By D. L. Norris In the March 2020 archives of this blog, there is an article titled Okaloosa County’s Crab Island Vending…Liberal Attitudes and Conservative Magnitude which discusses the history of how illegal vending at Crab Island, a National Park, began and proliferated for decades. If you aren’t familiar with the history, you may want …
Continue reading “Okaloosa County’s Crab Island Vending and the Rule of Law”
By D. L. Norris A recurring theme woven throughout this blog is Okaloosa County’s inability to enforce its code (law). In the November 2019 and February 2020 archives, three separate articles directly address code enforcement failures. Their titles are respectively: Okaloosa County Plays a Real-life Game of Chicken; Okaloosa County’s Eroding Code Enforcement; and Okaloosa …
Continue reading “Doggonit…Okaloosa County Still Can’t, or Won’t, Enforce its Code”
By D. L. Norris From taxhistory.org, there are “four ways governments extract money from persons: 1.) taxes, including special assessments and franchise and privilege license taxes 2.) user fees 3.) civil regulatory penalties 4.) criminal penalties” Both taxes and fees were created by the government to raise revenue so why the need to separate the …
Continue reading “Okaloosa County, a Tax by Any Other Name (User Fee) is Still a Tax”
By D. L. Norris As a citizen of Okaloosa County, residing in the extreme southwest corner of the county, I conduct most of my life’s activities in Santa Rosa County (SRC) due to proximity. I shop in Navarre & Gulf Breeze and attend church & frequent the beaches in Navarre. While I have no power …
By D. L. Norris In a previous post on this blog titled Okaloosa County’s East Pass Soap Opera…Like Sand Through an Hour Glass, located in the November 2019 archives, the decade-long trials and tribulations of Okaloosa County’s attempts at beach re-nourishment were revealed as a secondary issue to dredging the East Pass. The Condo Alliance …
By D. L. Norris Ah…bureaucracy, can’t live with it and can’t live without it. Be they public or private, bureaucracies are a necessary part of civilized government. According to T. R. Fehrenbach, “conservatives accept government and/or regimentation in the cause of law and order, and in fact, without organization people would not get anything done …
By D. L. Norris At the November 17th, 2020 Board of County Commissioner’s (BOCC) meeting, Veteran’s Park was on the agenda again. Last year the BOCC voted to move forward with significant improvements to Veteran’s Park. At that time, the estimated cost of the entire park was in excess of $10 million dollars. Three funding …
Continue reading “Okaloosa County Taxpayers…is $700,000 Dollars a lot of Money to You?”
By D. L. Norris On August 18, 2020, Okaloosa County held a primary. The county has 142,666 registered voters but only 43,169 ballots were cast, resulting in a very low, 30.26%, voter turnout. In the Board of County Commissioner (BOCC) race, eight candidates were vying for the various seats. All with varying levels of campaign …
By D. L. Norris Crab Island got its start in the 1960’s, formed from sediment deposition as a result of dredging the East Pass. Although it actually looked like a crab, it’s original name to the locals of Destin was Bird Island for the numerous birds that flocked to it to roost. In 1974, Hurricane …
By D. L. Norris According to the Florida League of Cities, “in Florida, Home Rule language was proposed in the 1968 Constitutional revision, and was adopted by the people. After several legal challenges, the Legislature adopted the Home Rule Powers Act in 1973, which ended challenges to city and county powers. The Florida Constitution states …
