2007 endorsements: No on the penny sales tax, Yes on the Super Majority referendum
While these two referendums may not seem related, they have one thing in common: both possible laws have a direct impact on uncontrolled growth
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 10/27/07

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Vote NO on the penny sales tax
The penny sales tax proposal has its roots buried in the old Andy Hardy movies: "Hey kids, I've got an idea: Let's put on a show!"

Earlier this year, some bright young lads and lassies in our county and in our city asked a hypothetical question: If we had loads of extra tax money, how would we spend it? Citizens and bureaucrats were asked for input. In Venice, scores of ideas were considered, including building another fire station at the airport. The fire station would be architecturally complimented by an adjacent air traffic tower, also to be funded by the penny tax. Both ideas were mercifully shot down.

Other squanderous ideas came and went, including an outdoor concert amphitheater across from the airport at Caspersen Beach.

It was at about that time that we stopped paying attention to the penny sales tax proposal. This is one of the clearest cases of cart before the horse yet seen in county politics. One can only imagine an excited Judy Garland turning to Mickey Rooney and their friends with an epiphanous shout: "Hey kids, I've got an idea: Let's put on a tax!"

Since that time, we have paid so little attention to the penny sales tax proposal that we couldn't begin to tell you why the county and the city say they need it -- the two government entities lost us at the very beginning with their cart-then-horse approach in justifying the existence of the potential tax.

Thankfully, others have paid closer attention. Land use attorney Dan Lobeck, who also happens to be the President of Control Growth Now, has personally taken the charge against the penny sales tax. For Lobeck, the case is simple -- this tax ultimately is just another way to take growth costs away from land developers and plop it on the shoulders of everyone else, a sort-of impact fee in reverse.

There are other problems with the tax, according to Lobeck. The City of Venice, for instance, is up to its usual flim-flam: "It's difficult to determine how much Venice would subsidize growth with its tax revenue because more than 79 percent of the money earmarked for roads is for undesignated 'improvements' and 'contingencies.'"

Lobeck's full article was published in the Pelican Press earlier this month. Read Lobeck's article, then vote NO on the penny sales tax.

Vote YES on the Super Majority referendum
Stan Thomas has just tentatively won the right to build 7,000 new homes in our backyard. He's won the first step of that right on a 3-2 vote. The project still has to go through one more vote by the county commission, this vote after the election on November 6.

You might remember Stan Thomas. Then-Councilman David Farley referred to him as Bill Gates' cousin, this in reference to Thomas' amassed wealth. Farley made this reference in the FAA shade meetings a few years back, when Farley announced that Thomas wanted to enter negotiations with the city to move the airport off of the island so that Thomas could plant a few mega-condo complexes on what is still airport land. When the transcripts became public, Farley and Thomas were vilified.

As to Thomas' current plan, we don't have the water, the infrastructure, or the ecological elasticity to survive many more of these monster development projects. Hell, we don't have enough resources to sustain what we already have built. Florida's citizenry is blindly heading for a showdown with the the very land that we live on. Here's a prediction, one that Venice Florida! dot com will be vilified for: We will lose.

The Super Majority measure will prevent Stan Thomas' massive density upgrade. The measure won't prevent the development in its entirety, just the upgrade to 7,000 homes.

That's our anecdotal, knee-jerk reason for voting in favor of the Super Majority referendum. The Sierra Club, the County Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, the Better Government Association, the [Sarasota] City Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, the Venice Taxpayers League, the Venice Neighborhood Coalition, and the Audubon Society have a whole bunch more -- they've all endorsed the Super Majority referendum as well. You can and should read about that in this very informative article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Then vote YES on the Super Majority referendum.

NOTE: Due to financial and political conflicts of interest, Venice Florida! dot com will not be publishing endorsements of candidates for city council this year.