Catching up on vets, cable, spending.

Today we’re following up on three columns past — about veterans in need, cable-company frustrations and the secret spending of tax dollars.

(With a cameo by Taylor Swift thrown in for good measure.)

Providing some much-needed help

Last fall, I shared the story of a pioneering program at the University of Central Florida that helps soldiers and first responders who are struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The UCF Restores treatment differs from others in that it uses virtual reality to take those suffering from PTSD back to the scenarios that severely impacted their psyches — whether it’s a street in Baghdad that’s under attack or a darkened nightclub rocked by gunfire.

Using sights, sounds and even smell (smoke, sweat, you name it), UCF’s innovative program has seen success rates that far outpace traditional therapy.

That was the good news. The bad news was that the program was running out of money.

I made the case that that was unacceptable — that this country is too quick to send men and women into harm’s way and yet too indifferent to their needs afterwards.

Fortunately, local legislators agreed. State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, immediately began championing the cause and was joined by state Reps. Mike Miller, R-Winter Park, and Carlos Smith, D-Orlando.

They were relentless in telling their peers that they must do more than simply talk about veterans and first responders. And it worked.

Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron included $2.5 million in the state budget to keep this worthy program going.

Assuming Gov. Rick Scott approves, the money will allow the program to hire more clinicians, establish a statewide call center, set up a satellite office and help develop peer-response programs in other cities.

“These funds will benefit all Floridians,” said Restores director Deborah Beidel, “not just those in Central Florida.”

That’s a worthy goal. So kudos to everyone involved.

Spectrum CEO’s chart-topping salary

Sunday’s column focused on Spectrum’s entry into Central Florida’s cable market — and the rampant complaints about customer service.

Reader response was intense, consisting almost entirely of … well, more complaints.

But several readers also noticed that, on the same weekend my column ran, the New York Times ran a list of America’s highest-paid CEOs. And guess who topped the list?

Thomas Rutledge, CEO of Spectrum’s parent company, Charter Communications … pulled down $98 million last year.

Thomas Rutledge, the CEO of Spectrum’s parent company, Charter Communications … who pulled down $98 million last year.

That’s a whole lotta monthly DVR charges.

It’s also about $270,000 a day. (If he works every day of the year.) More than the CEOs of Disney, Nike, CBS, Exxon-Mobil, Netflix … you get the idea. Everyone.

Why? Because even though people complain about the service, they still use it.

And that probably won’t change until there’s more competition in the world of Internet providers, whether through private or municipal carriers.

Stop with all the secret spending

Monday’s newspaper carried a story about how Visit Orlando spends millions of tax dollars without telling taxpayers precisely how.

The story, “Millions spent on secret marketing partnerships at Visit Orlando,” noted that the tourism-promotion agency refused to disclose full details about sponsorship deals it struck with sporting events and that it offered only vague explanations — such as “marketing cooperative” or “event payment” — for other big checks

That’s not good enough. Public money deserves public disclosure.

Visit Orlando — which gets more than $50 million in hotel taxes each year — says some details need to be kept secret so that Orlando “is not placed at a competitive disadvantage.”

Sound familiar? That’s what Visit Florida used to say about how much it was paying Pitbull to rap and tweet about Florida’s “Sexy Beaches.”

But state leaders forced transparency anyway. That’s when we learned taxpayers paid Pitbull $1 million to promote Florida — while New York City, by comparison, got Taylor Swift to promote the Big Apple for free, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

See, transparency doesn’t just instill public confidence. It can also lead to smarter spending.

That’s why Visit Orlando needs to come clean about all it spends as well, whether we’re talking about payments to a sports group, a PR firm, a Brazilian magazine or the Orlando Sentinel.

Orange County leaders should demand as much. Mayor Teresa Jacobs, who launched her political career by touting transparency and open government, said Wednesday that she’s studying the issue. Hopefully when she’s done, she’ll act.

Because tax dollars and secrets are a dangerous combination. smaxwell@orlando sentinel.com