Does anyone think Gov. Ron De Santis’ initiative to end all special districts in Florida created before 1968 is anything but the vengeful act of a politician attempting to punish a corporate constituent who dared to challenge one of his legislative acts? The governor is doing little more than attempting to blackmail a constituent who dared to oppose him without considering the consequences.
Yes, it’s true that Disney has benefited from the creation of RCID, but so have Orange and Osceola counties and the Central Florida area. But if local government services are abolished by the dissolution of special districts such as RCID, then the burden of providing same could fall on Orange and Osceola counties. And Orange and Osceola counties will have to provide the myriad government services currently shouldered by RCID.
So think about it: should the legislative and executive branches of our state government punish Disney by abolishing its special district status, thereby potentially shifting the services burden to the local counties and their constituents, and allowing Disney to get more tax value for its expenditure?
Or is there another way to seek the revenge so desired? Surely, governor, you are smarter than that.
Ted McKim Clermont
Welcome to Groundhog Day. Once again, the Orlando Sentinel has launched a mean-spirited attack on Gov. Ron DeSantis, this time for taking away special privileges, otherwise known as corporate welfare, from Disney World.
The Sentinel was so focused on attacking DeSantis that they spent little time discussing the merits of the issue and even admitted to being uneasy about the special privileges the government has given Disney over the years. With an election looming in November, readers should be aware of the Sentinel’s long-standing bias against the governor and treat their criticism accordingly.
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Jimmy Conner Tavares
An emergency in the hospital leads to a call for Code Blue. The team arrives, skilled to take actions to save a life. The patient survives. Maybe it was your loved one. Nurses perform these actions daily to save lives. And yet the emergency now at hand isn’t a patient — it’s nurses.
Why is nurse staffing in crisis? The hospital industry chooses to ignore decades of evidence-based research that proves more nurses equal better outcomes and survival rates for patients. And fewer nurses leaving their jobs, with less risk for physical and mental-health injury, before COVID-19.
Nurses must act and the public must act, to save lives. Staffing in hospitals is critical. Hospitals don’t tell the public everything, but we as nurses know and risk termination if we speak of it.
Act now. And fast. It is Code Blue. The patient? The nursing profession. Call your congressional legislators to co-sponsor and pass The Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act. H.R. 3165/S. 1567 would set specific safety limits on the numbers of patients each registered nurse can care for in hospitals throughout the United States.
All our lives depend on it.
Doris Carroll Holiday
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism