Tea party groups plan SunRail protest

With a decision on SunRail looming, Gov. Rick Scott is dispatching Florida transportation secretary Ananth Prasad to the Orlando area next week to meet with?six different groups of city and county commissioners and their constituents.

And tea party activists and other?opponents of the project are ready?for the visit.?Those groups will host a press conference and protest rally at 1 p.m. on the Orlando City Hall steps, and then?attend?Prasad's?2 p.m. meeting with Orlando city officials.?The group will then move on ?to?Prasad's meeting with Orange County commissioners at 4 p.m.

From the West Orlando Tea Party news release: In an unprecedented move, FDOT announced that on Tuesday, June 28th its Secretary Ananth Prasad will barnstorm the Central Florida localities through which the 32 mile SunRail project will run, to notify officials that there will be “no State bailout if SunRail fails”.?This is a very telling exercise because if SunRail was really such a solid project, why would FDOT have to make this pronouncement?

The SunRail commuter rail line requires funding from local taxpayers in Central Florida, state taxpayers and the federal government. Backers of?SunRail say it's a job creator, economic development and growth management tool that will ease congestion on busy highways. But Scott has been under pressure from tea party groups and some state lawmakers to kill the project, who say it's an even bigger boondoggle than high speed rail, which the governor killed earlier this year.

"SunRail is the poster child for big government spending on a public project hat we don't need, and that will be paid for with money we don't have," said Beth Dillaha, a former Winter Park city commissioner and?a founder of vetosunrail.org.

Scott has until July 2 to make a decision about SunRail. He froze the contracts for the project earlier this year, saying he wanted to take a closer look at the project. Last week, he told reporters he wants tto make sure Central Florida resdients understand the costs they'll have to bear for the project, and that he's trying to understand what he "can and can't do" based on "what's already been committed."

View the original article here

Tea party bailout: Trump to pay local group’s disputed $6,000 bill for Boca Raton rally he headlined

South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson is relaying word that Donald Trump will pay more than $6,000 that Boca Raton says it is owed for police officers and barriers that were deployed for an April South Florida Tea Party rally that Trump keynoted.

Wilkinson questioned the charges said his group didn’t have the money in its coffers to cover them.

“We’re working on paying it,” Wilkinson said earlier this month. “We don’t have the money right now, but we’re good at paying our bills.”

Here’s a statement from Trump adviser Michael Cohen as reported in Politico:

“An unexpectedly large number of citizens peaceably assembled at the Boca Tea party event, hosted by Everett Wilkinson, that drew a crowd in excess of 5000 people. Mr. Trump is honored that so many people came to hear him speak on important political and social issues. Mr. Trump does not want any citizen group to be disparaged or burdened for exercising their first amendment right and has agreed to personally cover the full obligation to the City of Boca Raton.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at 7:21 am and is filed under George Bennett, Tea Party movement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

View the original article here

Dayton Tea Party sues city, township groups to obtain records

By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer 11:45 PM Friday, June 3, 2011

DAYTON — The Dayton Tea Party is suing the Ohio Municipal League and Ohio Township Association to compel the groups to release records about their finances, operations and lobbying efforts.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday with the Ohio Supreme Court, the Dayton Tea Party challenged the Municipal League’s and Township Association’s position that they are private organizations.

The lawsuit contends the two groups receive most or all of their funding from public officials across Ohio using taxpayer dollars, which makes them subject to open records laws. The organizations dispute this claim.

“The rule in Ohio is that if you are the functional equivalent of a public agency, you can be compelled to produce records, even if you are not, per se, public,” said Maurice Thompson, executive director of 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a public interest law firm in Columbus that advocates Constitutional rights and limited government.

Thompson represents the Dayton Tea Party in the legal action.

Rob Scott, president and founder of the Dayton Tea Party, said his goal is to determine and expose how taxpayer dollars are being spent by these groups.

“We want to shine a light on local governments using taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money,” Scott said.

The lawsuit grew out of public records requests Scott submitted to the groups on March 31 that he says they denied. Scott said the documents requested were in regard to the groups’ opposition of repealing of Ohio’s estate tax and support of increasing spending on local governments.

Thompson and Scott said the Municipal League and Township Association use public money to support and lobby for ideological causes, including higher taxes, more regulation and increased government spending.

Matt DeTemple, executive directive of the Township Association, said he could not comment on the case because he has not examined it, but his organization is private and exempted from public records laws.

The Township Association represents more than 5,200 members from 1,300 townships, and its goal is to promote township government through lobbying efforts and educational forums.

Susan Cave, executive director of the Municipal League, also declined to comment on the case because she has not seen it.

But she said her organization represents 750 of Ohio’s 900 cities and villages and offers members educational and training resources.

Cave also said her group lobbies on behalf of members.

Most of the group’s funding comes from membership fees.

The Municipal League and Township Association have 21 days after receipt of the lawsuit to file a response with the court, according to the Ohio Supreme Court.

View the original article here