WMBB TV

Web Poll

During a commercial break,I happened to hear that your web poll tonight was on the half-cent sales tax for school repairs, so I went on line to vote on it at about 10 o’clock. Only 37 people had voted in the poll at that point, but you made no mention of that when you reported the percentages of the results on the newscast. I realize that the web poll screen says the poll is unscientific, but the viewers don’t know that. I feel certain that the sample is far too small to be representative, and in any case, the “anti-tax” (any tax) crowd is likely to be first in line to register their opinions on such a question.
My suggestion is that you mention that the poll is unscientific and tell how many people responded to the question when you report the results each night.
I would like to add that I think you folks do a fine job day in and day out, and I try not to miss the broadcast. Thank you for producung a quality product. I suspect it takes both a lot of ability and work.
Best regards,
Dick Thompson
Panama City

NEWS13 RESPONSE

Web Polls have been a part of our broadcasts for several years now. Early on we made the decision to quote the percentages to stay consistent. The amount of people who vote varies from web poll to web poll.
All of the information is readily available when you check the web poll on line. We believe most viewers know the web polls are just a snapshot of residents opinions at the moment, but we will make a better effort to remind viewers in the future during the broadcast, thanks to your suggestion.

Posted by on 07/11 at 10:38 PM

After hearing the ads on the radio and the story on the evening news, I want to see receipts for where the money went. The news story claims that 183 million was collected since 1998 but only accounts for 25.8 million of it. I would have to see that all of the money was spent on school improvements before I could even think of extending the tax another 10 years.
As far as tourists paying part of the burden, why shouldn’t they help pay for it? If we as Bay County residents travel and / or vacation anywhere, we have to go by the local laws and rules of the places we visit. This includes paying taxes while we are there. what makes visitors to Bay County exempt from paying the same tax as the locals?
Prove to me that the money is spent as it is intended and I will gladly vote yes to extend the tax. Otherwise, I vote no.
Posted by on 11/01 at 07:15 PM
Whatever happened to the Florida Lottery? Why does the everyday American have to keep paying more and more taxes? Let’s have our State Rep petition to earmark some of the FL Lottery money to these Bay County school projects, and try and keep the hands out of the working persons pockets for once. Gas is up, and now more taxes are wanted...go after the Lottery NOT us!
Posted by on 11/01 at 10:52 PM
How much has been raised these past ten years and how much went where?

B Cayce
Posted by on 11/02 at 12:03 AM
It’s too bad that some of the $92 million from the sale of the old airport couldn’t have gone to fund the school issue. But the good ol’ boys decided to line their pockets. No matter how you slice it, a golden opportunity was missed at the expense of the children and the consumer.
Posted by on 11/03 at 09:59 AM
Lost by 273 votes. Looks like the school board’s arrogance finally caught up with them. They could have chosen a better spokesperson, Ginger Littleton’s years as the head of the uppity and elitist Visual Arts Center was not an asset. Trying to connect with working folks and retirees on a fixed income in inflationary times by repeatedly asserting “our children deserve the best, they do better in new buildings, they need the very latest in technology” while evading the questions about facts and figures just doesn’t work. Especially after the school board has just come off a very public and costly urination contest over who got to choose their buddy to be principal.

I was appalled at the deal with the signs on the school ground. Openly disregarding an ordinance is
bad enough, but when they got some judge to fix it for them to allow them to stay, it really turned me off. I have seen way too many sweetheart deals by the local courts over the years, and the people whom receive them are almost always of suspect integrity. If the school board can get away with bending the law to meet their needs on this occasion, why would they not do it again, whenever and for whatever?

It is my opinion that the school board would have been much better off by putting the Citizen’s Advisory Committee front and center, and let them
speak of the work they did and the plans for the future work. They were almost ciphers save for one fellow in the video from the Citizens for Bay Schools website.
They also should have addressed the question of superfluous support personnel, especially after it came up in the Sullivan/Littleton debate. Somebody hired those people for some good (I hope) reason, and the money from the sales tax is not earmarked for them anyway. So why evade the issue? Are there actually too many support people?

I am a complete outsider to the school system, and getting information other than proclamations from the school board about “what a great job they have been doing” there really wasn’t a whole lot of hard facts available. After studying on it for a while, I came to the conclusion that this was the
correct way to go about raising funds for the local school system. It keeps them from having to beg for money for a few years (costly in itself), it involves tourists in a resort community to spread the burden around, it will keep my property taxes down and the tax is so minor that it is scarcely noticeable.

It is really a tragedy that some of the superior intellects working in the school system couldn’t sit down and figure a way to explain this, instead of giving us a song and dance routine with shenanigans on the side.
Posted by on 11/07 at 12:40 AM

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