Budget Cuts will be Distaster to County

Budget Cuts Will Be Disaster to Economy

To the Editor:

The Florida Legislature is about to pass a budget that will cut $4 billion out of our economy. Conservatively, that's equivalent to 240,000 jobs. And this is already a recession. Legislators are having to choose between babies, mental health and the most needy of our disabled. People will die. Why hasn't your newspaper taken a stand? Haven't you looked into this?

The massive potential job losses will cost your newspaper significant revenues of advertising and circulation. Don't you care? You could go under due to this legislature and yet you don't even analyze it or report it.

There are alternatives. Governor Crist wants to tap the reserves, fill sales tax loopholes use other funds held in reserve. We could even roll back the Bush tax cuts. The Legislature has offered to allow the reserves to be tapped after their plan has caused its damage by further diminishing the sales tax revenues.

You can have a significant voice to prevent this disaster. SPEAK UP!

Sincerely,

Jeff Barrett

Hollywood

Remembering the People of the Forgotten Coast

To The Editor;

I would like to address some issues within our community that I think an awful lot of people have forgotten. When I started hearing all about the Forgotten Coast, I related it to many things.

One was the forgotten people who have been the backbone of the community for years, the seafood workers, because it seemed that whenever there was federal or state monies coming down the pipe for whatever disaster that may have befallen the community, they were the first to be held out as the poster child and the last to get anything more than a promise.

The Forgotten Coast as an oxymoron as when the real estate decided it would come down and save the poor ole Franklin County after devastating storms by buying up everything they could, and let's not forget the bundle they made, and that no one has forgotten the increase in their property taxes thanks to their generosity, and thanks to them as well we now have Amendment 1, which allows them to pay only a small portion of the taxes on their million-dollar plus homes.

The Forgotten Coast, which is so conveniently forgotten when Georgia decided that the people down here and their way of making a living did not count. We were all supposed to forget the damage done to our seafood industry in lieu of their wasteful ways.

There are leaders in our community that have been on the front line for us all as a community and both in our city and our county. They are our friends, our neighbors, the people that not only live here and contribute to the community, but live the life the way we all do, side by side as a caring family.

How easy it is to sit and judge those making the decisions for our community, how quick to criticize and hold them at blame, but how many times are the ones who feel they can do a better job at the meetings, how many times have they called our leaders just to say "you did a good job?" How many people who think they can do it better offer anything but talk, many won't even vote, and just how many volunteer their time to help in any small way? How quickly forgotten what has been accomplished for the good of the community and no matter what good has been accomplished, somebody, somewhere will find fault, until they are in need and find themselves needing help at which time the phones will ring asking all to help them in their needs, but as soon as their needs met, so quickly it is forgotten when they are on an opposing view with the very ones who helped them most.

What has been forgotten is yesterday's news, and that sensationalism and entertainment sells better than just news. What happened to the HOME in Hometown or has that been forgotten too? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? What ever happened to the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments? What ever happened to respect, morals and treating people the way we would want to be treated?

So before I forget I want to make on thing very clear, I support our commissioners, our mayor, and our county and city leaders. They don't have to prove themselves as they already have in the votes that put them in their jobs, which are jobs of Honor, Respect and Trust. They are human and they do make mistakes, but I wish any who find themselves perfect to be those to cast the first stone.

Thank you, City and County Commissioners. Thank you Mayor. There are many among us who don't allow all the good that is done, to be undone, by idle gossip or falsehood. Just know you do have a community that remembers what is important, and that is what you do and have done to support your community and the people who are in it.

Your Friends and Neighbors

Vince and Linda Raffield

Cost-Efficient Health Care Worth Pursuing

To the Editor:

The passage of a penny increase in the county sales tax designated for health care in Franklin County is a chance to help our citizens obtain more services and better health outcomes.

Some people have asked why we need to pursue a partnership with any other hospital in the spending of these new dollars. And this is a legitimate question. They say, for example, that old ways of doing things may be the best course for Franklin County. Use only a local board that reports to the county and oversees operations and keep the money "at home."

The problem with that approach is that times have changed. Health care delivery in 2008 is a very different proposition from the ‘50s and ‘60s that many of us remember. In those days, your family doctor directed much of the process. These days Medicare and insurance companies are much more involved in health care decisions, often not okaying what your family doctor deems is the best remedy. It is now a very complicated structure involving standardization, specialists and systems of care.

Health care is also a much more expensive matter. The percentage of our national dollars spent for health care is rising at an alarming rate. Technology advances, complex rules and regulations, and more uncompensated care provided are only some of the reasons for this rise.

Your Weems Memorial Hospital Board believes if the delivery of health care can be made more efficient, it is worth doing so. Partnering with a larger system can make operating less costly by the sharing of diagnostic equipment, access to large-volume buying, reduction of personnel costs, and streamlining of systems into more seamless care.

In addition, and most importantly, more services to our citizens can be provided and better health outcomes achieved by joining with a larger tertiary hospital. A union brings with it the ability for Weems to better monitor its clinical quality, get access to specialists through telemedicine, gain more physicians and services through rotation from that hospital, add the use of interns and residents, and increase the knowledge and skills of all of its staff through increased opportunities for enhanced medical continuing education.

The chance to spread the dollars further and improve and increase the services offered to the residents of Franklin County in a challenging time for health care - unlike anything in the past - is the reason your hospital board is very thoughtfully considering partner options. And the board is doing this all with an eye to the continuity of our employees, the maintenance of our hospital license, and the pledges made to the citizens of Franklin County when they voted for the penny increase for improved health care in the county.

Sincerely,

Gayle Dodds

Chair

George E. Weems Memorial Hospital Board