Imagine if, somehow, you could know what each and every dollar you’re paying in taxes, is actually paying for.
Are your hard-earned tax dollars paying for something on a Navy ship? Bits of a bridge? A highway? Are they paying for pothole repairs on roads?
Everything itemized… imagine that!
But, who pays attention, for the most part?
Not me, I must admit, until I started reading Daily Post Editor Bill Hudson’s editorials about your tax dollars going toward, perhaps, infrastructure, like buildings and other things around your town… with local officials deciding on expenditures, sometimes without getting much public input.
That’s representative government, you might say. That’s why officials are in place and on the job, to make decisions, often involving your money.
So… there’s this imbroglio in Florida, that I mentioned last week in the Daily Post, involving two big Ds… Disney and DeSantis. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney World.
Because Gov. DeSantis, apparently, wants “to punish the Disney company for its stances on social and education issues,” by getting legislation passed that undercuts “Disney’s autonomy,” the governor’s machinations “could impose a steep cost on Orange and Osceola counties, where the theme park is located,” according to National Public Radio (NPR).
The bill Florida’s governor has signed strips “Disney World of its status as an ‘independent special district.”
Disney World sits on 40 square miles of land. The company installs and maintains the infrastructure on all those square miles… roads, electricity, water, and such. The company also provides police and fire protection, according to NPR. “The setup was intended to give Disney autonomy while also relieving the counties of paying for new services and infrastructure in what was once a remote and rural area.”
So, now that the Florida legislation has been signed into law, the two counties, apparently, will wind up inheriting “the Disney district’s debts, which officials say would result in higher taxes,” and, possibly, a long-term tax burden on folks in the Florida counties.
So, for sure, as I mentioned, last week, you can be thankful you’re not Florida, but then again… you have lots of stuff you’re footing the bill for, and some of what you’re paying for, involves long-term tax burdens, from what I understand, reading Mr. Hudson’s editorials.
But at least, there’s one significant difference.
What Governor DeSantis is doing, by perhaps, punishing Disney for speaking out on some things, may violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which prevents the government from making laws that regulate or prohibit a number of things, including freedom of speech.
That seems serious.
But, you know, since I’m writing quite a bit about serious, concerning things, why not add a little something different, here, about a wine called Flood Wine?
Days of heavy flooding rain, last year, that devastated Ahrweiler, a village in western Germany, destroyed houses, village infrastructure and wineries.
One of the wineries, where Riesling and pinot noir wines have been produced for almost five centuries, had bottles of wine washed away. Many were later recovered in mud and debris.
“Local wineries and restaurants had thousands of mud-caked bottles of wine piling up, their labels irretrievably soiled but their valuable contents intact,” according to a Bloomberg article.
“Cleaning the bottles and replacing the labels,” was possible, so the wine could be sold to wine enthusiasts, pretty much, as usual. But a local vintner and his friend came up with the idea to sell the bottles “as artifacts to help raise money” for flood victims. And “within days, flutwein – flood wine – was born.”
There’s badness all around, sometimes. And goodness… there’s some of that, too.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.