The limits of satire.

• Author: Rocawich, Linda
• Position: H. Wayne Huizenga's huge Everglades Blockbuster Park

May 14, 1993: "H. Wayne Huizenga announces a master plan to build a giant theme complex in south Florida, featuring baseball, hockey, basketball, an amusement park, movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, condominiums, a police force, an air force, an independent government recognized by the U.N., and the power to declare war. Everybody agrees this would be good."

So wrote Dave Barry in his day-by-day, year-end review, a feat he performs annually for The Miami Herald. In other references to what has come to be known as "Wayne's World," Barry noted in his December 26 story that the state turned over the deed to the Everglades in June, that the United Nations granted Huizenga full legal control of the Atlantic Ocean in July, and that the U.S. Congress exempted Wayne's World from the U.S. Constitution in August.

If Barry thought he was exaggerating, he was only slightly wrong.

In mid-January 1994, Huizenga formally asked the Florida legislature for authority to impose taxes, condemn land. issue tax-exempt bonds, and establish a police force on a 2,500-acre plot of land that sits on the edge of the Everglades, astride the line separating Dade and Broward counties (which include Miami and Fort Lauderdale, among many other smaller municipalities).

In early April, the legislature approved most of Huizenga's proposal. Blockbuster Park (the complex's real name) has taxing authority (both sales and property) and the right to charge tolls on its roads, issue tax-exempt bonds, condemn land, issue no-bid contracts for such park services as garbage collection, and award construction contracts without the usual government-bidding requirements.

The legislature balked at the police force: Huizenga may hire a security force without arrest powers, but will have to rely on the police and fire departments of nearby communities.

And who is responsible...