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Town Hall Meeting - STRAW POLL

Palm Harbor Community & Recreation Center

Wednesday - July 14, 2010 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM

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Current Events

What are the most important issues facing

Unincorporated Palm Harbor?

Wednesday - July 14, 2010 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM

Palm Harbor Voters United is hosting a Town Hall Meeting to conduct a straw poll on the important issues facing Palm Harbor and other unincorporated communities. The Straw Poll Vote will be held at the Palm Harbor Community Center (1500 16th Street - Palm Harbor, FL 34683) on Wednesday - July 14, 2010 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM.

Link to Sample Ballot

Palm Harbor Voters United plans to develop a list of the most important issues facing the unincorporated communities of Palm Harbor, Ozona and Crystal Beach. Palm Harbor Voters United will then present these issues to candidates running for elected office. When the candidates respond, their position will be made available so that voters may make informed decisions at the voting booth during the Primary Election on August 24, 2010 and for the General Election November 2, 2010.

You can visit our web-site to view a Sample Ballot on the Issues. If you would like to submit additional issues facing Palm Harbor and other unincorporated communities, this may be done prior to the upcoming straw vote. You may also request an Email Straw Poll Voter Form & Sample Ballot. Please send any important issues, requests or questions to info@palmharborvoters.com

You may also go to our new blog at the following URL:

palmharborvoters.com/PHV_Blog/category/palm-harbor-issues/

Link to Palm Harbor Voters United—Blog

Note: All 4 Straw Poll Voters from Ozona voted Yes on item # 6

Introduction to Candidates Presentations

Click Above Link or Candidates Picture to view videos

Press Release:

Palm Harbor Voters United will be hosting a town hall meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Friday September 17th (Constitution & Citizenship Day) at the Palm Harbor Community Center, 1500 16th St. We are a non-partisan citizens group that is sponsoring a Meet & Greet the Candidates that Palm Harbor voters will have the opportunity to elect on November 2, 2010.

Candidates for US Congress FL District 9 & 10, Florida State House District 48, Pinellas County Commission District 2 (at Large) and Pinellas County Commission District 4 are being invited to the event.

This event will not be your typical questions forum format. It will be a more casual meet and greet the candidates between 6:00 and 7:15 with a Podium/Microphone presentation being provided by each of the candidates starting around 7:15. Tables will be provided for each candidate for campaign literature and signage.

Refreshments will be provided and information on State, County and Local Community infrastructure projects for the period 2010 - 2015 in Palm Harbor will be available during the event. For more information, visit www.palmharborvoters.com

Infrastructure projects are the best economic stimulus

Summary Analysis

Palm Harbor Citizens Group considers filing Class Action Suit against Pinellas County

Palm Harbor Voters United is in the process of contacting Attorneys to file a class action suit against Pinellas County and the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on behalf of the citizens living in the unincorporated area of Pinellas County. We are the citizens living in the unincorporated area of Pinellas County. If our tax money is being diverted away from the Unincorporated Area Budget, we have the right to challenge it.

Unincorporated area citizens and the communities in which they live, generally have few legal rights or protections. Because unincorporated communities do not have locally elected governments, the county serves as the default local government and receives revenues on behalf of the unincorporated area. Counties as an extension of the State, utilize the power of Parens Patriae to act as the default local government for its citizens living in the unincorporated area. Parens Patriae is a doctrine that’s empowers the government/state to be the guardian to the ones who are unable to protect themselves or look after themselves legally.

When Pinellas County imposed full cost allocation on the unincorporated area they had a fiduciary responsibility to give them full revenue allocation. The Pinellas BOCC, acting in its capacity as the default local government, has diverted over $100,000,000 in Local Government Half-Cent Sales Tax Revenues away from the Unincorporated Area Budget since imposing full cost allocation in 2002.

Even though Florida's Constitution provides that all natural persons are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, the unincorporated area citizens of Pinellas are not being treated equally. The county is ignoring its fiduciary responsibility as our default local government and is putting its own best interest before that of its unincorporated area population which is being treated as second class citizens.

The neighboring counties of Hillsborough and Pasco counties both allocate 100% of the population based revenues received on behalf of their unincorporated areas to their Unincorporated Area Budgets. Only Pinellas diverts most of these revenues to its Countywide Budget. For some reason, if you live in unincorporated Pinellas, you only deserve to have a small fraction of these revenues derived on behalf of the unincorporated area, actually allocated to the Unincorporated Area Budget.

The Pinellas Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) discriminates against this group of people living in unincorporated Pinellas. The Pinellas BOCC is denying them the equal right to have their population based tax revenues returned to them and the unincorporated communities in which they live.

Population based revenues like the Local Government Half-Cent Sales Tax Program and the Penny-for-Pinellas Infrastructure Sales Surtax add up to a huge amount of money. The accumulated effect of having such a large amount of one of the major revenue sources diverted from the Unincorporated Area Budget is having a detrimental impact on basic public safety and quality of life in the unincorporated area.

Saint Petersblog — 9/28/2010 East Lake Blister — 9/25/2010