Not so fast -- some special taxing districts were established by the people, including our Mosquito Control District here in St. Johns County

Unpopular Florida Governor RICHARD SCOTT wants legislative authority to review special taxing districts. See below. That's fine. Some special taxing districts are hideously out of control, secretive satraps that need scrutiny (and sunset).

But some of those special taxing districts, like the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, were established by the people. They can only be undone by the people. They serve useful purposes. Their independence is necessary and proper.

AMCD has come a long way from the tatterdemalion days when imperious Chair BARBARA BOSANKO (spouse of the former County Attorney DAN BOSANKO) and government and developer moutpiece/doormat GEOFFREY DOBSON ran the AMCD as Republican lords of all they surveyed.

These unjust stewards and cronies unjustly pushed to buy $1.2 million in land from cronies, voting to buy a $1.8 million no-bid luxury Bell Jet Long Ranger helicopter without competitive bidding, voting to engage in the promiscuous use of organophosphates, while planning an $8 million Taj Mahal building.

I am proud to say that we halted the helicopter contract, got a full refund, stopped the organophosphate spraying, and stopped the spending on the building. Thanks to Jeanne Moeller, John Sundeman, Don Girvan, Robin Nadeau et al., AMCD is now leading the State and Nation in organic pest control. AMCD has not sprayed any organophosphates in two (2) years -- that's something to be proud of -- something that the chemical-heads would have fought.

It takes a village.

And last year, our Local Tea Party united behind progressives' efforts to save AMCD from a cynical takeover attempt by the St. Johns County Government. The takeover would have eliminated the right of St. Johns County voters to vote for five (5) office holders. Former County Commission Chairman TOM MANUEL (later incarcerated for bribery) once told Dr. Dwight Hines and I in MANUEL's office that if the St. Johns County government took over Mosquito Control, County COmmissioners would spend "maybe twenty minutes a year" on mosquito control." It was a rotten idea. Our state legislators listened to the people, even though County Commissioners didn't. The takeover of AMCD failed.

Go ahead, Governor Scott, we support your effort to examine the special taxing districts. But our AMCD was established by vote of the people of St. Johns County -- several votes over decades to expand the District. AMCD can and must be preserved inviolate. We don't want the St. Johns County Road and Bridge Department mucking up what is and forever must be an independent scientific and technical organization that protects public health and the environment.

Hands off AMCD!

If Governor RICHARD SCOTT ever proposes to mess with the independence of AMCD, he will have both the St. Augustine Tea Party and progressives to contend with, all on the same side. That's where we were in 2010 and that's where we will be in 2012.

If RICHARD SCOTT ever tries to mess with AMCD's independence, I shall have to invoke the immortal words of Clint Eastwood, "Go ahead, make my day!"