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Frigid '09: Nothing To Laugh About

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

DEC. 31, 2009 - With "Auld Lang Syne" cued for its moment in the midnight spotlight and stemware - brimming with the first year's batch of Florida Estate Winery special-edition, kumquat-infused champagne - raised high, it is time to bid adieu to 2009, an interesting year, to say no more.

In fact, no small number of those who live and/or work in Pasco County came to regard the past 12 months as nothing less than a burden to be endured, a test to be mastered, a gauntlet to be survived.

Recall a couple of weeks ago how nobody laughed when County Commissioner Jack Mariano proposed issuing everyone with a Pasco County address a T-shirt that said, "I Survived 2009 ... And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"? Well, the year just concluding was no chortling matter.

Remember, it all started on January's final day with the Kumquat Festival Blizzard, the storm that buried Dade City revelers and all of Pasco east of the Suncoast Parkway in a foot of snow. Old-timers said they'd never seen anything to compare.

At least, not until February's Big Chill County Fair, eight days of sub-freezing temps that featured such impromptu highlights as an ice-sculpting competition, luge racing on the midway and a dunk-tank clown who sought worker's compensation for injuries to his backside after a week of being dropped onto a hard-frozen tub of ice.

How Cold Was It?

The uncommonly harsh winter was reflected in Pasco's refrigerated economy, which was so cold - How cold was it? - it was so cold, doctors started performing outpatient surgeries from the backs of trucks parked along State Road 54. Tonsillectomies, $12. With anesthesia, $17.50.

The economy was so cold, lawyers offered two-for-one lawsuits. It was so cold, sign companies mass-produced placards: Will (blank) for food. It was so cold, members of Citizens for Sanity reorganized and recommitted themselves to an amended cause: More Growth Is Smart Growth Is More Growth.

In the April municipal elections, only candidates who vowed to return their city stipends to the treasury prevailed. Their example convinced incumbents to do the same.

And things began to turn around. Some credited the long-percolating federal bailouts, others the early effects of President Obama's stimulus package, which seemed to have lots of people leaning on shovels on the sides of roads or rearranging orange traffic-control cones, and watching as colleagues held up flip signs that said "Stop" and "Not So Fast."

Time Again To Blossom

But as summer steered into autumn and Pasco residents grew increasingly nostalgic for a return to the go-go years, county commissioners embraced out-of-the-box radicalism. Just in time for the yuletide shopping season, they ordered an emergency suspension of the extra-penny sales tax, followed by an across-the-board quarter-mill reduction in property tax rates. Each of the county's municipalities followed suit.

Suddenly, residents had a little more cash in their checking accounts, cash that went a little further. Consumers in surrounding counties took note, and shopping centers, especially near the county line, enjoyed fourth-quarter boomlets. Local employment surged.

It's early, yet, to offer conclusions about the application of supply-side micro-economics. But the good news about the brutal winter is in the uncommon Florida grapes we're using for toasting at the end of 2009.

Similarly, may 2010 bear potent human fruit from determination to endure.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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