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Dear Manatee County Commissioners:
From what I’ve heard and read, it looks like Manatee County plans to spend more than $600,000 to chop up the Coquina Beach parking lots in order to make “cruising” there harder and, hopefully, make the area less of a magnet for gang members and others who destroy the area’s ambiance with loud music, gunfire, and other Bad Behavior. I have a simpler plan that would cost a lot less to implement.
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Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, following his natural Republican inclinations, wants to eliminate property taxes in Florida and raise sales taxes to partially compensate for the loss of property tax revenue. For most local governments, property taxes are the main source of revenue, since Florida has no income tax. And since Rubio and other legislators whose primary purpose in life is to make sure our greediest residents flourish while everyone else wilts refuse to tax service sales along with sales of tangible items, this tax plan would move Florida farther toward Leona Helmsley “only the little people pay taxes” Republicanism than ever. But it would also kill Florida’s construction industry, thereby putting a big hurt on a large percentage of our state’s greediest citizens even as it helped others of their ilk. And this problem — not compassion for the working poor or sound fiscal thinking — is why Rubio’s tax-shift plan will not become law.
My wife, Debbie, bought food at Wal~Mart earlier this week. She’s not a Wal~Mart person, but she had a doctor’s appointment right across the street from Wal~Mart and saw that the parking lot wasn’t crowded. She wasn’t in a hurry to get home (I was working), so she decided to take a stroll through the store, where she was seduced by meat prices far below what she was used to paying at Publix. But when we tried to eat the Wal~Mart meat, it was obvious that Debbie had made a big mistake.
My wife and I live in a Bradenton house that we bought in 2004 for a lot less than the $168,000 that is currently considered the maximum price for ‘affordable housing’ around here. I’ll admit that we’ve spent a fair amount of money fixing up the place, but even if we include our remodeling expenses, our home’s total cost is well below the official ‘workforce housing’ top price limit of $201,600. It’s a nice place, too.
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An exercise in pseudo-steadicam (constant motion) camerawork + a “short cut” editing style I don’t usually use. Kevin and Diane do great work, and Kevin is an accomplished performing poet, so his narration is great. I just walked around with the camera and recorded their work, then cut on the beat, y’know? Came out very well!
I had a revelation one evening at a Walgreens Drug Store in Bradenton, which I suppose is as good a place to have a revelation as any. It was about Jesus, Passover, and Easter. In a flash, I suddenly realized why Christianity is popular and Judaism is not. (Note:I wrote this piece last year, but decided it was worth running again for those who may have missed it the first time around.)
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