Bradenton Times News Articles

From the moment last Tuesday's election results were announced, the media began pounding the airwaves with tales of doom and gloom, warning that America's economy faced some sort of imminent implosion, were Congress and the president not able to reach a “grand bargain.” The so-called “fiscal cliff” isn't exactly as dire as the pundits make it sound, and failure to strike a deal shouldn't lead to stockpiling canned goods and bottled water. In fact, allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire and mandatory across the board budget cuts to actually go into effect might be a better step in the right direction than putting another temporary patch on our budgetary problems.

The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief when last Tuesday's election was able to be called without waiting for the Sunshine State to weigh in. Once again, Florida failed where 49 other states succeeded in collecting, counting and reporting the vote in a timely manner. Thankfully our results were moot, in terms of the outcome, but there's a much larger point. Had the election again come down to Florida's electoral votes, as many likely scenarios predicted it could, we would have been in another enormous mess just 12 years after our historic catastrophe of 2000 that led to the U.S. Supreme Court installing a president. It's time to say that enough is enough.

I have now attended my third Manatee County School Board meeting, and this is my first letter to the editor. I have observed the budget shortfall or deficit quoted from between $2 million and $40 million! I have heard the school district's student scores go from 27th to 47th out of 67 districts in 4 years! And I watched as the new interim superintendent disparaged a lady who has been struggling to help get the budget balanced.

After 31 years as the Manatee Civic Center, the name of the convention facility in Palmetto has now been changed to the “Bradenton Area Convention Bureau.” If you feel disenfranchised, you are one of many that have expressed their displeasure. On September 25, 2012, the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners approved the funding and voted on the new name, without the matter having been included on the published agenda.

With any luck, 2012 will serve as the wake up call for the Republican Party. For the second time in a row and the fourth time in their last five presidential nominees, they've been rejected by the American electorate – and the other time they needed a Supreme Court ruling to get their nominee into office for his first term after he lost the popular vote and our state of Florida was unable to determine who'd won here. These failures are despite relative success in both chambers of Congress and growing power in state legislatures and governorships. It's time for Republicans to take a look at why they are unable to connect with the American people on a national level and decide what to do about it.

So much of today’s headline news concerns the federal elections – not only the presidential race, but also the contests for Senate and House seats. And of course those are important. In some ways, however, the races at the lower end of the ballot – your local elections – are even more critical, as they will have an immediate impact on life in your community. The local school board race is a case in point.

The boys of Willowbrook are back, and they're no longer waiting to hear what the commission says they can't do. They are here to stay. "You can put our names on these seats up front," said Dan Koekler, one of the KB homeowners. But all of the spunk they could carry into the chambers, didn't stop the Building and Development Services Director, John Barnott, from trying to squeeze out of his responsibility by handing out more excuses.

At Thursday's Land Use Meeting, the Board of County Commissioners adopted language correcting a mistake in the 2008 ordinance approving a Preliminary Site Plan for Heron Bay, allowing for 198 lots for single-family attached residents. In other business, the Port Authority relieved Air Products from any liabilities that could follow the property they recently purchased from HRK.

This is my last political column before Tuesday's presidential election. In my previous two pieces, I broke down some of the major issues concerning foreign policy and energy that weren't being addressed in the debates. But most of the email I have received centers around economic issues and confusion over deficit spending, tax policy and unemployment. Let's take a look at what's been missing there as well.

In my last column, I brought you up to speed on the deeper issues impacting our energy challenges, which has become a major component of the 2012 presidential election. However, Tuesday night's third and final debate was primarily focused on foreign policy, another area where the candidates have thrown plenty of red meat, but precious little in the way of cohesive strategy. Let's take a look at some of the deeper issues in this arena as well.