Tourist-tax funds must be flexible<\/p>\n
As our state legislators prepare for the upcoming session, we need to ask them to pursue legislation that allows more flexible use of Florida\u2019s tourism development tax dollars here in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Our county needs legislation to allow for more flexible use of the funds generated to serve a greater range of needs including transportation, workforce housing and public safety.<\/p>\n
These are areas which directly impact the visitor experience. Tourists don\u2019t just see the ad; they see the streets, the parks, the people.<\/p>\n
Giving counties the option to use tourism tax revenue for broader, locally determined needs, doesn\u2019t weaken tourism \u2014 it strengthens it. It lets us maintain the very assets that attract visitors in the first place and ensures that tourism supports the long-term health of our communities.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about abandoning tourism promotion \u2014 it\u2019s about being smarter and more responsive to the needs of modern Florida.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s trust our local governments. Let\u2019s give them the tools to invest where it counts. We need legislation that helps us create a more successful and sustainable future for Florida tourism and the communities that make it thrive.<\/p>\n
Barbara Lanning Orlando<\/p>\n
Barbara Lanning is the former co-president of the League of Women Voters of Orange County.<\/p>\n
U.S. slides toward failing socialism<\/p>\n
America is becoming the new challenge for socialism, systematically penetrating sections of the nation, and converting a republic into the Socialist States of America. The silent majority seems complacent sitting in their corners, not supporting that which enabled this nation to grow and prosper as it has. This trend swept Europe decades ago, and now seems to be rising again in the U.S., just as Europe returns to the more conservative and common sense government it once was because socialism did not work. Repeating what others found to not work can only be described as plain stupid. Is it the lack of educational understanding? Or just the lure of free everything? America needs to wake up to the fact that life is hard, and one only gets out what one puts in; no freebies!<\/p>\n
Bob Kring DeBary<\/p>\n
The cruelty of withholding food aid<\/p>\n