'One for All' takes a final lap

Happy Wednesday! We’re going a little light today.

The big decision from Tuesday’s County Commission meeting wasn’t a vote at all. By consensus, the sales tax referendum this year is a goner.

 “One for All” flamed out as a sales tax plan, but it is still a strong community theme. (Here's my Florida Politics story.)

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I’m not going to dissect the last five months. I’ll say this. It’s not wasted effort, none of it. OK, so we spun our wheels and didn’t get any traction. This time. As Commissioner Holly Davis said, it’s good data that won’t evaporate in two years.

We did a lot of things well and a lot of things not so well. There still doesn’t seem to be a connection between the county government and its citizens on big-picture priorities that a sales tax could support.

The cool thing is we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way. We’ve stumbled through a process that won’t be so foreign next time around.

And I believe there will be a next time.

By the way, lots of people with the Chamber of Commerce, led by Don Taylor, really worked hard on this thing. There was a steering committee of citizens who held public meetings and sought input. The effort had momentum until late October, when it fell apart after commissioners decided to expand the reach and seek more citizen input.

I just want to say thank you to everyone involved. Thanks to Don, Trish Thomas, Linda Van Allen, and all the other community leaders who showed up for us. County people, too. It wasn’t an easy task. Many citizens assumed organizers were pro-sales tax when all they wanted was to gather opinions.

I spent a lot of time writing about One for All the last two years. I realize it wasn’t everyone’s favorite Cattle Dog chat. The referendum idea was an uphill battle all the way and didn’t even make it to a public hearing. The County Commission never issued a formal vote.

Not sure what we learned from all that, other than the community isn’t gelled enough yet for such a momentous task.

One for all? Not this year.

That’s OK. We’re cool.

— While today’s photo is of my regular board view, I watched the meeting from home. It’s a Deb thing. Some days, and Tuesday was one of them, I barely function. It stinks. and I don’t even like talking about it.

The worst is when I really just want to hear her soothing voice. Something came up Tuesday morning that really threw me for a loop. One of those internal debates that takes me into a deep funk. 

Deb was my sounding board for stuff like this. She’d hear me out, gently tell me I’m wrong, and help me back on my feet again. Even five months after Oct. 24, I have moments of total emptiness. The moments can last a few seconds, minutes — or a good chunk of the day. Thankfully, that’s rare.

And so, we're a little light today. Lots of other issues from Tuesday’s meeting that I’ll get into soon. 

Isn’t our spring weather the best? Enjoy this awesome Wednesday, friends.

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