Last night in a packed room in McGuire’s Irish Pub, attorney Bob Kerrigan announced that he was forming a group to be a watchdog over the budgets of county and city government. Kerrigan is the leader who spearheaded bringing Florida TaxWatch into town to figure out how Escambia County was spending our money.
The group will be called the Escambia County Taxpayers Association. The dues for individuals and businesses will be minimal. It will be divided into study groups that will tackle seveal areas of local government, such as the Downtown Improvement Board, Local Option Sales Taxes and Pensions. All findings will be published on the group’s website.
The room was a virtual Who’s Who of Pensacola – many of which wrote checks to get this new group off the ground: Jim Reeves, Jim Cronley, Charles Carlan, Danny Zimmern, Pat Windham, Joe Buehler, Justin Beck, Jeremy Brown, Dick Appleyard, Jane Birdwell, Bo Carter, Tony Terhaar, Fr. Jack Gray, John Peacock and others.
Politicians and government leaders: Sam Hall, Dave Murzin, Grover Robinson 4.0, Chris Jones, Lois Benson and Lisa Bernau.