The news bores me, frustrates me, and irritates me. OJ in the news again you would think that we would be done and over with this once and for all.

OJ is suffering this year and this fall is going to be a big one. Florida has planned to spend nearly $4 million dollars this year alone on the issue; however, Crist is considering taking back $2 million. This is a significant blow to the state and it’s potential revenue. “The state is attempting to balance the general revenue budget [on our backs]” said Ken Keck, the department’s executive director. “The concept that we have money lying around is not true,” said Ben Albritton, the commission chairman.

But where is all this OJ money coming from? It appears to be coming from taxes. Every case that gets put out is generating tax revenue. Bolstering a $60.3 million dollar budget according to the 2007-2008 projections. To  generate funds Crist has proposed raising the annual “service charge”.  The proposed increase from 3.3 percent to 8 percent would take $1.98 million out of the department’s current budget, according to the governor’s proposal. Crist’s Sept. 6 proposal totals $983.2 million toward closing the budget gap, estimated at more than $1 billion. (theledger.com)
Cited in the article, “If the Legislature approves the governor’s proposal, most of the money would come off the department’s largest program, television and online advertising for oj, the state’s largest citrus commodity. The current budget calls for spending $15.4 million to purchase TV time and online OJ ads.” If this is what it takes to get OJ out of the media, I am all for it.

Lets just hope that the storms coming in to the East Coast are not going to affect the harvests too much. OJ is already over priced.

Article sniped from http://www.theledger.com/article/20070920/NEWS/709200510/1039