governmental meeting replays, the ratings for those time slots have improved and the average viewing time has increased. Access Osceola management believes that the introduction of its new list of shows will drive the ratings even higher. WayneWho was given a sneak peak at one of titles that they think will be great hit. The biggest production for Access Osceola so far will be a crime drama series called 'Smith Street Blues'. Fashioned after one of televisions best police dramas 'Hill Street Blues', 'Smith Street Blues' promises to deliver something.

Sunday Funny - Park Politics

A man is sitting on a bench in the park reading a newspaper. Suddenly he throws the paper onto the ground and yells, “All politicians are *ssholes.”

A man sitting next to him in a finely pressed suit says, “I take offense to that!”

The upset guy asks him, “Why? Are you a politician?”

“No," he replies, "I'm an *sshole.”

Kid Nation: Viva la Revolucion

Are politics a highly-evolved skill executed only by those who have put in their time, learned the procedures, and developed the experience necessary to refine this skill? Or are politics an innate part of human competition that can be performed by children with no experience in politics what so ever? Let the viewer decide.

It's Day 14 of 40 in Bonanza City, and the Book of Central Planning (aka the Pioneer Journal) opens with "The winds of change are blowing in Bonanza City." The Journal indicates that simply having been in a leadership position is not always enough to remain in a leadership position. The Journal calls for elections.

As the upcoming elections are announced, a town resident asks if they will be allowed to cast a vote for the leader of each of the districts. They are told that they will only be voting for the leader of their own district. (Hmm... These children seem to be able to handle the concepts of single member districts.) We watch as the Yellow District challenger begins practicing his professional political speech. The Green District meets as a district and decides that no one will run against their current leader. The Blue District leader physically attempts to avoid his challenger as she approaches him to announce her candidacy.

The Council calls the townspeople together, and each Council Member makes a speech on why they should be retained in office, and then call forth for challengers. There is no need for fancy qualification procedures in Bonanza City, nor any possibility of a runoff. The two pre-announced challengers for the Blue and Yellow teams step forward, as well as a "dark horse" candidate from the Red team, shocking the Red councilmember. The common thread of the incumbents' speeches is "I will work harder, please give me another chance." The best-received speech is from the Yellow challenger, who calls out his opponent for her low level of performance, and says to the town "don't tell me you are going to vote for me, tell me you agree with me." After the speeches are over, the Red incumbent tries to talk the challenger out of running by telling him that the job is not as glamorous as he might think.

The townspeople have another challenge event, and the current Town Council feels the re-election pressure as they make their decision over which reward the town will receive.

Candidates then mysteriously find large poster paper and markers and being making their political posters. Townspeople from other districts, perhaps feeling that they had no other way to express their views, begin to tear down posters of other districts' candidates that they don't want to see elected. Of course, we know that destroying political signs is a childlike behavior that would never be entertained by adults in the real world.

And that's it. The campaign season is over, with nary a sponsored debate, or any endorsements, no negative postcards, or even much door-knocking. We go to the town meeting/election, where we find that, of the three Council members up for election, one is retained, and two are replaced.

The careful WayneWho analysis of the win/loss point is as follows: The two incumbents who were voted out of office were the most vocal on positions that were contrary to the desire of the community. Those two were beaten by widely diverse challengers: one was the most vocal and polished, with a history of leadership, and the other was a virtual unknown who wanted to get his points across. The incumbent who was retained had been more passive in his governing, and thus there was not as clear of a rallying point against him. That election came down to personality decisions and less of a sense by the voters that the incumbent must be replaced at all costs.

Next week, Bonanza City deals with a trash control problem. Perhaps they will need to impose some sort of assessment (fee) to control and dispose of the city's refuse.

Building A Better Fee

In an effort to stave off the onslaught of tax relief attempts by the State of Florida legislature and Governor Charlie Crist, the City of Kissimmee has put the finishing touches on a new 'fee' that will ensure economic stability for the city government for years to come. While other 'fees' and taxes have generated negative responses from those forced to pay them, this new 'fee' promises to upset only a small but growing segment of our local community.

The new 'fee', originally dubbed the "Homeless Impact Fee" which will be renamed before the final vote, is designed to address the added impact and long term cost that the homeless community creates. "The homeless are an inevitable result of our current predatory growth practices that have fortunately prevailed in our community for the past several years," noted one high level official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The homeless are a vitally important and an integral part of our society because they serve as an example to the rest of society what happens when you fail to embrace benevolent government policies." Government officials acknowledge that the expense created by working to maintain the current homeless populations to be an example for others has increased rapidly over the past several years. The new 'fee' that will be charged to those who are homeless, are about to become homeless, or who benefit from panhandling will help to offset this expense. "We believe that this 'fee' will serve as a model for other communities to enact to help maintain their own homeless populations."

Building a better fee is not always as easy as it looks some administration officials have acknowledge. Some organizations were outraged by the name of the ordinance and demanded that the word "homeless" be changed to a term that bestowed dignity instead of dread. A consultant for the homeless made the simple claim that "Just because someone lacks a roof over their head does not mean they deserve the title 'homeless.' Being at home is a state of mind and who are we to judge who is or isn't homed in their own mind." Other terms that have been discussed for the ordinance are undwelled, unhomed, shelter challenged, and the perpetually out-of-doors. Right now, it seems that many are leaning towards the term undwelled or "Undwelled Impact Fee", which also seems to work for the new "Undwelled Bathing Station" that will be under construction very shortly.

"Banding" Together

In an effort to find an alternate source of money that can be used in the city's never ending quest to become an All-America City pageant winner, the City of Kissimmee is rolling out its new awareness funding scheme. The City has decided to launch a "KissimmeeStong" campaign to not only raise the needed money to compete and enjoy a few days at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, but to also raise awareness about the critical issues facing our beloved community. "We were just surfing the net and we saw these bands, and we were like, yeah, you know, we can do that," stated a source that did not want to be identified.

Initial reports indicate that the "KissimmeeStrong" pageant award ReminderBands will be available in the color of "Stunned Orange" with embossed lettering that will reflect the "KissimmeeStrong" message. "It's all for a good cause," reflected one high level official. "We figure that if nobody buys them, we can just pass an ordinance that mandates citizens to wear them. This way we make money on the bands, and even more money on the enforcement fines if you are busted not wearing one. It's perfect because it's not a tax, or a fee, and they can't say sh** about it."

Other ideas have been tossed around the city after the successful deployment of the "KissimmeeStrong" bands for other causes and reminders that could be used to generate income. One of the ideas that insiders gave the WayneWho staff a sneak peak at was the "Fire Fee Payment Day" ReminderBand. Sunset Sage with yellow wording make this ReminderBand a real keeper and a late fee saver.

In The Race

The Kissimmee City Commission took up the issue of funding the 2008 All-America City entry themselves, after Osceola County declined to continue with the funding process last week.

The opening salvo was interesting. In the early afternoon news, WFTV reported on the agenda issue. The City PIO took the position that the runner-up status in 2007 and a potential win in 2008 were a good marketing tool for the city. Meanwhile, City Commissioner Carlos Irizarry called the entry a "waste of money" and said that we had "Mickey Mouse" to draw people to the area. WFTV did their homework, contacting the Osceola County Economic Development Department to gauge any impact (none shown), as well as Polk County, a 2007 winner (data inconclusive). WFTV also noted thatlast year's competition costs would have paid for almost 3 police patrol cars. Yes, we know that police cars come out of a different funding source than tourism junkets.

The debate on the issue of funding the award pursuit was somewhat lively during the commission meeting as Commissioner Irizarry stayed on message and continued to support a curtail in government spending. The rest of the commission pushed to pass the expense item with a small caveat that they would seek private (business) donors to fund the actual competition participation, should the city be selected as a finalist. And with a 4 to 1 vote the City of Kissimmee is again in the race for the All American City award. Perhaps some of our rapidly-expanding payday extension service institutions will want to contribute to the ..."Kissimmee... Your OK with us."

All Good?

In an editorial this past Sunday, the Osceola News Gazette has declared that the dust has settled for the special election between Tom Griffin and Wade Davis with Mr. Griffin being elected to the St. Cloud council seat. We agree that Mr. Griffin deserves congratulations on his hard-fought victory and that the residents of St. Cloud also deserve a round of applause for the high voter turn out and participation in the election. We do not feel, however, that this should be then end of the discussion on this election. The dust has not really settled on some of the dark issues that were raised during these campaigns.

One of the issues that was raised, that has not been addressed, is that of a school board member threatening a candidate if they did not go along with a development project. There was also confirmation by several candidates that the developer of the same project of interest to the school board, was shopping candidates with the promise of campaign contributions for a favorable nod on the project. The WayneWho Staff finds it odd that the same news organization that reported these revelations would now act like nothing ever happened.

We feel that the citizens of St. Cloud made the right call in their choice to fill the vacancy, but we firmly believe that the local election process has been shown to be tainted at best. Along with getting back to the business at hand, all local governments should be taking a long hard look at election and ethics reforms. Reports of problems election after election continually remove doubt on our elections being fair and in the best interest of the citizens whom these elections serve. Although Mr. Davis believes that large amounts of campaign contributions do not sway the integrity of a candidate, it is obvious that the voters did not feel the same way. Integrity in our election process is what gives our country its greatest strength and should not be swept under the rug because the a victor has been declared. Questions remain and answers are owed.

Blogs meet press

We, like most of you, read newspapers, watch TV, and read other blogs as well. Most people who keep an eye on local goings-on look for as many sources as they can find. Some people still don't trust blogs, and some people think that the mainstream press is being left behind by these newer technologies.

When these multiple sources of information are coming to the same point on issues, it's time to sit up and take notice. We enjoyed some of the aggressive feisty commentary offered by the Orlando Sentinel editorial board this weekend on the issue of tax reform.

"Many local governments, the targets of all these tax cuts, have shown they're not much interested in cutting their spending, so you can expect higher fees to make up for lower taxes."

And

"Local governments grew fat over those boom years. Now a third of Central Florida's local governments have ignored a law passed this year requiring them to cut their spending. Some cities, such as Maitland, didn't lower their taxes at all and others, such as Kissimmee, simply raised fees. This proposal does nothing to curb that. It should."

State lawmakers are taken to task, not for implementing these cuts (the common refrain of those at the local level), but for not being aggressive enough in reforming the entire tax system, including reducing sales tax
exemptions.

Will blaming Tallahassee be acceptable going forward if further cuts are needed? It doesn¹t appear that that will be the case. For those incumbents who haven't yet filed for the 2008 election, we also note that there have been nice articles written about those who have decided it is time to pass the torch. We don't know that the same nice article with be forthcoming for those who come in second in an upcoming election.

It's your job.

Community Development Districts

There has been much written in the last couple of weeks about Community Development Districts (CDDs) in various parts of the county. In the Saturday News-Gazette, the editorial board says Kissimmee's first CDD "is a good idea that has been a long time coming...the area will be able to devise its own mini-government, through which it could raise money for various projects through bond issues. It appears to be a win-win situation for all involved and might serve as a poster child for other areas of the community."

In the same issue of the Gazette, there is a page-one article on how the Stevens Plantation CDD in St. Cloud is hoping to recover about $250,000 that it now appears they mistakenly overpaid to a consulting firm.

Now, we don't know that CDDs are good, bad, better, worse, and so on. Obviously someone created them to solve a problem they were facing. But here are our questions:

1. In St. Cloud, the CDD board and the City Council are the same folks. Different titles, same faces. Is this the norm, and who will be on the Kissimmee CDD board? What is the dollars-and-cents advantage of having two
entities with the same membership?

2. Municipalities can issue bonds. CDDs can issue bonds. Does a CDD get a better interest rate on their bonds than a municipality does?

3. Municipalities have staff. CDDs apparently do not, based on what happened in St. Cloud where consultants were hired as project managers. Is there ever recurring work in a CDD that would justify hiring staff, or is everything a one-time project bid out to consultants? If a CDD hires staff, would that resource be better utilized in the larger environment of the municipality?

4. In the Stephens Plantation CDD, in addition to the CDD board (City Council), there are apparently a dependent special district board and a resident owners association. Who actually makes decisions, and are the other boards simply "advisory" in nature?

Kid Nation: Do Differences Unite?

It's Day 11 in Kid Nation's Bonanza City and we can see many similarities between Kid Nation, and our local governments. Of course the action is slow so the editors are going to have to ramp up the drama a notch (We propose a fire fee to get things going). Perhaps next week, but more about that later.

The Town Council has been thoroughly programmed that they must report, robot-like, to the Council chamber to review the weekly journal (staff recommendations in the back-up) and do what it says. This week, the journal tells them that the town needs to get religion. The council, as the journal and editors' puppets, announce at a town meeting that the town will start having a universal religious service, commenting "The town usually doesn't like what the journal has to say" and "We make the decisions whether they like it or not."

The scene cuts to four members of the town council ringing the town bell, calling all of the townsfolk to their community religious service, and not one member of the town responds to the call. The council walks away, dejected that their leadership titles were not enough to get the townspeople to do their bidding, but oddly enough, they don't even hold the service among themselves, even though they felt it was such a good idea. Later, one of the townspeople, through invitation and personal relationships, creates her own community religious service which is well attended by the townsfolk.

Later, after the weekly team competition shakes up the work assignments, the townsfolk choose a library of religious books over a mini-golf course for the center of town. The town council, tired of being vilified for their self perceived magnanimous decisions, puts the selection up to a town vote.

We discover that the town council member known last week to quote "deal with it," whose team was demoted this week from the upper class to the cooking crew, is back to shirking her duties. She is found doing shots in the town saloon and ignoring criticism. At the weekly town meeting, she is held up for the most criticism among the townsfolk, who continue to grow more dissatisfied with the leadership of the council as a whole. She responds with threats for worse job assignments, but in the world of Kid Nation, there are apparently no impeachment procedures, and the council doesn't really hold any power over the individual members of the town.

In the previews for next week, the editors tease us with the revelation that there will be elections in the town, and we will see how the townsfolk deal with campaigns...it appears that many campaign posters will be torn down and shredded in the street. By the sound of things to comes, the Kid Nation government may have discovered the usefulness of Code Enforcement. Stay tuned.

Nukes before chips

Our good friends at the Wall Street Journal report on a study commissioned by Saint Consulting Group of Hingham, Mass. Saint Consulting is apparently in the business of supporting or opposing development plans, depending on who is paying for their consulting services.

1,000 randomly selected people from around the US were polled. 75% of those polled would oppose a casino being built in their town. 65% would oppose a nuclear plant. 20% would oppose a wind farm for power generation.

In last year's poll, only 23% supported power plants in general. This year the number is 40%, which is attributed to concerns over rising energy costs.

25% actively opposed a development project in their town, up from 20% last year.

We note that the data did not include any hypothetical scenarios about strip malls, financial services storefronts, or municipal fountains.

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

A discussion item on this week's Kissimmee City Commission agenda merits, well, discussion. Item 8A discusses a proposal by the Parks & Recreation department to purchase Reed's Boat House and convert it into a parks maintenance facility.

There are some interesting positives here. It removes the current parks maintenance facility, a metal building adjoining the old Hansel plant, which would probably have to go during any redevelopment plan for the plant. And it has the potential to save money, with the implication that purchasing and remodeling Reed's and demolishing the old facility could come in under the budgeted amount for a new maintenance facility.

At the same time, we have to question the desire to take another taxpaying property off of the tax rolls. And certainly the unique location will make it difficult for the boat owners who currently store their watercraft there to find similar storage near Lake Toho.

Does a parks maintenance facility need to be on lakefront frontage? And couldn't space be found sharing space with the remaining KUA operations along the lakefront?

Finally, we drove past Reed's the other day and noted that the concrete block wall along the lakefront across the street has been recently removed. This, along with the potential acquisition of Reed's by the city leads us to speculate...is the concept of closing Lakeshore at the railroad crossing back on the table?

Public Service Announcement

St. Cloud Mayor Donna Hart and Kissimmee Mayor Jim Swan will talk about budget cuts with the Osceola Chapter of the League of Women Voters from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Broadway Café and Art Gallery, 127 Broadway, Kissimmee. Cost: $15 with reservation. Details: 407-222-1405 or pburghs76@aol.com.

Sunday funny

A nervous taxpayer was unhappily conversing with the tax collector who had come to review his records. At one point the auditor exclaimed, "We feel it is a great privilege to be allowed to live and work in the USA. As a citizen you have an obligation to pay taxes, and we expect you to eagerly pay them with a smile."

"Thank goodness," returned the taxpayer. "I thought you were going to want cash."