Coral Gables Environment, Politics and Government
February 27, 2011 1 Comment
I will apply my experience running large international embassies within strict budget controls to the City’s operations, in order to preserve municipal services without raising taxes.
February 27, 2011 Leave a comment
For those who are sick and tired of county taxes and administrative arrogance, this is a good time to vote for the recall of the county mayor. Start voting now. This may not be a definitive message, but it will be for politicians think twice about raising taxes.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll see if County Mayor Carlos Alvarez can muster the support that propelled him to office in 2004 and 2008, and also him more powers.
via Carlos Alvarez Loses Lawsuit, Recall Is On, Bitches! – Miami News – Riptide 2.0.
February 26, 2011 Leave a comment
Great post if you fear or are interested in snakes–for those new to the tropics.
The majority of snakes, including the constrictors, are not poisonous yet people fear most of them as if they were. In actuality there is less than one death a year from snakebite in Florida. More people are killed by lightening. The pythons are unlikely to attack a person unless provoked or protecting young. Florida has 37 species of non poisonous snakes and only 6 species which are poisonous. These are the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, Pigmy Rattlesnake, Canebrake Rattlesnake, Copperhead, Cottonmouth/Water Moccasin and the Coral Snake. One way to tell venomous vipers from non-poisonous snakes are the eyes. Vipers have vertical slits while non poisonous snakes have round eyes. The poisonous coral snake is an exception. An old jingle which helps differentiate the coral snake from the non poisonous scarlet snake is “red and yellow kill a fellow”. If the red rings touch the yellow, beware!
February 26, 2011 Leave a comment
Public sector workers are not, on average, grossly overpaid compared with the private sector — period. You can fiddle at the edges of this conclusion, but it’s just not possible to conclude, based on any honest assessment of the data, that schoolteachers are the new welfare queens.
I believe this is right, especially including teachers and general employees. Local government employees generally do not include teachers, so the average earned by public sector employee firefighters, police, and management earn in the city of Coral Gables are on the high side of the average.
Irrespective of the comparison with the private sector, it is clear that the city of Coral Gables, has let salaries and benefits be pushed too high. It is time to ameliorate these salaries and benefits, and it is unfortunate that employees were led to believe or even expected that these benefits were certain to be paid irrespective of the economic situation or status of taxpayers.
Unions should look to help the cities and county to moderate their salaries so that property taxes can be similarly moderated.
Coral Gables Watch 