Fiscal Responsibility - Finally!

  Two City Commissioners - Pelican and Corbett - have consistently been against the keeping and expenditure of the borrowed $1.8 million that was tied to Forward Fernandina and the optional projects that are the hangover of the Czymbor era.  The "cheap" money, as Bunch, Filkoff and the Great Hoohaa Poynter referred to it, is now showing its true colors.

  A significant increase in the electrical franchise fees was necessary in the coming year to carry the debt load associated with the loan they secured.  There is little or no money left in the depleted special taxing district called downtown.  No monies yet from the gas line that FPU is in the process of completing to contribute to meeting the debt load.  And now because the Great Hoohaa is facing an election challenge, he has abandoned the program that he not only embraced but excitedly expounded by voting against the increased franchise fees.

  The Great Hoohaa has been a force behind the unbalanced budget for the last three years when our reserves were spent to fund his, and Czymbor's, favorite projects.  All of a sudden, when someone who is a true fiscal conservative steps forward to challenge him, he doesn't like a budget that raises taxes and requires more from each electrical user to pay for his special projects.  He just isn't a pay as you go type of guy!  Of course there are those out there that are in lockstep with him that point to this as his desire to do the right thing.  Balderdash!  He's trying to save his commission seat in the face of the realities he created.

  Now the City is in a quandary over what to do!  Poor Mayor Filkoff.  She doesn't understand the problems she has been part and parcel of and was in a "twiddle her thumbs" mode following the still sensible positions of Pelican and Corbett.  What is one to do?

  It is very simple, fiscally sound and would change the course of city government over the next twelve months.  Give the unspent balance back to the bank and pay for what we have used so far.  Not rocket science by any means but a straight forward way to run our government in a manner that is financially responsible.

  The buffoons that write for the Fernandina Observer try and paint this as a flip flop on the parts of Pelican and Corbett but they are so encumbered by their special interest agenda they are engaging in the Orwellian double speak they have become known for using.  The Great Hoohaa had the first vote regarding raising franchise fees to pay for his pet projects and he voted a resounding NO!  The die had been cast and he was upside down with all of his old cronies because Pelican and Corbett held true to their own souls and voted against funding the debt they believe is unnecessary.  Thank God for common sense!

  The budget issues will continue to face the City Commission until he either retracts his vote and steps forward to keep spending money like the drunken sailor contingency Czymbor brought to our little hamlet or the borrowed money is returned to the bank.  Let's hope it is the latter!