The Way I See ItBy cj pollickPinellas County Sheriff's Office Seeks Alarm Ordinance And Fines - Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has asked the Board of County Commissioners to pass an ordinance which would regulate homeowner and business use of security alarm systems. The ordinance was on the County Board meeting agenda for Tuesday, January 20th. According to the Sheriff's Office, this ordinance will help reduce the number of false alarms and efficiency of the Sheriff's Office. Fines associated with the proposed ordinance would be $75 after two free passes for people and businesses that are registered, and $175 (which increases) for non-registered parties. Registration would be free. The ordinance would affect much of Pinellas County (incorporated cities under contract with the Sheriff's Office and unincorporated areas under the Sheriff's supervision.) Further, the Sheriff's Department reported that they would be training with other police groups as a part of the Super Bowl Security Program. The Sheriff's Department K-9 and Marine Units will participate in the special training for enhanced security at the Super Bowl. Other police units involved are state agencies, the FBI, ATF, US Coast Guard, and other Tampa Bay police departments. Presidential Inauguration About Keeping Promises - Barack Obama made 510 promises during his campaign, according to a Wall Street Journal article published last Tuesday. Obama made promises to just about every special interest group in America and every major campaign contributor. Promises that will likely go unkept. However, there will be changes made in our government spending habits -- Obama and his Democrat supporters will spend more of taxpayer funds than any president in American history. Obama will lead America to its largest federal deficit, about 2 trillion dollars. It could take two or more generations of US taxpayers to payoff this enormous federal debt. More than one economist has stated that Obama's plan for fiscal recovery could lead America into a deeper Recession or Depression by creating so much federal debt. Yet, there are many Americans hopeful that Obama and the Democrat-led Congress will bring positive changes to our fiscal problems. Congress, on the other hand, has been factually led the past two years by Democrats and now Democrats in Washington control all aspects of federal government life. With federal bailout funds for banks, insurance companies, automakers and other financial institutions, one can't but wonder how all of these government loans will benefit common workers and small businesses. The fact of the matter is that these large federal bailouts will not help small business owners; small business owners and regular workers will be the folks who pay taxes to fund the bailouts. Will Barack Obama keep his 510 promises to the American people? Time will tell, but this Presidential Inauguration is expected to cost $160 million, the most expensive inauguration in history. Florida Says Cut The Tourism Budget - Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Legislature plan to cut about $9 million from the tourism advertising budget. That means ads promoting Florida will be cut for the remainder of the year, said one of Florida's tourism officials. Gov. Crist, however, is concerned about Florida's declining revenues due to lower sales tax revenues (due to a declining economy.) According to Crist, about $1.2 billion must be cut from Florida's state budget. Tourism funds might be cut as well as many other funds that receive state revenues in 2009-2010. One reason why Gov. Crist is trying to balance the state budget is the recent downgrade of Florida's ability to repay bond debt. Even though Florida has an above average bond rating, any downgrade makes it tougher to raise money (and Florida bond interest returns would tend to be higher to attract new money.) Super Bowl Mania - In two weeks we will watch Arizona play Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Interestingly, the latest Las Vegas "spread" has Pittsburgh over Arizona by 6-7 points. George O'Dowd, Better Known As Boy George - Remember the song titled "Do You Want To Hurt Me?" sung by UK singer Boy George? Well, it seems as though Boy George wants to hurt other people in a weird way. Boy George was recently given 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort. It was reported that George handcuffed the young man to a wall in a London apartment over objections. George is also reported to have substance abuse problems and his recent conviction for false imprisonment may have been triggered by such drug abuses. Of course, from the moment Boy George hit the box office, most people said, "That is one weird dude." "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" No, but you had better watch-out for George O'Dowd. Our National Debt Is Not The Problem For State Governments - Consider the following financial deficits by several of our largest state governments: California has a current financial deficit of $30.6 billion (about 30% of the state's annual budget.) California may face bankruptcy. Florida has a $5.5 billion deficit (about 20% of the state's budget.) Illinois has a $3.8 billion deficit, New York has a $6.4 billion deficit, Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, R.I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and other states -- all with large financial deficits. The solution? Many of the states say they will increase taxes and cut services. Cut state payroll and state benefits? No, that item falls beneath the option of increasing taxes to business and taxpayers. Of course, this financially impaired list includes Illinois and Delaware, the home states of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. It makes you wonder how Obama/Biden might solve our national deficit if they could not help to solve their own state financial deficits. Big Banks In Trouble - If the really big banks are in deep financial trouble, then just imagine the trouble of smaller regional banks! Bank of America says it needs more government bailout funds due to the enormous losses at Merrill Lynch (which BoA bought with help from our government.) How bad was Merrill Lynch? It would probably have sunk like Bears Stearns -- 100% loss to shareholders. Now the Merrill acquisition is hurting BoA worse than was once expected. Some experts have predicted BoA would likely split into separate financial pieces instead of one large bank. Citicorp will split into two pieces in order to salvage profitable sources of business. The resulting new Citicorp will be leaner and less of a jack-of-all-trades. Nevertheless, Citicorp will again report more losses than expected. How bad are smaller banks that also have non-performing mortgages and loan portfolios? Time will tell, but many smaller banks are not expected to survive another one or two years.
“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” |