Banner2

HCA Today

BREAKING NEWS

 

 Dear Friend of HCA,     
   
IMPORTANT:
  
Unless your voice is heard the Tourist Development Council (TDC) will remove all funds now available for advertising and promoting Highlands County art & culture (A&C)!  They will remove the budget itself!. TDC will be asking the county commissioners to approve their plan, soon.
  • No funds will be set aside for art & culture in the future. 
  • TDC will be empowered to ignore promoting A&C, unchallenged.
If you want to stop the TDC attempt to eliminate art and culture's funding as a percentage of tourist tax revenue email the commissioners (emails at right) and let them know.  
 
Copy and paste the below letter and email it to them, or use your own words.  Click on the links to the right and be heard.
 
Dear Commissioner,
     Please do not allow the Tourist Development Council to eliminate art & culture (A&C) as a category with a separate budget used exclusively for the promotion of art & culture.
 
     State, federal, university and industry studies prove A&C is the dominant attraction for tourists in Florida.  It also has a history of bolstering rural economies and enriching the community as a whole. 
    
 I ask you to assure that a percentage of tourist tax revenue will be set aside exclusively to promote the A&C assets of our county. 
      Sincerely,
 
County commissioners are elected and should hear you. The TDC is appointed and could care less.  Fortunatly, they are governed by the county commissioners.

Take a minute and give the TDC a wake up call. 
Email links to the commissioners are blue in the right column.
 
Please forward this to everyone you think would be interested.
  
Questions? Contact Fred, info@heartlandculturalalliance.org

Letters 

 

"I hope everyone lets the county commission know they don't want the TDC to have a blank check book in light of their financial history. Their proposal shuts out arts and culture completely which they did anyway in the past but now they want the public to have nothing to say about it" 
  Bob Fishel 

For a decade TDC has not only ignored its mandate to promote art & culture, but diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated to A&C for their own purposes.  They could do this only because the A&C community was fragmented and had no voice.  That's not true anymore. Speak up. 

E-Mail
Our 

county commissioners
 

They need to know what you think.
  

Links to:

Jack Richie

Barbara Stewart

Don Elwell

Greg Harris
Ron Handley

 

Please Let us know  you care enough to make a difference.click: HCA  and tell us you responded. 

 

This is our first email campaign and knowing how many  answered the call  will help us gauge the results.Your name and address will not be released.

 

Email campaigns are remarkably effective.  

They are used 

successfully by many arts organizations

Politicians take note of emails (read votes).

 

When this issue comes up for a vote You will be notified.

 

Remember the classic scene in the movie Network when Peter Finch opens his apartment window, leans out and cries "I'm mad as hell and I''m not going to take this anymore".  Windows all over the city opened and a multitude of people did likewise. 
Things changed.

 

Your turn.