Demonstration at President’s Appearances Tomorrow
Please join the FAU College Republicans (CRs) as they protest President Obama’s Economic speech at FAU tomorrow April 10.
The CRs will be meeting at lot 17 at 12:00 noon tomorrow before heading to the bracketing location.
Please bring a sign but remember to keep the content focused on policy issues and not personal attacks.
If you take the Glades Rd. exit off I-95, go east. Turn left into the first FAU entrance, lot 17 will be the first parking lot on your left.
If you live in North County, there is another opportunity:
Some of us will be extending that warm welcome first, at 11:30 am, at Frenchmen’s Reserve, Palm Beach Gardens.
He will be arriving at the airport at noon compliments of our tax payer dollar and be entertaining himself with $20,000 shrimp at 471 Savoie Drive in Frenchman’s Reserve.
Please join us at Hood Road and A-1-A at 11:30 to extend our sincerest wishes .
The Publix Center on Hood can be used for parking.
Federal Deficit and Budget Reforms – Free but RSVP req’d
Meet Senator Marco Rubio at the Opening of his regional office
Many folks in PBCTP haven’t had a chance to meet Senator Rubio – although we’ve probably been at events where he appeared via tv or telephone. Here’s an opportunity to meet him in person as he opens his new regional office.
JOIN SENATOR MARCO RUBIO FOR THE GRAND OPENING OF THE PALM BEACH REGIONAL OFFICE, APRIL 4
Join Senator Marco Rubio for the Grand Opening of the Palm Beach Regional Office—April 4, 2012
10:30am – 12:00pm
OFFICE OF U.S. SENATOR MARCO RUBIO
4580 PGA Blvd., Suite 201 (above Kilwin’s Ice Cream)
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
Greg Langowski
Regional Director, Southeast Region
Greg_Langowski@rubio.senate.gov
561-232-9380
Cities Propose New Taxing District
This Monday, at a joint meeting of the County Commission and the 15 cities that have brought the lawsuit over the Inspector General funding, a proposal surfaced to create a new taxing district. This is the wrong approach and will likely end up as a ballot question that could ask people to choose between higher taxes (with a new district) or continuing to fund the Inspector General – which 72% of the voters said they wanted.
Read the synopsis on the TAB Website.
US Senate Candidate Ron McNeil In Boca Chapter, April 3rd!
| DATE | Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 |
|---|---|
| TIME | Doors open 5:30pm. Buffet at 6pm. Meeting starts at 7pm, $15 per person (tax and gratuity included) |
| PLACE | Boca Greens Country Club 19642 Trophy Drive, Boca Raton, FL 33498 Click HERE for Map |
| RSVP | Call 561-302-1479 or click on the “RSVP” button below.
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The Boca Raton Chapter looks forward to it’s next monthly Dinner/Speaker Event on April 3rd. We are proud to present US Senate Candidate Ron McNeil, who was also at our Candidate Forum in Wellington this past November.
Ron’s biography:
Ron McNeil, a Florida businessman and a native of the Panhandle, has been a solution-oriented person all his life. His business career started in his home town at the age of 16, chopping firewood for the elderly and delivering a whole truckload for $4. From there, Ron has been granted over 97 patents in the United States and around the world solving problems, mainly in the environmental field, for cities and counties.
His products are in use all over the United States saving taxpayers millions of dollars by reducing the cost and upkeep of vital infrastructure. Ron believes that releasing free enterprise from over-taxation and over-regulation will enable American ingenuity to solve the mounting problems facing our nation.
Ron received the endorsement of President Ronald Reagan in his 1982 bid for Congress in Florida’s 2nd District. A terrible year for Republicans nationwide and a district that barely had 10% of voters being registered Republicans, Ron exploded capturing over 40% of the vote against the district’s long term incumbent. After the election, Ron was called to Washington and met in the White House with President Reagan and discussed the challenges facing America in those unsure economic times.
When not working on his business, Ron likes to spend time on his ranch, riding his horses, and enjoying every moment with his family.
Get involved in your village, town or city. And don’t forget to vote on Tuesday!
We’d publicized a panel on A Six Pillars Forum: Beyond the Local Vote. How do Municipal Elections Affect our Daily Lives?
The intent of the forum was to inform people about the importance of municipal elections – as typically in Palm Beach County, turnout is around 12% every year. A very few voters are determining what happens to you on a daily level. The goal was to both stimulate turnout, encourage attendees to get more involved via boards and to run for office. We also wanted to explore the inhibitors to participation. My personal goal is to see that all incumbents have an opponent. On the filing deadline of 2/14/12 – 44 people got ‘elected’ automatically because no one opposed them. Is that good? Is that why we get the government we deserve?
Many people worked hard to pull the meeting together in a short timeframe.
Our panelists – Steven Abrams – Vice-Chair and County Commissioner District 4, represented the view of one who has served as a city council member, mayor, and now County Commissioner; Michael Bornstein, Town Manager, Lantana, represented the view of those who run the municipalities; and Dennis Grady, President, Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches, represented the business communities. Our moderator was Craig Agranoff, author of “Socially Elected: How To Win Elections Using Social Media” and award-winning CBS News Television Technology Correspondent.
Nat Roberts, board chair of the Economic Council kicked off the meeting with a brief history of the Six Pillars effort. Craig took it from there. Each of the panelists answered several questions by Craig in depth and then we quickly moved to audience questions – with a fairly free form format that worked well. I did not take notes, however copied the gist of the topic take-aways from notes written by Beth Kigel, Mike Jones and Steven Abrams. Subjects discussed included:
1) County and municipal commission/council meetings tend to happen in the middle of the day. Makes it difficult for citizens/residents to attend. Time limits on speakers and lack of genuine dialogue/interaction at meetings dissuades the public.
2) How to utilize HOAs to get information out to the residents?
3) How to encourage folks to get to their own municipalities websites and get informed about local issues?
4) The discussion got side-tracked a little when an audience member asked how to make voting more convenient? The panel subject was municipal elections which don’t have early voting – but most of the changes the audience explored were things that would require changes by the Florida state legislature.
5) Times have changed. In the past (eg 10-20 years ago), multiple ‘beat’ reporters covered each town meeting. Now we’re lucky if anyone is covering a meeting – usually only if a controversial topic is on the agenda. So how do we leverage social media, public access channels, other means to educate the residents and get them involved?
6) There was a brief discussion on salaries for municipal elected officials, and was that an inhibitor to people running? For the most part city officials are part-time efforts but still take a lot of time. County Commissioners are a full or almost full-time job.
7) Term limits were discussed as well. Are people discouraged by the daunting advantage an incumbent has and would term limits help that? As is often the case when the subject comes up, there are pros and cons.
And don’t foget to vote on Tuesday! Check at the Supervisor of Elections website to see what’s on the ballot!
We hope to build on the effort to stimulate citizen participation as the year proceeds. Please get involved with our county and look for future Six Pillars activities. For more information on Six Pillars go to the Florida Chamber Six Pillars Overview. The Economic Council of Palm Beach County orchestrated the county’s effort and the strategic plan for Palm Beach County can be found here.
Meet the Wellington Council Candidates
Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom
All Americans who value freedom of religion must stand now as our first amendment rights are dictated away. If one church is attacked, no church, no faith is protected.
Freedom, once lost, is not easily regained. We may not see it again in our lives nor our children or grand children’s lives.
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
—Daniel Webster
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Speak out to your friends, support your church, vote for religious freedom.
On March 23 spend one hour outside your Congressman’s office or a federal building. Pray for our freedom of religion and the preservation of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. Details HERE
Stop the Trains!
This is from Sharon Calvert of the Tampa Tea Party. She and Tampa-912 leader Karen Jarosh were instrumental in the grassroots uprising that killed light rail in the Tampa area. Now Senator Jack Latvala is trying to end run the voter’s decision. Please click on the link and send a message to Tallahassee.
18 HOUR ALERT
LESS than 18 HOURS before critical BUDGET HEARING
Tallahassee INSIDERS are working to nullify the 2010 vote of Hillsborough County residents against Light Rail! As you read this, imagine the smoke-filled, back rooms of government from years ago, playing out again tonight in Tallahassee!
Senator Jack Latvala is working the back rooms of Tallahassee (before Tuesday’s all important BUDGET COMM. Vote), having inserted language into a BIG TRANSPORTATION bill to FORCE a merger between Pinellas (his) and Hillsborough County Transit Agencies. His aim is to FORCE these local communites, TWO SOVEREIGN COUNTIES, to pay a third Agency TAX PAYER MONIES . This agency TBARTA, has plans to re-introduce LIGHT RAIL despite the 2010 vote by HILLSBOROUGH residents against LIGHT RAIL by 60+%.
The TBARTA plan has not been vetted, it has not been put through a COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS!
It is an attempt for BIG GOVERNMENT INSIDERS to nullify the election results of 2010! But the PEOPLE have already spoken! Senator Latvala is trying to overturn the ELECTION with a back-door deal!
DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT! You have less than 24hrs to let them HEAR YOU
In the last year (since the people voted down Rail in 2010), the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) authority has given up its rail aspirations and has made steps to streamline costs and pare down inefficient routes to provide transportation to the transit-dependent. To survive in an era of dwindling property tax revenues, they have enacted reforms such as freezing wages, requiring employees make a contribution towards their health insurance premiums, and laying off redundant administrative staff. They have plans to raise fares so riders pay more of the costs that taxpayers are currently shouldering.
Contrast this with Pinellas’ transit agency PSTA. PSTA’s answer to shrinking tax revenues was to raise their property tax rate to a rate 50% higher than HART’s! They did not attempt to slash spending and live within their means. In January, PSTA also announced plans to build a lavish $1.7 billion light rail system that would require an ADDITIONAL $100+ million a year of taxpayer dollars to operate.
In order for PSTA to qualify for federal funds (more DEFICIT spending we cannot afford), they need to show phenomenal ridership numbers. This is a problem since demographers anticipate that Pinellas county’s trend of decreasing population will continue for the next 20 years! Therefore PSTA needs Hillsborough County’s robust 30% growth rate in their corner.
So, Senator Latvala and his partners in the efforts to OVERTURN the ELECTIONS of 2010 want to MERGE the two seperate County Agencies to beef up ridership numbers.
BUT….
…They have a problem however, because the HART board has rejected this idea with three resolutions. PSTA and HART already collaborate with seamless bus service across all three bay bridges and already realize quantity discounts on joint fuel and vehicle purchases.
SB 1866 pushed by Senator LATVALA requires HART and PSTA must meet to formulate the merger and bring the plan to the SENATE by February 2013!! Additionally, it requires HART to meet TBARTA goals within 7 years…including LIGHT RAIL…YES…the same LIGHT RAIL that HILLSBOROUGH residents already REJECT!
Senator Latvala is trying to OVERTURN the WILL of the PEOPLE! STOP Senate Bill 1866!!
PLEASE help the residents of CENTRAL FLORIDA stop SENATE BILL 1866….the next stop on this RAILROADING of the VOTER could by YOUR COMMUNITY!
Protect LOCAL CONTROL PROTECT your VOTE STOP SB1866!
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/libertytree/rcR4bPqr.aspx
