June 5, 2008

By: Ernie Padgett
All of us Jackson County citizens have a lot to be thankful for and proud of. It is a great place to live, work and play. For some of us, a great place to return to in our retirement phase of life. Did you know that Jackson County was one of only several Florida counties to vote against Amendment One (limiting local government expenditures) on January 29th of this year? Is this something to be proud of? I believe it is. We voted almost 2 to 1 against this ill conceived, slight of hand, smoke and mirrors state amendment that hamstrings local elected officials (county commissions, city commissions, school boards) throughout Florida. Anyone who has been following the happenings over the last several months is starting to see the results of this politically motivated state action. Cities, counties and school boards throughout the state are having to cut back on services rendered to citizens. Colleges are having massive lay-offs and universities such as University of Florida and Florida State are now in the position of having to drastically limit enrollment of new students. Thousands of faculty positions will be eliminated. In many school districts, services to students are being reduced and teachers and support staff are being terminated. County commissions are being forced to cut services and lay employees off. State employees are facing another year without a pay raise. This is only the first year of the negative impacts from Amendment One. There will be more to come. The continuing results will bring thousands of lay offs for state, county, city and school district employees. Some readers will say it’s about time we reduced government. Government in Florida will be reduced, no doubt, but at a very high price. Schools and colleges operating without enough resources to provide for a good educational system. Local governments unable to meet the requests of their citizens such as roads, public safety, recreation, libraries, partnering with other governments to provide needed help to the elderly and those needing basic help. The Florida legislature started this ball rolling over a year ago. We will witness Florida and its’ counties going backwards in the delivery of quality of life services. They blame a bad economy. In fact, their actions are contributing to this bad economy. When people have jobs that pay a living wage they have money to spend. We will buy that house, the new car we’ve been talking about, take the vacations, go out to eat more often, spend more on ourselves. Money moving is what keeps an economy going. One may think we are just talking about government employees and their plight. Wrong. We are not only talking about the money they spend, but also the dollars that all governments spend when they buy from vendors and contract out to private enterprise. This is money that goes back into the community and supports the local economy. When the spending of dollars is restricted to the point it will be in Florida Communities, most all citizens will suffer. Again, we can be proud as Jackson County citizens that we did not vote for Amendment One on January 29, 2008. We refused to be hoodwinked by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.