| FLORIDA'S SECOND SNOW
JOB ON SENIORS IS A MUST STOP
Andrew Jackson
once said, " There are no necessary evils in government. Its only evils
exist in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and
as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low,
the rich, and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."
Gov. Jeb
Bush is quite sincere in expressing his desire to see more seniors in Florida.
The problem is he is not familiar with the evils in Florida Government
from all around abuse inflicted on World War Two seniors, after the political
desire to dump the poor elders to make room for more rich began to invade
city councils and county commissioners in the last decade in such greed.
Thousands of poor seniors were fined, sued, foreclosed and dumped homeless
to make room for high rise condo's, increase property tax and change equal
protection to equal politics.
Hillsborough County is a promise example of why I advise every American
senior and veteran to run the other way, stay where you are and don't buy
the hype on fun in the sand because you might end up like Highlands County
retired seniors who bought bargain lots for low cost Mobile Homes and ended
up buried several feet deep in a wetland flood, with no flood insurance
to bail out. The county administrator knew that swampland was a danger
but most of the seniors came form five northern states the south has great
contempt for, Ohio, Indianna, Illinois, Mich. and New York, so if those
Yankees lose a few dollars by buying a pig in the poke, serves them right.
Most Floridians remember the widow in Ocala who was beaten up by the office
of Sheriff Dean, locked out of her home, taken to jail black and blue in
handcuffs when her homeowners association claimed she was behind in dues.
They did not care about her husband's death or the truck accident that
injured her too severely to checking into what she thought was a minor
debt, they threw all her household things and personal goods on her front
yard, changed the lock on her door when they threw her in jail to foreclose
on her home.
Bill Hungling was lured to Sebring, Fl. in Highlands County when he retired
as an electrical engineer from a GE Plant in Cinn., Ohio. Blue-eyed Bill
never had one traffic ticket or any dispute with any government agency
in his native home up north when he arrived the picture of health in the
Bible Belt.
He and his talented wife, Gladys set about building an energy saving home
that was the envy of the next door neighbor, a local Veterans Office who
didn't have the smarts to convert his older energy waste home or money
to contract for the hob. He learned the Hunglings were Korean Vets and
put them on a guilt trip of vets helping vets to remodel his home with
the complaint the wiring was so bad, it would catch fire if someone did
not re-wire it. He informed them he had an owner's permit to re-wire the
house and would pay them hourly plus material to save the roof over his
grateful head.
The
best of plans often go astray. When the Hunglings spent their money on
materials to redo his home, and hours of work, the neighbor's wife was
arrested and left them expensive legal bills that tempted him to turn in
a false report to Code Enforcement he had just learned the couple working
on his home were not contractors because he knew, if someone contracts
to do a house as contractor in Florida and the owner does not pay, that
contractor cannot collect a dime owed.
The Hunglings picked up a paper and discovered a headline branding them
as criminals for contracting without a license that was such a shock to
these white headed vets who thought they were saving a new neighbor, Bill
Hungling suffered a series of strokes that wiped out his memory, all speech
etc, and left him dying in a vegetable state, with a heartbroken wife who
had to sell the house to survive the pain and hardship of her Florida retirement.
When Margaret Bachant retired in Lake Placid from New York City with her
husband they intended to remodel the small cabin the bought as soon as
they settled in. Unfortunately, her husband suffered a fatal heart attack
before they got unpacked and she was a city widow in a country town with
half their retirement income wiped out.
Her new neighbor, Highway Patrolman Herb Smith discovered Bachant went
into such shock over her husbands' death, she had a severe stroke that
left her blind and paralyzed in both legs in a house with a leaking roof
ready to collapse the ceilings.
Smith knew his buddy, John Buchanan, was a local craftsman working for
a local contractor who frequently donated his labor free to retired seniors,
so he arranged to have him buy materials in his own name, haul them in
his truck and go with her son from New York City to show him how to apply
for an owner's permit so the three men could roof the house before her
life was endangered at cost of material only.
A local roofer too busy to help became jealous these men were doing a job
for material only when he could double his profit so he reported, Buchanan
was contracting without a license. Bachant was unaware of Florida's strange
contractor's license law. A contractor does not have to have any skill
or comply with any state statute because all the city and county care about
is the license fee contribution to their payroll.
The state license board says a contractor must not take out a permit on
a job unless he has a signed contract to do the job, but the cool county
administrator did train his code enforcement to comply with state law,
he just ordered them to arrest anyone without a contractors license regardless
of the excuse because they could collect a handsome fine, monthly probation
and county employees can't expect annual raises unless they fleece a few
new retired homeowners.
The poor widow was horrified to learn her benefactor, was falsely arrested,
and called the Judge (Shinholser) to testify he donated his labor, but
the wily judge informed her no witness allowed in his court but the code
enforcement officer who was so gifted in entrapment, and a lawyer who collected
a fat fee then told the poor carpenter trying to be a good Christian, "You
either plea Nolo Contende or face a year in jail because the lawyer knew
the county would not throw more work his way, if he cleared the innocent
man of a wrongful arrest.
One more out of state senior who learned the hard way, Florida is better
at fleecing seniors than making a friendly welcome.
Most of the World War Two veterans who came to Florida during the fifties
were promised no property tax after a $25,000 property tax exemption and
no state income tax. Today, thousands of them are being evicted into the
street of Hillsborough County with no place to go, no money to go with
because the small homes built for $15,000 up are being trashed by unlicensed
contractors hired by the city and county, then fined by code enforcement
who lien them and foreclosed so they can be demolished and replaced with
higher priced homes like condos at $100,000 to bring a new cash flow to
cover the cost of all the code enforcement police at $77,000 per year each.
Tampa is
holding $47 million in liens on small homes right now and Mayor Greco is
busy hiring lawyers to foreclose so he can raise $47 million to build a
new art million for the elite who will replace the meek, the weak and uninformed
seniors that built Florida into a 16 million population state.
Thousands
of veterans line up in VA clinics and hospitals with no hope of health
care and the nursing homes are urine smelling prisons where elderly patients
like poor Bill Hungling, go untended and often fall from their wheel chair
because the profit hungry care centers hire new green card immigrants at
minimum wage instead of nursing care.
Last but not least, Florida's Judicial System is Las Vegas Jackpot for
lawyers who have no rules except to strike it rich. The Bar has concern
what action is taken or ignored as long as the membership is paid, and
any newcomer can be sure they will be fined, or sued before the trucks
are unpacked because southern law enforcement is trained to profile them.
The Bill of Rights went down the tubes in Florida and in it's place is
a bill of goods controlled by the good ole boys set up by walkin talkin
Lawton Chiles who had such a strong regime in place he still rules from
the grave while young Governor Jeb Bush goes out on a limb and pictures
seniors being treated with the same courtesy as his devoted mother, Barbara,
not realizing you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink
and this island called Florida, has water everywhere but you won't find
much time to fish or swim because you will be too busy swimming up to your
a-- in hot water.
Trust me, I arrived here nine years ago
from the west coast and the snow job on me left ice cycles on my nose,
an empty back account and a lesson, " a fool and his money are soon parted,
" and all that glitters is not gold.
Remember that Florida seceded from the Union during the civil war, and
rich ranchers helped kill off the Indians who lived here 25,000 years to
become citrus kings. Abraham Lincoln said, "If life hands you a lemon,
make lemonade, " and I promise you if you buy the hype to relocate in Dixie,
you will end up too poor for lemonade because they won't even leave you
the seeds. Trust me, the only welcome wagon here is the one coming after
your pension and when it is gone, they roll up the welcome mat and send
the sheriff to board you in his hotel with bars where every collect phone
call gives him a kickback.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...so all you snowbirds
better leave the snow job to the south and pull on your woollies because
a man's home is not his castle in Florida...in fact, Gordon Commee was
once fined because lighting struck down an old oak in his Seffner yard.
Not even the power of God gets respect from the Florida Fleecing Team and
you bet your tennis shoes, not even Governor Jeb Bush can protect you from
this alligator swamp because his own Attorney General, Bob Butterworth
once said he had no intention of enforcing civil rights because his
legal staff was too small, so blessings do not fall on the poor and rich
the same as the summer showers. The evils fall on the seniors and veterans
who don't bring boots to wade through the uninsured floods...this is a
must stop for all snowbirds until Florida has the integrity for a government
reform from the top down. At this time, the Florida lobby group, FHBA,
also snowballed the state Dept of Business and Professional Regulations,
if you buy one of their new homes, they don't have to honor the warranty
for six months if at all, and you might pay cash for a home with no title
because the state loans builders 20 years loans, not disclosed by the title
company. You pay cash but the state owns the home until the builder pays
them. And if the builder goes belly up, your home belongs to the state.
Florida not only helps builders to fleece buyers they finance them. So,
hit the road, Mack and don't look back, that snow bank is ready for a whole
new band of seniors and you are the only thing that can stop them by handing
them a shovel and advise them to keep shoveling.
Willow Vance( Widowed Senior from Maryland) |
