Pubdate: Fri, 04 Dec 2015
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2015 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Scott Maxwell

BANNING POT TERMS IS REEFER MADNESS.

Officials in Altamonte Springs seem really worried about pot.

I'm worried about them ... and whether they're smoking it.

Because you'd have to be puffing on something pretty strong to pass 
the goofy ordinance they did this week - one that tells medical 
marijuana businesses they can't use words such as "medical" and 
"marijuana" in their business names.

First of all, I should mention the tiny little detail that medical 
marijuana isn't even legal in this state. But Altamonteans don't care 
about that. They want to regulate any possible medicalpot businesses 
that might crop up if the state ever does legalize it.

And in the mind of the Altamonte commission and its crack legal team, 
that means banning words such as "medical," "marijuana," "wacky 
tabacky," "hashish," "weed," "herb" and "demp."

I'll be honest: I haven't the foggiest idea what "demp" is.

I presume they meant "hemp" - and that nobody actually proofread the ordinance.

That would be the most logical explanation for this entire episode - 
because, generally, government can't ban words. (And even if you 
could, why on earth would you ban "medical"?)

Altamonte should revisit this ... unless the city also wants to ban 
phrases such as "free speech" and "First Amendment."

Convention madness

At 6.6 million square feet, the Pentagon is one of the largest 
buildings in the United States.

It is gargantuan - and yet, still smaller than the Orange County 
Convention Center.

The convention center, which sits unused for much of the year, is 7 
million square feet.

Taxpayers still haven't finished paying off $2 billion worth of debt 
incurred from its last expansion.

But as the Sentinel reported this week, county officials want to pour 
even more tax dollars into making the center even bigger.

More meeting space. More parking. More, more, more.

This is the never-ending game of never enough.

It is funded by taxpayers and encouraged by a cottage industry of 
consultants who run from one city to another telling Orlando, 
Chicago, Las Vegas and New Orleans each to look at the other guy and 
make sure you catch up.

Orlando loves to point at Las Vegas and say Central Florida must 
spend more on its convention center and more on tourism advertising to compete.

Yet when anyone notes that Las Vegas also uses hotel taxes for things 
such as roads and police - to pay for services that tourists need - 
Orlando leaders suddenly declare that Las Vegas shouldn't be emulated.

If county commissioners are prudent watchdogs, they will ask pointed 
questions about when this center will ever be big enough - and 
support legislative efforts to allow hotel taxes to be spent in other ways.

But if history is any indication, they will not.

Holy graffiti!

Speaking of tourism, last week's Sentinel had a strange little story 
about the Holy Land Experience deciding to paint a mural - with an 
angel, scroll and blue sky - on the giant wall around its parking lot.

There's just one problem: It's not Holy Land's wall. It's yours, or 
rather, taxpayers', because the Florida Department of Transportation 
built the wall at the interchange at Conroy Road and Interstate 4.

Holy Land didn't bother to ask the DOT for permission before it 
started painting.

Now you probably know that you can't just up and decide to paint 
public property. In fact, you can get arrested for it.

But what makes this situation so odd is that, unlike you, Holy Land 
doesn't even help pay for public property in the first place. (Sure, 
the place looks like a theme park. And former Property Appraiser Bill 
Donegan said it should be taxed as one. But Holy Land - which charges 
$50 for adult admission - always argued it was more religious in 
nature and persuaded the Legislature and former Gov. Jeb Bush to give 
it a special tax-exempt status.)

The DOT isn't sure what to do about the unauthorized mural. And 
frankly, I'm not sure I see much point in ordering the park to unpaint it.

But I do see value in accountability. And if Holy Land wants special 
rights to taxpayer property, it should start paying taxes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom