Our way of life is in jeopardy through the actions of the county commissioners who are not working in the general public's best interest, but for their developer friends who fill their bank accounts with campaign contributions for rezoning favors and fat county contracts for roads, fire stations, jails and parks.
Rezoning rural farmland can be worth tens of millions of dollars to a landowner and developer like Del Webb, Pulte Homes or John Rudnianyn, the Castro family, Steven Counts, Boyd Development Companies, McBride, Stavola and others. So contributing to the financial coffers of county commissioners, or offering them other favors, is commonplace in Florida.
If you look at FloridaHometownDemocracy.com, you can clearly see how Marion County fits into the scheme of things as they try and rezone their land outside the Urban Growth Boundary before November, when Florida residents stand up to the developers and pass Florida's Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 to stop the county commissions from doing this to us over and over again.
I urge the Ocala Star-Banner to publish the campaign contributions and amounts given to each county commissioner. Alongside this, list the ones who got land-use favors and how many favors and acres of land have been rezoned from rural land to commercial, industrial, rural activity and residential usage, as well as county contracts that have been awarded and their value to the contributor.
Only then, we can clearly see who is working for whom, as we protest this assault on our way of life, and quiet enjoyment conveyed to us through our land deeds, as well as the increased taxes to pay for infrastructure such as roads, fire stations and maintenance forever on these so-called improvements we don't want or need outside of the city limits of Ocala.
