East Pasco Republican Club Christmas Celebration
Gubernatorial Candidate James Fishback visits Pasco County
By Susan Slater
December’s meeting was a time for festive cheer,opportunity to honor local charities, and future motivation.The evening commenced with heartfelt prayers, poems and presentations and critical importance of voting.
The presentation of charitable donations went to two remarkable nonprofit organizations: Hope Services and the Academy of Spectrum Diversity both serving special needs populations.
President Murray expressed sincere appreciation for Board members. Their dedication, leadership, and teamwork were acknowledged as key factors contributing to the club’s ongoing success.
Allattendees were reminded to remain engaged and hopeful for the coming year. She spoke directly to the youth to recognize the power of their voices.
First speaker, Bill Cronin, Pasco Economic Development Center, collaborates with public and privatepopulations to drive economic growth in Pasco County. From the list of credentials, President Murray noted Cronin does not sleep.
Pasco EDC is funded by both taxes (Pennies for Pasco) and donations. Cronin talks about development in Pasco County and 80% of the time spent on existing businesses to help them grow while keeping costs low. He does recognize the migration of people coming to Florida makingit more expensive, but is still a low tax state, fourth in the nation.
Pasco EDC has incubators to foster ideas into businesses in industries in our area, ie. Food, shipping, warehouse, trades, technologyand more. Big businesses are moving to Pasco with many great jobs for the community.
“I'm really excited that Zephyrhills is starting to see companies moving here and getting civically involved,” said Cronin. “Presidents and CEOs willlive here donating to local charities and local schools.”
Cronin went on to say that 48% of the people are just one paycheck away from homelessness. EDC is working to decrease that percentage with job development and economic growth. He stated the jobs of today were not the jobs of yesterday and the jobs of tomorrow will not be the jobs of today, therefore stressed the importance of training and development.
Next speaker up, James T. Fishback, Founder and CEO of Azoria, a free-thinking investment firm and founder of Incubate Debate, a non-profit, for students to learn to debate.
Fishback is running for governor in Florida. Eight days into his candidacy he spoke for EPRC with an enormous amount of energy and passion for his platform.
“I do not want to re-invent the wheel from a DeSantis governorship,” said Fishback. “I want to keep the wheels spinning.”
His platform consists of Christian and family values, school choice, great jobs for our children, healthcare options along with a strong stance on illegal migration, over-development, eradicate DEI, foreign investors and Soros funded prosecutors soft on crime.
“We need to be for the victims,” said Fishback, “not the criminals.”
Great jobs for our children mean they can buy a home, raise a family and then retire with dignity.
“You all built this country, invested in it, worked hard and paid taxes.” said Fishback. “It is time for us to take the baton now, so that you may retire with some dignity.”
