Listen then vote

To the editor:

It seems that in this election year a popular battle cry is that the candidate is a prosperous business man or woman and they have not been on the inside of government. While I agree that some people in government shouldn’t be there, I disagree with the premise that all elected officials should be replaced by these so-called outsider businessmen. Take Rick Scott and Jeff Greene – thank God Jeff Greene was defeated, but we need to defeat Mr. Scott as well.

Both of these men spent literally millions of dollars to gain a seat that would only earn a few hundred thousand dollars in salary, so why do they want the seat if they are such successful businessmen?

Well, successful businessmen are good at obtaining power and money. So, if they get into office, I’m sure they see that they can get power and money from that seat and lots of it. They might have some altruistic reasons as well but once there they will certainly increase their personal finances and not through the salary we the people pay them.

Also, the ads in this election year have been horrendous. I was awakened to a political ad one morning last week (a horrible thing in itself) and the person from Orange County was running for a State House seat but spent his time railing against Washington – but he would be going to Tallahassee not Washington. Did he know this I wondered?

And there was the add that said: reduce taxes, increase the homestead exemption and put more police on the streets. What is wrong with wanting that you might ask? Nothing, except if you reduce taxes you will have less money to spend so how are you going to put more police on the streets (you have to pay the extra police – they don’t work free)? And fees – they are just taxes, too.

In the end we need to be realistic about how our government runs – it does run on taxes and fees and not money that grows on trees. If we want a government that is there in a crisis or even to fix a pothole in the street, it takes money to do it, and as citizens we need to pay our fair share. We have to be savvy voters and really listen to the political speak, question it and then vote with some knowledge about the person and what they are saying; vote more than just for the name of the politician.

Finally, if I mention a name here – it’s because I know the voting records; I check the voting records. As an example, Jay Polachek likes to flip-flop and he doesn’t seem to like to help people, especially children (ie. his Little League comments and no vote on a teen center because he doesn’t think it’s the role of government. What?) Mike Horner voted for the house version of Senate Bill 6 and while it is only one vote it was quite an important one that could have hurt children in the entire state. Mike Horner also voted in favor of added fees while saying he is against higher taxation. Frank Attkisson voted to thwart local government with every vote in Tallahassee (this coming from a former mayor) and now he wants to run local government again? Can we afford to have these guys running our government?

Think and research before you vote then go out and vote – with only a 14 percent turnout during the primary election two of your Osceola County School Board members were elected to office. And 86 percent of you didn’t have a say. What will the turnout be in November? What was your excuse not to vote: The rain? The time? Disgust with the process? You are part of the process.

Clay Selfridge
St. Cloud

Right vs. wrong

To the editor:

While watching the Kissimmee Commission meeting held Sept. 14, I was shocked to learn that the airboat company operating out of the county’s Southport Park location “hauls over 100,000 people a year.” I can’t imagine the noise and environment damage that must be happening near Southport Park based on this extremely high volume.

It seems to be that the city has the right idea in limiting the number of airboat trips per day at the lakefront. I can’t imagine why Osceola County is limiting some small airboat companies to three people and two trips per day when they have no limits in place at their Southport location. It makes no sense.

Osceola County should follow the example of the city of Kissimmee in regard to airboat operations to keep some sort of control on the amount of people and airboat trips in all of their park locations, and not target a selected few small companies. The city has it right; the county has it all wrong.

Jeff Williams
Kissimmee