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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 27, 2008

Not So Super

Re: "Mailings: Challenger Criticizes Elections Boss," in the June 25 edition of Hernando Today.

I believe it would have been prudent for Supervisor of Elections Annie Williams to have applied for a nonprofit postage permit for her department some time ago. Whether immediately used or not, and regardless of whether the savings would have been only slight after expenses and manpower costs were considered, having the permit already in place would have shown her to be forward-thinking.

As we all know, the cost of postage never goes down. Ms. Williams claims to have experienced "time factors" in sending out ballots for the Jan. 29 primary. That may be true, but had the nonprofit permit already been approved, at least some small amount could have been saved for the taxpayers, some being better than none.

I would also question the legality of using the permit assigned to another governmental office for use by the office of the Supervisor of Elections. Wouldn't that be the point in filing an application to begin with, to keep track of who's utilizing the services? Using Ms. Williams' logic, there's a real possibility of persons or companies using the lower, nonprofit rates that are not deserving of this discount. I'm all for saving money but, please, let's keep it above suspicion, particularly when the activity involves our own county government! To maintain the confidence of the taxpayers, the mere appearance of impropriety should not exist in our county government.

With taxpayers' money at stake, I find the actions and attitude of Ms. Williams to be too cavalier. This comes in times when people are losing their jobs and trying to keep their families fed. Ask anyone of those folks how much that lost $8,400 would mean to them.

My vote will go to Shirley Anderson who apparently cares more about saving our hard-earned tax money than Ms. Williams.

Julie Gilmour

Brooksville

What's The Point?

On the news the other night, I heard the Hernando County politicians were in a meeting discussing the possible oil drilling 50 miles off the Hernando coast. Can I say that oil drilling off Florida's coast is ridiculous for numerous reasons.

Oil drilling in the Gulf will not even affect gas prices for about 10 years. Unless there's a noticeable change, and a change now, what is the point? And by noticeable I mean at least a dollar.

In 10 years, when this oil drilling is supposed to actually impact our gas prices, we had better have an alternative fuel source or we're in serious trouble.

What about the oil spills? The Republicans say that the oil rigs are more advanced and oil spills with be far more unlikely. But they also said they learned a lesson from the levees breaking in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit, now look at Iowa and Missouri. We haven't learned enough.

How much is it going to cost to build, whose paying for it and who will be operating these oil rigs? With no immediate help on the economy, only the possibility of hurting Florida's economy and coastline, what is the real point?

Robyn Woitas

Spring Hill

The Flea On

The Cat's Neck

Just like the flea on the cat's neck seeing its first HD TV picture: "Wow!"

That always makes my wife laugh no matter how many times she sees that commercial. And I have to smile as I know she cannot stop herself from laughing every single time.

Seems I am a lot like that flea this month. I say "wow" a lot anymore.

Every time I pick up the paper or watch the TV news there is a "wow" reality that hits somewhere.

Retirement systems with their billions of dollars are now investing in the volatile and dangerous futures markets with as little as 10 percent cash required to control billions of dollars in commodities like oil, gas and corn. "Wow." If I were an educator, policeman, teamster, construction worker or other unionized person relying on one of these pensions in the next 20 years I would be devastated. How can the rules of a normally conservative retirement fund be bent to this extreme for a higher rate of return with no fear of wiping out billions of retirement savings in one day of bad guessing? They actually think they control the markets - well maybe they do. The government thinks so. OPEC says oil would cost $70 a barrel if it weren't for speculators.

Looking to Congress to pull the investment futures plug is at least 120 days off. That will be too late for all these future pensioners if the bubble bursts like the housing market did. You can bet your retirement fund that the boards in charge of these cash funds were heavy into both stocks and housing prior to those crashes. All that will happen to them if they guess wrong on a commodity is they will only lose their jobs - not their retirement - not to worry with those golden parachutes they negotiated for themselves.

I know people think I'm a fixed income moron for putting up with only 3 to 4 percent on a certificate of deposit and 4.8 percent in I-bonds, but at least they're guaranteed until the government goes bankrupt, which is probably not going to happen now that Bush is leaving office in five months. Whew. I would certainly hate to go back to work in this job market!

Doug Adams

Spring Hill

Chump Change

Re: Commissioners to discuss oil drilling

I do not see why the county commissioners are discussing this topic, which is a state issue and national issue.

I want to put in my two cents here. Our beaches and shores are the money machine for this state's economy. We need those tourist dollars. If you want to pay more taxes, then go for the oil drilling offshore just to save up 5 cents per gallon of gas. It is just chump change.

As taxpayers of this state and this county, we spend millions of dollars to invite tourists to this state. One of the biggest assets we have, other than the Orlando theme parks, is the pristine beaches. I do not want tourists to complain about those oil tar balls that will appear on our beaches from those so called environmentally safe oil rigs. Those oil tar balls dot the beaches of Texas and Louisiana.

So who cares about the $1.75 billion investment in the U.S. Sugar lands in the middle of the state, while we are cutting off our noses?

Again, we are selling our souls for a few pennies. Brilliant leadership?

Fred Peters

Weeki Wachee

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