• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

FL House repeals Ethanol mandate

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Cor66Vette

New member
This is an email I received today from FL House Rep Matt Gaetz

Dear friends,

Victory is sweetest in the legislative process when we prevail for the cause of freedom. Today, the Florida House of Representatives passed HB 4001 repealing Florida’s burdensome ethanol mandate. This bill will take power away from the government to force citizens to buy ethanol. It returns that power to the people by enhancing the free market and giving consumers the choice regarding what fuel we wish to buy.

Now the fight turns to the Florida Senate. My hope is that the Senate will take up and pass HB 4001 without amendments. This will send the message that - whether the issue is energy, education, taxes or regulation – government should exercise humility, resist the urge to mandate consumer behavior, and let freedom rein from our pocketbooks to the fuel pump.
Thank you for allowing me to serve you. This was a good day.
Warmly,

Matt
 
:dancer01: Hope they don't torpedo it in the Senate. There's only one gas station that I know of locally where I can get 93 octane ethanol free gasoline.
 
The cost of non-ethanol 93 octane at the Sunoco I went to on Wednesday was $4.139 per gallon.
 
I only know of one place locally, and it's a Sunoco station on the south side of Tallahassee. :shrug01:
 
FL Senate in agreement with FL House and repeals Ethanol Mandate

This is an email update I received today.

Today, the Florida Senate passed SB 320 sponsored by Senator Evers. This language is equivalent to the House bill that was passed two weeks ago and repeals the ethanol mandate in the state of Florida. I am proud to say that both chambers of our Legislature agree that consumers in Florida should not be subject to oppressive mandates.
This legislation will now be sent to Governor Rick Scott. We are hopeful that after this long battle, the faithful patrons of our great state will be relieved of the overwhelmingly negative effects of ethanol. Following two years of fighting for this repeal, there is only one step is left before it will officially become law.
I cannot thank you enough for your endless support. It is an honor serving you and I look forward to the final weeks of a successful legislative session.
 
If Scott signs it, I wonder how long it will take before non-e gasoline shows back up at the pumps? And I'm guessing that the gasoline retailers will have to choose between one or the other, as I suppose they would be unlikely to want to put in an additional set of pumps so that they could offer BOTH.
 
Rich Z said:
If Scott signs it, I wonder how long it will take before non-e gasoline shows back up at the pumps? And I'm guessing that the gasoline retailers will have to choose between one or the other, as I suppose they would be unlikely to want to put in an additional set of pumps so that they could offer BOTH.
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and then they could raise the prices....I see where Leon County voted to up the tax on gas another 5 cents....
 
85vette said:
and then they could raise the prices....I see where Leon County voted to up the tax on gas another 5 cents....
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You would think that they would pull their head out of their collective asses long enough to take a look and notice just how high gasoline prices already are and consider the impact on the local economy when it becomes far too expensive to drive to shop at local merchants. Oh yeah, that's right. They also want to curtail internet sales because the local merchants are whining about people using a much more convenient and cost effective use of their time to shop in that manner.

Tell you what, if they are going to try to eliminate all the benefits of shopping on the internet, then how about making it a companion law that all local brick and mortar retailers MUST carry ALL items in their catalog IN STOCK at all times? That way I don't HAVE to shop online for many of the items I want to buy. I don't know how many times I have wasted my time and money (on gasoline) trying to find something local and have the local shop salesperson pipe up "well, we'll be glad to order it for you." :rolleyes: Why do you THINK I'm here looking for it right HERE, right NOW? So yeah, they most certainly want their cake and eat it too....

Don't get me started on THAT topic.... :mad:
 
Rich Z said:
...
Tell you what, if they are going to try to eliminate all the benefits of shopping on the internet, then how about making it a companion law that all local brick and mortar retailers MUST carry ALL items in their catalog IN STOCK at all times? That way I don't HAVE to shop online for many of the items I want to buy. ... :mad:
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I hadn't heard that side of the argument before. :thumbsup:
 
Not to mention the price! Last month I needed a digital "fuel gauge" for an electric golf cart. I went to a local merchant that we have an account with. He ordered it in the next day. Charged me $92.00 for the little gem.

I installed it and it didn't work correctly. I took the whole cart to them and they determined that I had indeed installed it correctly, the gauge must be bad. He said he would have to order another one as they didn't carry them in stock.(I had just bought one, you would think they'd realize that you might sell some if you had them in stock?!) I said, no, I'll do something different, just credit my account. Looked on Ebay and found one for $22.00, shipped free! Ordered it on Friday and it was in my mailbox on Monday! And it works correctly!
 
Yeah, no one seems to be mentioning the fact that small businesses doing business on the internet will likely need to hire another full time employee just to keep track of all the tax rates in every locality in the country and fill out the requisite forms and write those checks out to each and every locality they do business with. So quite likely this will put many of them right out of business, since they have been skirting the edge of bankruptcy anyway with the economy being like it has been.

If this sort of bill is not proof that those dumb asses in Washington D.C. are just plain flat out insane, I don't know what is. You would think that at least they would have someone on their staff that would slap them around with a reality check.
 
What they SHOULD do, if they must ad a fuel tax...put .05 on gas, and take off .10 from diesel. We need to give those truckers a break.
 
shakedown067 said:
What they SHOULD do, if they must ad a fuel tax...put .05 on gas, and take off .10 from diesel. We need to give those truckers a break.
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I can only agree with your "take off .10 from diesel" thought, but :NoNo: on the .05 gas tax. Already too many taxes on too many things.

In order for us to survive, we have to run a budget in our homes. We can't simply go in the back and pick from the money tree, nor can we just keep printing worthless paper the way Uncle Sam has been doing for the past few years. Being fiscally responsible is uncharacteristic of those in DC.

gax-tax-increase-say-no.jpg
 
Actually, I believe that what they SHOULD do is to learn to live within their means. Stop treating us citizens like an inexhaustible supply of funds to be squandered on any pet project that comes flitting into their little heads. Everyone has had to tighten their belt lately, so maybe they should figure out how to do the same. Don't spend money you don't have yet, and don't make unrealistic pie in the sky predictions of hoped for income to base your budget upon.

So yeah, this is all tying together nicely for them, I suppose. Knock the feet out of the attraction of online sales so people will be more inclined to DRIVE to the brick and mortar stores (thereby buying more gasoline and providing more tax money).

Speaking of which, Connie and I went to a local brick and mortar store today at the mall, and Connie wanted something in particular to buy to send off as a gift. Sorry, not in stock, but we can order it for you. Yeah, great. So we wasted our time and money (gasoline) driving out there just to find that out.

Simply fact of the matter is that there are LOTS of places to live in this country where local stores just don't have what you want to buy. So penalize everyone just so the state governments can collect their sales taxes.

Anyone else getting pissed off that we are being treated like we OWE every damn tax and fee the government can foist upon us any time they please? I'm just damned tired of being treated like a tax cow that can be milked as long and as hard as they please until I'm completely drained.
 
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I agree Rich, government has gotten way too big. But those in government don't care as long as they "get theirs"!
 
The simple fact of the matter is that with the price of gasoline being like it is, buying online just makes a whole lot more sense anyway. It reduces exhaust emissions from the vehicles, and doesn't waste the gasoline resources on frivolous hunts for products. Instead of running all over town looking for something, sit at the computer, find what you need, click-click-click, it's ordered and you just have to wait for the UPS truck to show up at your door. Please tell me why that just is not a better and more efficient way to engage in retail commerce anyway. It also saves countless man-hours just driving to and from stores, not to mention the time just LOOKING for what you are wanting to buy. Which oftentimes is a fruitless endeavor.

And the argument that brick and mortar stores are suffering from the out of state sales is all just plain BS. Most of the major chains have an internet presence anyway, and there is certainly nothing preventing ANY store from having it's own internet presence. THEIR business with out of state customers has the very same advantage as the faux complaint about their local sales suffering because of internet competition.

Obviously, what the REAL issue is all about is the state itself losing out on money from sales taxes. There IS no other issue of note concerning this issue. They are just trying to use smoke and mirrors with a thin veneer of "it's for the welfare of our good citizens that those taxes be collected" to justify their greed for even more money to be squeezed out of the populace. They really don't give a rat's ass about those brick and mortar stores at all.

So if they make companies that gross less than $1 million dollars exempt from the law, guess what is going to happen? Yep, you got it. That will now be a selling point for those small companies to get your business. And when they start getting close to the ceiling, why, simply spin off parts of your company into other companies to keep them under the limit. This would even make a lot of sense to me. Heck, when I want something in a hurry but can't get it locally, I will try like heck to find some place in an adjoining state selling what I want.

When I was buying parts for my car, I ALWAYS checked with Summit Racing first because they shipped out of Georgia, and I often had the parts I ordered the NEXT DAY with standard ground shipping.

And when buying rather big ticket items, I NEVER shop local for them. Simply because the added charge of state sales tax makes the purchase more than I want to spend. So if forced to pay it in the future, such buying decisions will likely be delayed or even NEVER made. So who wins out in that sort of scenario? Really, nobody does.

The world is changing the way it does business with the advent of the proliferation of the internet and the new ease of access to commerce. Maybe the companies that want to stay in business in this new world just need to change as well, and the laws just stay the hell out of the way and stop trying to maintain the archaic and stagnant status quo at all costs.
 
Rich Z said:
The world is changing the way it does business with the advent of the proliferation of the internet and the new ease of access to commerce. Maybe the companies that want to stay in business in this new world just need to change as well, and the laws just stay the hell out of the way and stop trying to maintain the archaic and stagnant status quo at all costs.
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As long as a politician has a breath left in him/her, that will never happen my friend.....
 
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