Category Archives: Belief in Capitalism

Jensen Mooring Field: Will It Be Folly Or Resource?

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Will it be another Martin County folly or a valuable resource? That is the question I have with the viability of the Jensen Beach Mooring Field.

 

I am not yet ready to pronounce it as an intrusion into the private sector that will go down as another example of commission hubris. There could be a need for the service and a public that is willing to pay for it. But I have my doubts.

 

We should not forget that the first dock built needed to be torn out because the engineers failed to consider currents and wave action. We should also bear in mind that there is no law that requires boaters to be tied to a mooring ball instead of just dropping anchor anywhere outside of a navigation channel.

I am quite familiar with mooring fields because the Stuart Anchorage is located off my dock. Those that choose to use a ball are responsible boaters. Their vessels are pumped out so that their sewage doesn’t hit the water. Those boaters are out of the navigation channels. They are good neighbors.

 

Then occasionally, there will be what I call a boat bum who just drops anchor. The last boat bum simply dropped anchor at the end of my dock and was there for about three years. His sailboat had no workable engine and I never saw the sail unfurled. Yet he had a registration sticker which was all he needed to have. That is when I learned that a mere citizen cannot report someone dumping waste. It must be law enforcement that sees the violation being committed.

The owner of the boat was in the hospital and/or jail for a prolonged period. The registration expired. Law enforcement was able to then declare that the boat was abandoned and remove it. That may have been one of the ten best days of my life when that occurred.

 

My point is that a mooring field is not going to stop illegal dumping or prevent anchors from destroying sea grasses. It is not going to stop some inexperienced owner from anchoring his boat improperly before a hurricane and the vessel winding up destroying a dock when it comes lose.

 

What the Jensen Beach Mooring Field may do is provide a cheaper alternative to boaters who do not want to pay a private marina. Stuart’s Anchorage works because it is close to downtown. You can catch the tram once you dock your dinghy at the Marina. There is a Publix within walking distance. While you can walk to downtown Jensen Beach, it doesn’t have the same allure.

 

I am willing to give it the season to see whether it was the right thing to do or another waste of taxpayer money. Even if it is arguably the right thing to do to prevent dumping, preserving sea grass beds, and shorelines from being ravaged, will it? Boaters must stop throwing anchors down for free and begin paying to have their vessels safely moored. Without enforcement capabilities, I think we know the answer already.

 

What Happened to DeSantis

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When DeSantis was first elected governor, I thought that Florida had a conservative small government Republican in Tallahassee.

He said that he believed in local governments handling most issues in their jurisdictions. He claimed to be someone that did not believe in interfering in the private sector. DeSantis wanted to have parental control of education. Only the last sentence is still operational. What happened?

 

DeSantis decided to run for president. He went from being a principled conservative to a toady populist pandering for votes among the Trumpets. A true consistent conservative philosophy was sacrificed to the roar of the crowd.

 

At one point, being a populist meant being like Huey Long. Long was a governor and senator from Louisiana in the 1930s. He promised social and infrastructure programs to his base of poor white farmers and country folk. Unlike today’s supposed men of the people, he grew up in very reduced circumstances. Long attended a bible college without graduating. He went to Tulane Law School for one year and eventually ended up passing the bar. In 1935, he was assassinated by a member of the establishment who loathed his populism

 

The populists of today are mostly the product of upper middle-class families. They are graduates of some of the most elite universities in the country. DeSantis went to Yale and Harvard. His roots are far from the coal mines, hard scrabble farms, and inner cities of men and women who did pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The ‘Populist-in Chief,” former President Trump, had a maid, cook, and chauffer to tend to his needs as a child. And his father Fred was worth hundreds of millions of dollars when he died.  Trump senior bequeathed a large portion of that wealth to his son.  Donald graduated from Ivy League Penn…as he will quickly tell you.

 

My biggest disappointment in DeSantis currently is his anti-market and pro-interference stance for business in Florida. He has repeatedly threatened businesses telling them that they cannot mandate vaccines for their employees and masks for their customers. This is the antithesis of allowing the markets to decide.

 

Let me be up front. I think that there should be a vaccine mandate for all. However, I also recognize that the governor and legislature have the final say. I may disagree on the policy but not the state’s ultimate authority on this issue. What I do not think is appropriate is the governor dictating to private businesses what they can require of employees and customers.

 

It becomes a slippery slope when government begins “warning” citizens and businesses about what is appropriate. If companies or individuals want to stop supporting others for their stands on issues, then that is their right. They shouldn’t feel as if Governor DeSantis is the final arbiter.

 

This newfound populism in the governor’s message can quickly become tin pot dictatorship territory. If DeSantis wants to run for president, he need not copy anyone. His message of principled conservatism will do well in the primaries. For I vote, too, and I have not missed voting except twice for any office in over 50 years. There are plenty of people like me.

We Need To Think Realistically About Martin County’s Future

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There is no doubt that I am in support of good infill projects in Stuart and Martin County’s CRAs. That does not mean I endorse those projects that are poorly planned or disregard the codes and comp plan.

 

Martin County is on the cusp of deciding whether it will embrace sprawl or embark on a different course. The county can either continue the westward creep of more suburban mid-level 1960s-type single family home development or capitalize on our natural beauty. The Discovery/Becker Farms joint venture off Bridge Road is a unique opportunity to do just that.

Silo Ridge in New York’s Hudson Valley has been popular with celebrities like Tom Brady

The project is a very wealthy man’s dream. It will be a place where the home buyer will spend millions to build a 3rd or 4th home for his collection. There will be no additional need for law enforcement or schools. The most that county services will have to do will be an occasional ambulance call. The real estate tax impact is estimated at $25 million with very few homes having a homestead exemption. Within the next decade, the alternative would be thousands of homes being built there instead of a few hundred.

 

The BOCC will also have the opportunity to approve the many high-end private golf courses coming our way. They will have no homes built, but there will probably be a few guest cottages and a club house at each. People will come from all over the world to become members and play on these courses. The impact to our environment will be minimal.

 

The private courses will also add millions to our tax rolls. Not to mention Discovery owners and golfers eating in our restaurants, buying goods from our merchants, and employing hundreds of residents. Or we can build thousands of homes and become what we have tried to avoid.

 

Many very naïve people believe that the BOCC or Stuart Commission can just say no. They cannot. There are such things as property rights. The current lawsuit that Harmony has against the county is all about property rights. That is in addition to the millions spent in previous lawsuits and settlements because of the disregard of individual rights.

 

What government can do is help shape what will be built. Development codes need to reflect that vision.

 

For those that want to see more housing, then it should be done in the city and CRAs. In these areas, there are quite a few underutilized properties. Just look at the Federal Highway corridor. Single story centers with empty stores and acres of empty parking lots. Adaptive re-use would give us mixed use developments with buildings set closer to the streets and parking in the rear or in some cases in parking garages.

 

It is time we stop the silly illusions some have that those empty parcels within the city and county Urban Service Boundary are going to remain vacant. People are going to come here to live and work from other parts of Florida and the country. We all need to recognize this and stop the propaganda that persists regarding some governmental power to prevent development.

Photo From Conservation Fund

What we can do is shape it so that large swaths of Martin continue to be used in agriculture and ranching. At the same time, the county can get behind projects like the Loxa-Lucie, IRL South, and Pal Mar to save wetlands and provide a natural flow way.  We can adopt realistic goals or have more failed opposition to the idea that an owner can be prevented from exercising his/her property rights.

Stuart Taxpayers Continue to Subsidize A Private Entity

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I study the county’s budgets along with the school board and the different municipalities as well. This article will look at Stuart and its relationship with the non-profit, Stuart Main Street.

 

According to its website, “Stuart Main Street uses the Main Street Four Point Approach to create and promote a positive downtown experience for residents, businesses, and visitors.” It would seem to us to be a good goal to achieve. That goal is in line with what a chamber of commerce should do. Should Stuart be subsidizing with taxpayer dollars a private organization to fulfill that goal?

 

Its website outlines past glory stretching back to 1986 when the city’s downtown was a ghost town. Some of their more recent achievements listed are the 2009 involvement in upgrades along Colorado Avenue and participating in the discussion regarding whether city hall should move from its current location in 2014. The latest press release included on the site is a year old with the notice that they hired a new executive director.

 

For many years, the organization was under the auspices of the city and the executive director was a city employee. The administrative part was also performed by the city. To be recognized as a “Main Street” by the Main Street umbrella organization there must be an independent board and the local program must have a full-time director.

 

When the city-paid executive director left her city position, a new deal was struck with the organization to allow them to lease Flagler Center which would soon be empty on very favorable terms. They then could have events and sublease space for an income stream.

Flagler Place

Until Flagler Center could get on its feet and provide rental income, the city would subsidize the organization with a grant of $70,000 for the first year and decreasing over the next two years until it was to be extinguished at that point. The agreement is now entering its third year, and the organization is still receiving the full $70,000.

 

In the interim, the contract with the Sunday Greenmarket operator was terminated by the city and an agreement was struck with Main Street to manage that at less than what the last operator paid.

 

The question to be asked is whether the taxpayers are receiving a benefit of this largess to a private entity? It seems that the main occupation of this organization in the last several years is putting on events in conjunction with the Downtown Business Association. Their signature event is the weekly Rock’n Riverwalk Sunday afternoon music series held on Stuart’s stage.

 

They also have several craft fairs per year and events like Hob Goblins on Main Street and a Christmas event of some sort. The events, except Rock’n, are run by a marketing company and not Stuart Main Street who simply acts as a middleman.

 

Just like a person, an organization has a life span. Thirty-five years ago, Stuart’s downtown was a literal ghost town. The businesses had been hollowed out by changing shopping patterns. The growth of the county’s population needed more than just one block of stores where people could shop. That was accomplished. However, that left downtown Stuart with many empty store fronts.

 

The Main Street Organization was instrumental in bringing back a new downtown consisting of restaurants and one-of-a-kind stores. This is in sharp contrast to what had been there before consisting of more mundane businesses such as a drug store and department store. Downtown today is a destination spot for tourist to enjoy an old-time vibe and for locals to have places to eat.

 

Today’s vibrancy requires different approaches than what worked in the past. Success should be celebrated. That does not mean that the city should continue feeding an entity that at this point should be standing on its own. It is no longer the sole voice but one of many interest groups.

 

Stuart’s CRA is undergrounding utility lines on Seminole Street. While Stuart Main Street was a proponent of outdoor dining, it was only one of many voices calling for it. The success of the initiative is mainly the result of the efforts of the restaurants themselves not one outside organization.

 

In my opinion, it is time for the city to stop subsidizing this organization with money and favored lease deals. If the city wants to continue with any program that is currently under the auspices of Stuart Main Street, it can do so without paying a middleman but just hiring the event company itself. Originally Stuart was the producer of the Sunday concert series.

 

The CRA budget has grown considerably over the past several years. Some of the programs that it funds are stuck in an earlier time. Those funds should be used on brick-and-mortar projects such as it did with buying and then bringing the infrastructure in for Azul, the successful multi-family property on city-owned land.

 

Unfortunately, just like the county, Stuart too often plays politics using tax dollars for their favored organizations. Stuart does so…only on a much smaller scale. The Stuart City Commission needs to debate the question in the open and come up with a way to have Main Street become a truly independent organization.

 

If a Stuart taxpayer heard that the Stuart Chamber of Commerce was receiving a subsidy from the city for promoting the businesses of chamber members, the taxpayers would be outraged. Is there a difference here?

 

The Hypocrisy of the NIMBY Crowd

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In big cities and small towns, some American liberals have a problem living up to their own standards. They preach the gospel of helping the poor and working classes, but every time it requires any change to their own surroundings, they become adamant foes.

 

The most prevalent cause of this is keeping restricted zoning laws throughout the United States. They gussy up their opposition claiming it is environmental degradation to allow more rental housing units to be built next to their upper middle-class neighborhoods. Another favorite ploy is claiming that the character of those neighborhood may be changed. Meaning that people of a lower socio-economic class may move next door.

This recently came to the forefront in Stuart when the opposition to a real estate project which included both apartments and a Costco store brought out this crowd. They are superb NIMBY adherents. Speakers used the environment (there are no natural wetlands on this old farm site), traffic (it is on a six-lane roadway), its location next to a high school as if speeding shoppers are going to mow down our youth, and the perplexing, “we don’t want any more people to live here.”

 

This behavior is nothing new by those claiming to want to help people but only in the abstract. Their adherence to the secular faith of helping the poor underclasses is their modus operandi except when they may be called upon to have those people in their presence.

 

Homes and jobs are important for everyone even those without a college degree and the ability to make a house down payment. They will never have either if we do not allow the market to function. I would understand and even agree if they had plopped this development down within an existing single family home neighborhood. This is not the case.

 

One of the chief opponents to the project had one of her experts claim the area was rural in character (that is far from the truth) and another claim that traffic would be horrendous because over 12,000 people lived within a square mile of the project. The current 6 lane highway is not even at a third of capacity according to engineering studies.

 

Restricted and outdated zoning has worsened the housing shortage in this country. Upper class Republicans and Democrats both use restrictive laws to keep their areas free of others not in their economic niche. For some reason, those that bemoan the fate of the working class get up my dander the most when it comes to this behavior.

 

There is a place for zoning, but it should not exist to perpetually leave people behind. The best way to help is by encouraging job creation and adequate housing which only the private sector can do sufficiently and efficiently. I am certainly in favor of job training, housing assistance, and food assistance being government provided. But I will criticize those that speak about lofty goals then actively subvert the market from providing just that.

 

Creating Housing Is Not Brain Surgery

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We hear much about affordable/work force/attainable housing. Unless there is a continuous government subsidy of those rents, this is a dream that is going nowhere.

 

I often see that commissioners, especially in Stuart, ask that some sort of set aside be done for these type units when approving new projects. While I am not against the attempt it is almost always futile even when the developer agrees. There will just never be enough of whatever you would like to call this type of submarket housing without the hand of the federal government.

 

Washington has stayed away from any new form of subsidized housing for a long time. Decades ago, it stopped building entire projects. Those that previously did come along ended up as slums worse than any tenement that it was to replace. The grand era of government-built housing projects that were prevalent in the 1930s through 1970s will probably never be repeated.

 

For awhile the feds, administered at times by the state, had a voucher system so that this segment of the population could be serviced by the private sector. This too fell out of favor by both cutbacks at the federal and state levels and private owners that felt there were too many rules to follow before you had the money. As a private owner, I use to dread the words “Do you take Section 8?”

 

In Martin County there is a way to have much more affordable/work force/attainable housing. It is by allowing the market to operate without so many restrictions. The more housing that is built, the easier it will be to meet the demand. As new housing comes online, the less desirable existing units become cheaper in price.

                       Courtesy of Pinterest

Martin County needs several thousand additional units. These units need to be in multi-family buildings. The building of single-family homes will not drop the level of asking rents which would alleviate the shortages. Within our cities and in the county CRAs there needs to be greater density so that enough units can be built. If a developer can put 30 or more units per acre, then the price of each unit to build is lessened.

 

In new projects that doesn’t mean the rent will be lower for those units. The sheer increase in units being offered will drive down the prices at older developments. We have all heard of the supply and demand axiom. It is true.

 

What would really provide here and the rest of the U.S. even more units at more affordable prices would be a true voucher system. In the old Section 8 program, an owner could be required to have his property inspected by the government before the voucher was issued. It became a bureaucratic morass.

 

In a true voucher system, the tenant would apply for vouchers based on income. If accepted, then the voucher payment would go to the property owner each month for the duration of the lease. There would be no required inspections except those that would be performed and monitored by local code enforcement. Any sub-standard conditions would be addressed the same as if the tenant were paying the entire amount of rent without assistance.

 

Collusion or fraud by owner or tenant would be handled like any other theft of services. Audits could be performed to make sure that housing accommodations were being rented to the recipient of the voucher. There need not be an overabundance of red tape.

 

The main thing we must all remember is that the housing shortage for everyone can only be made better with more availability of units. We need to stop protesting every time something is being built. If anything, we should be encouraging more building especially of multi-family construction.

 

 

The Martin County Absurd Difference

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It seems to me that sometimes Martin County cannot recognize absurd situations. The moving of the fair to its new home in Indiantown is one of those absurdities.

 

For years, we have heard how the Martin County Fair Association cannot raise the required funds to make the move. It isn’t for lack of trying but, according to Fair Manager Jay Spicer, they are competing with puppies and babies for funders. Mr. Spicer might be totally inept as a fund raiser, or perhaps it is the mission he is purporting that is absurd.

I know I would rather give my money to help kids and animals than build some giant “Agri-Plex” with an archery center, motorcross track, farmer’s market, and an assortment of other wow projects. Our local government is not immune to this disease of absurdity and often helps it along.

 

The BOCC cannot just build a community pool…instead it needs the razzle dazzle of a waterpark. It cannot operate a golf course but instead needs to create one that will bring golf to the next level with a Top Golf experience, night golf (for those that are not golfers) and the ability to simulate playing at Pebble Beach.

 

The new Sand Beach Cafe at Stuart Beach operated by the county cannot find a manager because of the pay scale. The Jensen Beach mooring field is off to a slow start based on the demand for ball rentals. I am surprised the county hasn’t decided to build a convention center yet.

 

Given all of this, why hasn’t the county stepped in and taken over the fair after years of non-accomplishment? Perhaps staff knows that if they propose just a simple fairground without all the bells and whistles, the commissioners will not be able to help themselves but to embrace the current absurd plan costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

 

That really is the crux of the matter…what should government do and what should the private sector (including non-profits) be involved in? It should be obvious for anyone that thinks about it for a moment. In absurd Martin County, there is no policy or philosophy which separates the two.

 

The reason that the private sector does not embrace the water park is because it is destined to be a money loser. The same goes for Top Golf and all the rest of the Martin County BOCC schemes to appropriate tax dollars for projects that should not be built in our small market.

 

Then, you have a non-profit, the Fair Association, that cannot raise money even for constructing a simple structure to house a two-week fair because there aren’t enough people that care whether there is a fair or not. They surely do not want to give money to a board that appears to be overreaching outside of their mission.

 

That is another one of Martin County’s absurd rationales. There are no boundaries between what the government, nonprofits, and private business should do. So, taxpayer dollars will continue to be spent on non-governmental functions from running restaurants to waterparks.

 

The Indiantown Chamber of Commerce successfully puts on the Indiantown Rodeo each year. It has a definitive mission and the chamber sticks to that mission. It isn’t a place to take horseback riding lessons throughout the year. Perhaps the Fair Association and the county government should take that  lesson. They probably will not.

 

And I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t hear again that the move has been postponed to at least 2023 because of funding issues at the time of the 2022.

 

 

 

 

I Love Wawa…And Costco!

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I love Wawa. I love Costco.

 

Wawa treats their customers very well. I go there for gas and because of the free air for provided. I make it a point to buy all my gas at Wawa whether I need air or not because of that service.

 

Costco is the best warehouse club hands down. When I lived up north, I would shop there all the time. No supermarket beats the quality of their meat.

 

But, if I had to choose which of the two businesses I would rather have located here, it would be Costco.

 

Some of Palm City’s vocal residents by their continuous and contentious opposition to Costco has now resulted in Wawa with its 6000 square foot convenience store and 12 pumps locating on the site. Additionally, there will be a Tractor Farm Supply store and a 16,400 square foot Aldi supermarket going there. As a bonus, there may be a hotel and car wash too.

 

This is what has been approved where Costco considered building a store.  Many area residents came out and defeated the store going there. I wonder if they now will be much happier with this amalgam of businesses over that nuisance known as Costco.

 

Because if there is anything we hate in Martin County, it is change. And people think that these infill projects will never be developed. “Landowners should keep the property vacant,” we hear over and over as if the owner has no right to derive economic benefit from his asset.

 

In this instance, those complaining were the people now living in the developments that were once on empty scrub land. They moved into houses built on lands that were smack in the middle of the woods and pastures of Palm City. Their schools and churches were on bulldozed sites that were home to native animals, birds and plants that were forced to go elsewhere.

 

At the LPA meeting, there was only one gentleman who spoke in opposition according to an article in TC Palm. The board approved Wawa and the rest of the development on a 5-0 vote. According to Bob Raynes, the developer’s attorney, the use is as of right. But then so was Costco.

 

The difference was hundreds of people fought Costco and no one did this time. Did they just get tired, which ultimately happens, or were they manipulated by foes of the earlier project, which also occurs. Is Martin County better by having another Wawa and Aldi than Costco with its upscale merchandise and minimum $20 per hour jobs? I guess Palm City thinks so.

 

Costco is supposedly coming to Stuart. It will be sited close to the foot of the Memorial Bridge on Kanner Highway. The site provides easy access to the Palm City customer base which is their demographic. Many have voiced the same old concerns regarding traffic, etc. that they raised for the High Meadow Road project. The mob may sway enough Stuart commissioners to vote against the project. Politicians have the backbone of jelly fish.

 

Mark my words that if Costco does not go on that site something else will eventually. It is an infill project that will be built upon. Somebody will live in an apartment on that site. Someone will work in a store or other business on that site. The naysayers will not permanently stop the owners of the property from maximizing their investment.

 

I just hope they do not accomplish for Stuart what they did for Palm City. At least Palm City isn’t getting a giant adult bookstore or truck stop according to current plans. However, when it is built, Phase 2 may have something different than that hotel. Both the bookstore and truck stop also are zoned as of right for the property.

Florida scrub habitat in early springtime at Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Wales.

A Crisis Can Have A Benefit

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Covid may be a change agent in a wide variety of arenas in addition to being a deadly virus.

 

For years, the taxing of internet sales has gone nowhere. Bills would be introduced only to die in committee.

 

Some Republican legislators took the position that taxing products that were bought on the internet would be tantamount to a tax increase. It was fine to pay tax if you bought the item from a local retailer, but if it was shipped from Way Fair, collecting sales tax was verboten. The law stated that the buyer was obligated to remit the sales tax to the state, but how many of us ever did that?

 

Along comes Covid and in store sales dropped resulting in less tax revenue for the state. Now Tallahassee is looking to make up some lost money. Florida may finally join the majority of other states and begin having online merchants collect sales tax. It is about time that internet sales are on a level playing field with the brick-and-mortar merchant.

 

Another part of the Covid crisis is school enrollment. In Martin County, we are fortunate that there are only about 20 students who are unaccounted for since Covid hit. But that does not mean that district enrollment is down by only that many students. It is significantly more. Statewide there are 87,000 kids unaccounted for. Poof…they are gone!

 

School districts receive a fixed amount of money for each student registered in the district. If kids are no longer enrolled in your school district, then the amount of money the district has available to spend is less. If you lose approximately 600 students to Florida Virtual, home schooling, or private schools, suddenly some teachers are no longer needed. Special programs are cut. Music and art become casualties along with other so-called extras.

 

The state will pretend that those 87,000 kids are still there this year for funding allocations but that is a one-shot deal. Our educational system may be in for a shake-up going forward. There is a broad Republican consensus in Tallahassee that other ways to educate children should be tried. Vouchers are leading the way for choice in education.

 

Another never changing issue just might change. Employer and business liability for actions has been broadened over the years. In many instances, businesses did ignore worker safety and the public good. An entire industry of tort litigation has grown larger and larger with each passing year.

 

Of course, that allows for businesses and professions to be held responsible for their actions. It also makes everything more expensive. From doctors to real estate agents to drug manufacturers and everyone else, there is always now a presumption by them that you can be sued so act defensively.

 

The latest fear are businesses being sued by customers and employees if they contract Covid. How you would ever prove where someone caught it would be

difficult. But an absence of proof never stopped someone from initiating a lawsuit. And defending a lawsuit is expensive…even frivolous ones.

 

The legislature has bills in both the House and Senate erecting barriers to allowing individuals to claim that they contracted Covid at a particular business or non-profit. Maybe this is the beginning of tort reform. I certainly hope so. Most people believe that the “sue for anything and everything” legal bar needs to be reformed.

 

A crisis such as Covid can be useful in reforming things that would never change without prodding. I hope that reform is perceived as making our lives better. It should be something that allows for society to change and improve. I hope we see more of it and not just protectionism and cronyism masquerading as true reform.

 

 

Each Should Stop Grasping

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For years, I have championed home rule for local government.

 

It is important that as many decisions as possible be made as close to those that will be affected by their consequences. That is an essential reason to have municipalities. For example, zoning decisions regarding where businesses can be located should be determined within the locality. Municipal and county public works departments should oversee when streets are paved and how many parks are needed.

 

Is there an example of when local control contributes to a worse outcome than a better one? When does passing ordinances against something make government look silly and petty or, in our “don’t tread on me” society, seem hypocritical?

 

Anytime government restricts an activity it needs to do so with most of its citizens wanting the restriction. Passing a law to make a political point without regard to the practicality of either enforcement or consequences is the height of legislative irresponsibility. Yet doing exactly that is something that occurs quite regularly.

 

What brought this thought of local overreach to mind occurred at the last Stuart commission meeting. There was a second reading of a proposed ordinance on raising the age of purchasing vaping products to 21. This would match a county ordinance which did that earlier. The current state law is 18 for vaping and 21 for other tobacco products.

 

Let us forget the fairness of forbidding legal adults of 18-21 the ability to make their own choices regarding alcohol and nicotine. Do not mention that at 18 you can enlist in the military, vote, buy a house, or marry. Stuart has or have had police officers who are 20 years of age. They can carry a gun and have the ability and supposed judgement to make arrests yet are too immature to have a beer or a smoke. Put all that aside.

 

The City of Stuart and Martin County have made the determination that vaping will now be forbidden to that class of citizens. Is it overreach and an example of the nanny state and bad legislation? It is to me.

 

The second thing that occurred was a discussion of the enforcement of the use of single use plastics in city-owned property which is punishable by civil fines being imposed. If a meal is served in a Styrofoam clamshell at the greenmarket, the ordinance has been violated. Most of the discussion was how it was going to be enforced.

 

The city was prohibited by the state from banning plastic and Styrofoam by preemption. The only place such a ban can apply is on city property. The only product that could be banned for the entire city were plastic straws…and they did.

 

That was another topic of discussion at the commission meeting now that the grace period for fines is over. Martin County does not have a similar ordinance so you can use a plastic bag in their parks or at the beach. Stuart stands as an enclave in a sea of petroleum product detritus.

 

Should the use of single stream plastic and other such items be banned? I say yes if done by the state or better yet the feds. Several states have already done so. Florida has specifically preempted local governments from addressing the issue. But to think that a tiny municipality or county should do so while their bordering neighbors do not is unrealistic and will not accomplish very much. It will put an undue burden on our local businesses.

 

I predict that in this legislative session, the state will raise the age of purchasing vaping products to 21 and then preempt any local regulation much as they did with tobacco. I predict that the state will pass a bill preempting a locality from banning plastic straws. And finally, I predict that at some point in the next year, an enforcement action against some nonprofit for the use of plastics at an event in a Stuart park will result in the commission chamber being inundated by a mob of angry citizens. Then do not be surprised to see a repeal of that ordinance.

 

The problem with too many local elected officials is they forget why they exist. It is primarily to provide services that the private sector cannot or will not provide. Police, fire, water, parks, and roads are the important things. Whether a community should have high rise buildings, or 20-acre zoning should be local decisions.

 

When local government tries to monitor behaviors, it will be courting controversy. Just look at the problems Martin County has had with masks. Do I think that the state should stay out of things like zoning and what can go into front yards? I absolutely do.

 

Every level of government should stay in its own lane. Local governments that do overreach are just inviting preemption from the state. Each time the state uses preemption, it becomes easier for them to use it again.

 

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