Opinion: Billboard owners being legislated out of livelihood

Here we go again -- the St. Petersburg Times is trying to put a competitor out of business. Your recent editorial stated that the billboard industry was bullying and threatening the Pinellas County Commission. That is wrong. We are simply asking for them to do the right thing, and have worked hard and made sacrifices to reach a fair agreement.

It's mind-boggling that anyone thinks local governments should continue to have the right to put billboard owners out of business -- without compensating them a penny -- by using amortization. Amortization is not just compensation.

The pending legislation wouldn't stop local governments from regulating billboards... or eliminating them altogether. The proposal simply ends the free ride local governments have enjoyed for so long by requiring them to pay billboard owners just compensation when they legislate away their livelihoods. More important, the legislation would make sure that a legitimate business in Florida receives fair and equal treatment under Florida law.

Unlike federal laws and legislation already in place in 39 other states that require the immediate payment of just compensation, this bill allows local governments flexibility to negotiate with sign owners to remove and relocate the signs to another acceptable location at the sign owners' expense.

The fact is that members of the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association are committed to maintaining and improving the quality and appearance of billboards through strong but fair regulations.

The outdoor advertising industry is simply asking for the same protection against government confiscation that is afforded every other kind of business. The pending legislation would ensure that a legitimate business in Florida receives the same fair and equal treatment under state law as all other businesses.
-- M.A. LaBorde, southeast regional manager/vice-president, Lamar Advertising, Tallahassee

Amortization is a fair compromise

Legislators read this sign: Residents agree, billboards are a local issue. The writing is on the wall -- big industry lobbyists are once again trying to circumvent the inherent rights and wants of Florida's residents. Just as it did last year, the billboard industry has managed to persuade lawmakers to tack language onto an existing transportation bill that would make cities and counties powerless to regulate outdoor advertising in their communities.

The billboard industry is lobbying heavily, as it has for more than a decade, to strip local governments of their ability to remove unsightly billboards through amortization. Amortization lets local governments compensate billboard owners by letting the offending billboard remain standing, usually for a five- to seven-year time period. This gives the billboard companies a number of years to recoup their investment.

The new legislation, however, would force cities and counties to pay cash -- in most cases millions of dollars -- to alter or remove unsightly billboards. The industry says its billboards are worth up to $200,000 apiece. If this provision passes, cities will have to choose between spending public money on much needed governmental services such as police protection and emergency care, or bringing down billboards. Most likely -- and this is what the outdoor advertising companies are banking on -- the billboards will remain indefinitely.

Local officials and residents alike are shouting that the price of protecting our communities from offensive billboards will be too high.

Why isn't our legislature listening?

If this cash-compensation measure passes, citizen-mandated billboard and downsizing efforts already underway in Orlando, Broward County and 38 other cities and counties will be halted. Residents care about the look and feel of their community and believe local leaders have a responsibility to protect the aesthetic value of their communities. In fact, 90 percent of those surveyed in a 2001 statewide poll thought that cities should have local control over quality-of-life issues, including preserving the look of their communities.

Amortization is a compromise. Amortization works. And amortization offers billboard companies a more than fair and reasonable return on their investments. Lawmakers should say no to cash-compensation legislation.
Mayor Scott Black, Dade City

Information we shouldn't ignore

Every day we learn a little bit more about just how much the environment affects our health. A recent study, reported on March 6 in the St. Petersburg Times, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people living in heavily polluted cities have a 12 percent greater chance of dying from lung cancer. These findings follow another study released just last month in the Lancet that found athletic children in polluted areas are three times more likely to get asthma.

Unfortunately, even with these recent findings, we still lack basic information about where and when chronic diseases such as asthma and cancer strike, as well as potentially related environmental hazards. We need a nationwide health tracking network that would collect this kind of data so that we can arm our public health officials with the information they need to fight chronic disease and protect our communities.
-- Ann Vanek, energy co-chair, Sierra Club, Florida chapter, Sanford

Fossilized thinking

Everyone driving along our coast is familiar with seeing plumes of contaminants from power plants that reach across the horizon for many miles, darkening the sky. Coal-fired smokestacks dump millions of tons of pollution onto West Florida, contributing to thousands of deaths from asthma, lung and heart disease.

The EPA's director of regulatory enforcement has resigned because he is being prevented from enforcing the law that would reduce that pollution. The Bush administration has pulled the rug out from under the EPA, and the big power companies that violate the clean air act, including the ones in Florida, are backing off from agreements they made 15 months ago to clean up the smokestacks. Some of the companies now feel comfortable expanding operations and increasing their output of pollution.

In our hunger for fossil fuels, we will soon be drilling in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida, and our state's power plants are among the dirtiest in the country. George Bush Sr.'s administration passed the Clean Air Act. Why is this administration returning to the kind of "fossilized" thinking that is currently directing our energy and environmental policies?
-- Barbara Witlin, Crystal Beach

Protect the dwindling manatees

As a Florida a boat owner and a citizen who is extremely concerned about the dwindling manatee population in our state, there are two pieces of legislation about which I have grave concerns: S.B. 1614 and H.B. 1473. These bills are trying to mandate anti-manatee local rule committees and are seeking to change the intent of the Manatee Sanctuary Act from a law that simply protects manatees from boats, to a law that will provide protection in specific waterways only if that action is necessary to the recovery of the entire statewide manatee population. They would also require dangerous high-speed corridors in important manatee habitat.

I find it difficult to believe that our elected representatives would suggest any actions that would further endanger a species that has practically become a symbol of our state. Our remaining manatees need more protection, not less; and recent public opinion polls would suggest that the majority of Florida's residents agree. Manatee mortality rates rose last year to 325 -- an increase of 52 deaths over the previous year. Most of these deaths were a result of watercraft collisions. I strongly urge all concerned Floridians to urge their legislators to oppose S.B. 1614 and H.B. 1473, as well as any other bills that weaken manatee protection.
-- Jackie Minniti, Clearwater Beach

A convenient complication

Once again, animals suffer because of human greed and irresponsibility. A business that walks away from starving chickens should be punished for animal cruelty. The weak Animal Welfare Act states that abandonment with no shelter, food or water is a crime. The USDA gives licenses to factory farms but does nothing to monitor care or punish abusers.

Only the Animal Welfare people braved the manure pits to attempt saving some of these poor birds. The stench and disease chickens must endure to become food in plastic wrap is disgusting. More disgusting, however, is the simple fact that human beings eat these sick, hormone-filled birds with relish. One visit to the farm would cure most from ever eating meat again.

How convenient for the attorneys, courts, USDA vets and poultry associations to dismiss this waste of life as "too complicated" to punish.
-- Louise Kahle, St. Petersburg

A concern for kids?

Re: Reno's road tour shows a softer side, March 3.

All I see when I look at Janet Reno is the person responsible for the deaths of those little kids at Waco. She is being very hypocritical when she talks about her concern for Florida's kids.
-- Charles Roberts, Clearwater

Job description for parenting

The writer of the March 4 letter, Reading skill begins at home, has it right. But how in the world do we get this across to parents today? Coming from a long line of teachers -- and being a parent myself -- it is so obvious that many parents today are blaming schools for not doing the job while they are not aware of what their job is.

Parents, you need to get your child up in time for school and make sure he or she has something to eat, gets to school on time, has lunch, does homework before television and gets to bed at a reasonable hour. If you do these few things, your child will be rested, alert, ready to learn. Then the teachers can do their job.
-- Louise Timmons, New Port Richey

It's not 'drag racing'

Once again, your paper has chosen the phrase "drag racing" to describe a couple of kids racing their cars on the highway (Prominent attorney, leader starting own firm, March 7). In this sad case, one of the kids crashed into a car and killed his own mother.

The truth is he was street racing, not drag racing. Drag racing is a nationally (and worldwide) recognized multimillion-dollar sport run with well-defined rules and regulations, using trained and sanctioned officials and timing equipment on specially prepared tracks.

Please refrain from further sullying the reputation of drag racers and their fans everywhere by using the correct terminology.
-- Bea Young, Tampa

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