Homestead Strategy For City Council

City Council has been trying to find a way to get out in front of January’s referendum on the homestead super exemption. It’s understandable: a reduction in the taxable value of homes will result in less revenue for Tampa. And fewer projects, programs and personnel.

Speculation about involving unions, including firefighters and police, however, has not been well received. And Mayor Pam Iorio won’t be rolling out the bully pulpit to stare down the super exemption. That apparently leaves resolution-passing as a viable way of expressing opposition to the super exemption. That’s an option that barely beats frowning.

A suggestion to council: Your best ally could be the county property appraiser. That office’s analysis shows the majority of those planning to stay in their homes long term will actually pay less in taxes if they resist the siren song of the super exemption and stay with “Save Our Homes” and the 3 percent tax cap.

Which is a vote for taxpayer savings and neighborhood stability. Which is a lot better than playing the anxiety card.

Hillsborough School Bored

Isn’t one dysfunctional body enough?

Sadly, we’ve come to expect that out of the Hillsborough County Commission, sometimes manifesting itself in infighting that gets nasty.

But the Hillsborough School Board?

The recent Jennifer Faliero/April Griffin smack down was beyond vintage Rose Ferlita/Ken Hagan or even Kathy Castor/Ronda Storms.

Does the school board need a “Time Out” room?

Postal Potpourri

As we know, living in a certain zip code or just living to a certain age goes a long way in determining how much unsolicited mail we get.

Right now our household is in the lifestyle magazine mode. Can’t get enough peeks at where the affluent reside, how they decorate, what they wear and where they go to show off their botox injections.

And with gambling increasingly in the news, we’re on the receiving end of seductive inducements — 4 Free Nights* (but read the fine print) — to visit emporiums such as the Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino. And, frankly, 4-color photos depicting the “Hawaiian Tropic vs. Flirt Girls Models Challenge” weren’t without merit.

So, it could be worse. Like last month’s intimations-of-mortality theme.

Nothing like making the assisted living facilities demographic list.

Fast Lane Living

By all accounts, 17-year-old Nick Bollea is a nice kid. Too bad he’s also Nick Hogan.

For that has meant living in his Hulkster dad’s fishbowl, reality-TV world; being home-schooled away from the masses; and having every opportunity to indulge an adrenaline-rush, fast-car fantasy. Life in the steadfast lane was never meant to be.

Multiple speeding tickets — and a restricted license — were mere precursors to the horrific traffic accident last week in Clearwater. According to witnesses, speeding and hot-dogging were factors.

A passenger’s life now hangs in the balance, and the legal and psychological ramifications for Bollea are severe and life-altering.

If only Hogan Knew Best.

The Republican Rover

Wedge-politics guru Karl Rove is officially no longer in the House. Some perspective:

*The Prince of All Things Partisan never should have been allowed around policy. The country is worse off for it.

*The presidential Svengali was really, really good at one thing: Getting George W. Bush elected multiple times. He did whatever it took – from polarization to pander fests to dirty tricks. Donald Sagretti on steroids.

*Lee Atwater never looked so ethical.

*Somehow, some way, Rove’s got to be behind this state’s (Republican-controlled) Legislature’s double-dare-you push to move the presidential primary to Jan. 29. As a result, the Democratic National Committee’s hand was forced, and the DNC ordered Dems in America’s mega-battleground state to neuter its primary.

*The presidential albatross has finally flown, but Rove didn’t take one for the team. Can you say book deal and GOP lecture circuit?

*Please, don’t anyone present him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Even if it’s the one that George Tenet might yet feel compelled to give back.

A County Commission Tipping Point?

First, the bad news.

We’re still stuck with a dysfunctional Hillsborough County Commission that can wax blissful over a sports complex but grow combative over mass transit relevance and wetlands protection. Still stuck with a faction that treats public input as a gadfly infestation. Still stuck with an element that seems clueless about the inherent synergy of the county and its economic hub – the city of Tampa. Still stuck with a clique that prompts nostalgia for Joe Kotvas.

And still stuck with the hapless Brian Blair as chairman of the Environmental Protection Commission, which is roughly analogous to Josef Mengele as surgeon general. First, do no good.

Now, the good news. Thanks, ironically, to the publicity magnet that was the wetlands division debacle and ultimate compromise, a lot more folks seem to be paying attention. And in the process, asking themselves: Who are these people — and whose priorities and values do they really represent?

Perhaps a tipping point has been reached in this reign of error. Perhaps Blair, Ken Hagan, Jim Norman and Kevin White have — by outing themselves as riparian renegades and then disingenuously claiming they were catalysts for compromise — will have greased the skids for their own eventual ouster. Perhaps enough voters may have recognized that Blair, for example, does, indeed, have the skill sets — and credibility — of a professional wrestler.

Once you’ve turned a sprinkling of environmentalists into an angry, enlightened constituency armed with rhetorical pitch forks, anything is possible.

And thank you Al Higginbotham, the increasingly assertive Mark Sharpe and the feisty Rose Ferlita. Being outnumbered is never at odds with being right.

And that’s how numbers can change.

Florida’s Taxing Scenarios

Florida, as we well know, is faced with the inconvenient truth of a $1.1 billion budget shortfall and a tax system that hasn’t fundamentally changed since LeRoy Collins was governor. Ripples from the property-tax shell game have already been felt at the local level. Tampa, for example, has announced $20 million in fiscal cuts.

It’s a scenario rife with uncertainty, as well as opportunity for Charlie Crist, the Not Jeb! governor who’s much more pragmatic than ideological.

Already he has given every indication of expediting a (federal government-pressured) agreement with the Seminole Tribe about casino gambling on tribal lands. This, of course, is no panacea, and the downsides are well documented.

But if you’re talking about balancing a budget by cutting projects, programs and personnel – and there are alternatives shy of a state income tax to help do just that – then gambling perforce is in the mix. In fact, look for a (gambling) “voluntary tax” rationale to be spun like it’s never been spun before.

However, what also should be on the table – along with blackjack, craps and roulette – are sales taxes on services and a revisitation of a host of sales-tax exemptions. It’s never a good time to propose such, especially the former — ask former Gov. Bob Martinez — but these are atypical times calling for atypical, sometimes unpopular, solutions.

It’s also a propitious time for an “open minded,” “innovative” – and, yes, gutsy — governor.

UT’s Sobering Welcome

Plaudits to the University of Tampa for getting out in front of a serious undergraduate issue – student drinking – that is too often dismissed as a rite of collegiate passage. UT actually requires all its first-year students to complete an online alcohol prevention program, AlcoholEdu for College, immediately upon arrival.

Some sobering statistics underscore the need. According to the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, there were more than 1,700 alcohol-related deaths and 2.1 million cases of student DUIs in 2002. The NIAAA also estimates nearly 600,000 injuries, 97,000 sexual assaults and 159,000 first-year drop outs attributable to alcohol and other drugs every year.

Councilman Caetano’s Cause

The shakedown cruise is over. First-year Tampa City Council member Joseph Caetano has found a cause. He wants to rid the city of advertising-sign carriers, some in costume, who can be found working some of Tampa’s busier streets – such as New Tampa’s Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. He says they can be distracting to drivers.

And they surely can be, even to motorists on cell phones. And as a priority, it’s certainly more helpful than the secession of New Tampa.

Bulls And Rays

*The pre-season college football rankings of the Associated Press have USF in the top 35. That’s higher than Notre Dame. Who ever would have thought?

*Devil Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg will make the official call regarding manager Joe Maddon’s status next month. It’s expected that Maddon, a refreshingly nice guy whose team has the worst record in baseball, will be retained. Here’s Sternberg’s rationale: “Joe has done everything that we’ve asked, and as long as we’re continuing to progress and change and we’re on the same page, everything’s fine.”

Putting aside meaningful definitions of “progress,” “change,” “fine” and exactly what that “page” is, here’s a question: Do you think, perhaps, you didn’t ask enough of Joe?