Opinion Archive

The Santa Rosa County BOCC recently raised the tax on a gallon of gas. It was raised because of the dwindling road tax revenue. The dwindling road tax revenue is a product of some vehicles using less gas because newer vehicles are getting better mandated fuel mileage. Some vehicles accomplish this by being a hybrid (gas & electric) and others do it by being totally electric. So this gas tax is being unfairly collected from the gas only vehicles. The tax is for road improvements. Don’t hybrids and electric vehicles use these same roads? Are not these same vehicles bought and owned by the more affluent of the county’s populous?

All of Santa Rosa County is growing, but south Santa Rosa is experiencing a real boom.  We have two new apartment complexes coming on line soon, and down every road a lot is being cleared for one or two homes to be built. It’s a reconstruction surge and great economic recovery following the 2008 Great Recession.

Water board elections are upon us and every year we have people call us with a lot of questions. What looks like a ballot with your water bill is not a ballot. It is a proxy. Basically, if you sign your proxy and bring it to the water department or mail it – you are giving away your vote to the board member you select. To actually vote, you need to show up at the Holley Navarre Water System on Jan. 19 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and vote in person. You cannot phone it in or consider that ballot an absentee ballot – because it isn’t. It is very confusing and has been for more than 20 years. However, several board members felt that it was more confusing to make this an absentee ballot or a directed proxy – where you could vote for whomever you wanted to vote for without showing up on Jan. 19.  Let’s just say Daryl Lynchard and Troy Bossier considers you – to be smart enough to handle a change for the better. The others – think you can’t handle it. So, the board pushed it off to next year – again. There is still no mechanism in place to prove the person who gave away their proxy is in fact the correct individual and a bonafide HNWS member and has the right to assign the proxy. Though they discussed adding safeguards to the process, what is redundant is that you or someone else not authorized repeatedly gives their vote away.

The Navarre YMCA wants to help with your New Year’s resolution.   Take advantage of their January “Pay the Day” promotion and get a discounted Joiners Fee. Pay the day works by – paying the day. The paper comes out on Jan. 7 – therefore it would only cost you a $7 joiner’s fee. If you wait until tomorrow – it will be $8.  That is a great deal – and the YMCA is a great place to work out or take a fitness class. You may want to refer to our articles this week on the Healthy Living Pages 4C and 5C to help get you started healthfully on your new year. We did this with you in mind!

Beach renourishment makes our beaches beautiful and whole again.  It’s the process by which new sand is brought up from the Gulf to replace the lost sand on our beaches.  That is an oversimplification of course.  The end result is beautiful but the process is not.  Our beaches will be under major construction with large and noisy dredging equipment spread throughout the area.  At night they will work by spotlight and the noise will invariably cause people to lose sleep, disrupting their once envisioned idyllic vacation hiatus.  Sea Turtles will be in danger. 

Barack Obama stated “If we can save just one American life” as his reason for more gun control. Then why not “If we can save just one American life” as the reason for more immigration control? Neither one of the subjects stated has anything to do with saving American lives. It’s about wanting more gun control over legal gun owners and wanting more illegal immigration to bolster the liberal Democrat vote because you can’t be on one side then on the other, political lies with American lives.

During the last Democratic candidate debate a question was asked to all candidates. The question was: Do all lives matter or do just black lives matter? I was astonished by the answer. All candidates except one answered “only black lives matter.” The only candidate that responded “all lives matter” is no longer in the race.

I found out a very valuable piece of information that I would not have known if I had not gone to the South Annex last week to transfer car titles. My daughters have cars that were still in my name and their name. The tags were up for renewal so I thought it was time to transfer the titles into their names alone – and give them their first real asset on their balance sheet. We are trying to teach real life finances before they actually leave home and we also want to make sure they know the cost of owning a car since they have had it pretty easy up until now. I paid two years of taxes on the vehicles and told them that insurance, oil changes and repairs from now on – were on them. The valuable piece of information for parents out there is that if you still own a car in your name and your child’s name, make sure you transfer the title while they still live at home. That will save you $225 – each. Apparently there is a $225 fee if they have to put a different address on the car title when it is transferred. Merry Christmas. I need to start “Life Hacks for Santa Rosa County.”  We need contributors – so if you run into something like this – please let us know.

When you buy a house, you negotiate the sales price.  When you buy a car, you negotiate the bottom dollar on the car.  When you take a new job, you negotiate the salary and terms of your employment.  Very few things in life are set in stone – most things are negotiable.  Our county seems to have forgotten the art of negotiating.  Good dealmaking means the money goes further. 

Thanks for the great article in your Dec. 17 issue: “Commissioner raises concerns with Tough Mudder.” I just sent the below letter to the Board of County Commissioners hoping they get it at some point. Continuing to spend bed tax funds on events where the organizers make more than $1 million does not make sense to me. Keep pushing this as most of us don’t want to see our limited funds used on these events.