News you may have missed

From the Treasure Coast Palm online news........

Both the Backus Gallery and Museum and Kelvin Hair representing "the highwaymen" have applied for public funds from tourism tax coffers.

As I understand it, the available money by law can only go an entity which will attract even more tourism, which of course, should generate even more tourism tax dollars.

So, teachers, firemen and police officers don't get a direct shot at these funds, but theoretically, increasing tourism in the area should generate additional taxes which could be used to help fund improvements to these more necessary county obligations.

Ah, politics and cash flow.

I have no comment other than to say what I know to be true.

"Politics is a tricky business."

Copied and pasted from TC Palm :


ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A $411,000 pot of money accumulated from St. Lucie County’s 5 percent tourist development tax is up for grabs, with a Jan. 15 deadline for applications approaching.
At least three organizations so far have told the county commission they deserve a piece of the tax proceeds to spend on facilities to increase tourism in St. Lucie County: the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, the A.E. Backus Museum and Gallery, and the Florida Highwaymen Artists and History Center.
The money comes from a portion of the tax levied on accommodations rented for six months or less. It was set aside by the St. Lucie County Commission for tourist-related facilities located north of Midway Road.
Most of the rest of the tax goes to pay the county’s share of costs for the New York Mets spring training stadium in St. Lucie West and tourism advertising.
State law requires tourist tax money to be used only on specific types of tourism-related programs or facilities.
The 31-page application and guidelines for a grant from the accumulated tax revenues is available on the county’s website, www.stlucieco.gov/tdc/index.htm. The St. Lucie County Commission will make a decision in March.
The loosely associated group of Florida landscape artists known as The Highwaymen are seeking money for the new Florida Highwaymen Artists and History Center, said Kelvin Hair, a second-generation Highwayman artist and son of the late Florida Artists Hall of Fame artist Alfred Hair. A location hasn’t been determined.
“We started out in Fort Pierce, yet, as of now we do not have a home,” Kelvin Hair told the St. Lucie County Commission in October.
The Highwaymen have been the subject of numerous articles, seven books, two documentaries, and Hair and his mentor Johnny Daniels appeared on the Today show in July. Daniels passed away before he could see the show. Elise Rollins, executive director of Lincoln Park Main Street, said the decline of the citrus industry that created the jobs which supported the community business district left business owners looking for a way to bring new life to the area.
“We feel we have found such an economic engine in the Highwaymen,” she said. “We must utilize our own assets if we are to be a viable community again.”
The A.E. Backus Gallery and Museum, which opened in 1960 with the help of private donations, has never asked for public funds, said Executive Director Kathleen Fredrick.
“You could call us the ultimate boot-strapping organization,” she said.
Plans call for a 15,000 to 17,000 square foot expansion of the current facility on the edge of Veteran’s Memorial Park in Fort Pierce, she told the county commission last month.
The expansion would include the first office space they’ve ever had, Fredrick said, climate control suitable for a museum of fine art which will allow them to become accredited by the American Association of Museums classroom space, room for a permanent exhibit of Highwaymen and Indian River School paintings, and a gallery showing Florida artists.
Outdoors, Fredrick said, plans call for a sculpture garden, benches, a fountain “and a place for people to give their dog a drink. We are always asked by people if we can give them some water for their dog.”
The museum draws thousands of people to the area, she said.

I make no judgments on who deserves the money. I'll leave that up to you, gentle reader.

I will say, however, I do not want dogs to be thirsty.