Over the past six months, sales at our family-owned restaurant, Bubba’s Roadhouse & Saloon, have dropped by double digits because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, if Ballot Amendment 2 passes in November with a $15 mandatory minimum wage hike, it could put my employees out of work and me out of business for good. This disastrous ballot amendment will only stall our economic recovery in Southwest Florida, and all across our state. Employees at restaurants like mine will be paid $15 an hour, from part-time students at FGCU to folks who have decades of experience in the industry. Most small businesses of any kind cannot support this kind of hit. I know mine can’t because we’ve already done the math. In the first year, it would cost my business an additional $86,000 to change the pay of our workers. Each year after, the costs would continue ballooning, and in five …
AMENDMENT 3 WILL HELP REPUBLICANS Recently, I had the opportunity to get into a bit of a debate with local party leadership concerning Amendment 3, known as the All Voters Vote amendment. It was engaging and respectful, which is rare these days, but it made me realize that Republicans have misguided concerns that I wish to address. Amendment 3, for those unaware, would create a blanket primary for state elections. This would mean that Democrats and Republicans would be placed on the same primary ballot, and the top two vote getters will succeed to the general election, regardless of party. Republicans have legitimate concerns. In Southwest Florida, the Republican nominee is virtually guaranteed a victory, meaning that in the Republican primary we can choose the most conservative candidate for the job. A blanket primary would theoretically open up elections to RINOs. It could also create a general election situation to …
For the last couple of years, a few Christian men and I have gotten together on Tuesday mornings for coffee. Because of the Coronavirus, our coffee shop of choice had to close its doors, so we curtailed that tradition for a while. But feeling the tug to start again, we’ve been meeting outside in the courtyard of a condo complex. Oh, the neighborhood contact-tracers needn’t be concerned, we keep a reasonable distance and limit our gathering to under ten. If he’s lucky, Roger may get his chance to attend next week, as we plan to go to a lottery system. This Coronavirus, or covid 19, is always a hot topic at these gatherings, as well as the quality of the doughnuts, but last week one of the guys shared the bottom line of a sermon he heard. “Why Christians ought not have any fear of Corona.” I moved to the …
