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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

Trim Notice Nightmare

Having received my shell game/smoke and mirrors notice, known by some as the Trim Notice, I assume that I am as disgusted and enraged as many property owners in Florida. Allowing for an additional $25,000 homestead exemption and the whopping less than 5 percent loss in value according to the appraiser's office (another travesty), it's actually possible that my property taxes may drop by less than $10.

It brings to mind "The People's Governor's" comment, "drop like a rock." Let's consider a number of factors. The "Super Exemption," crafted by the esteemed Florida Legislature crashed. The ballot proposal crafted by the Tax and Budget Reform Commission has been removed from the ballot.

Is there something in the air in Tallahassee that renders normally intelligent people an inability to perform? It's like there must be a plot to fail? I remember very well when Sen. Mike Fasano wrote to Hernando Today, congratulating the Legislature for a job well done with respect to property tax reform.

Fact: Homes are being foreclosed on at a never-been-seen-before rate! Fact: Jobs are being lost! My opinion is that some of the blame falls directly on the shoulders of the Legislature and runaway spending by local government.

Why? If people weren't paying $300 to $1,000 a month in property taxes for a modest home, some of these homes and jobs may have been saved. I was so silly to assume that real reform could happen in an election year.

If those who have been at the helm during this disaster are not able to perform, it's time to give someone else a chance.

David Miesch

Brooksville
Tax Swap From

Smaller To Larger Pocket

Frances Earl should take the blinders off when she discusses taxes. She asked the rhetorical question of how high sales taxes can go. Well an example or two is in order.

In Europe, Sweden seems to lead the pack with a value-added tax of 25 percent. VAT is the same as sales tax just included in the purchase price not figured separately as we do. Only Luxembourg and Cyprus charge the minimum that the European Union requires to be charged - 15 percent. So these are about the extremes charged in the countries that the Democrats hold up as examples we should emulate.

As for Social Security, if you are self-employed you pay the full 12 percent yourself, only those who have an employer pay the 6 percent. It is just possible that your employer might give you a little bit of that 6 percent as a pay raise if he didn't have to give it to the government.

Amendment 5 may not be perfect, but to say that a level of school funding must be guaranteed beyond one year out is not feasible. With the number of families leaving Florida because of the downturn in the economy and high insurance and tax rates, school enrollment could take a drastic downturn in any given year.

A sales tax is broad-based and taxes not only those who don't own property but those who are visiting our state. Yes, it is a swap, but one from a smaller pocket (homeowners) to a larger pocket (all who spend money in Florida)

Harry Chamberlain

Spring Hill

Corrupt, Unconscionable

After reading Dallas Dunlap's latest attempt to put lipstick on the Social Security pig (Aug 15, Hernando Today), I'm still not feeling all warm and fuzzy about the program because there seem to be a few points that he dismissed or glossed over.

Mr. Dunlap goes to great lengths to differentiate between "income" and "wealth," as though that makes a "simple income transfer" less pernicious and nobler than a "wealth transfer." As the lawyers would say, it's a distinction without a difference. For many workers their paycheck is the sum total of their wealth and they know 12.4 percent of it (including the half that's joyfully "contributed" by the employer) has been taken away and given to someone else. Call it what you will, they worked for it, but they didn't get it.

Some consider this "simple income transfer" to be the righteous province of government, but I'm not one of them. In 1875 Karl Marx said, "From each according to his means; to each according to his needs." Marx's corrupt ideology ultimately ended up in the landfill of history, but only after destroying millions of people and entire nations in its cause.

Moving on, Mr. Dunlap asserts that it's "not at all certain that there will ever be a payroll tax shortfall." Really? Just exactly what is going to happen to change the demographics of our aging population? A pandemic that eliminates everyone over 65 perhaps? Or are we simply going to let so many illegal aliens into the country that their payroll taxes will keep the system afloat while we hope that they don't stick around long enough themselves to collect? I guess we could raise the retirement age to 75 and reduce benefits to 10 cents on the dollar. That would work, but I don't think it will sit well with the voters. No, the tipping point will come and one day the amount of money being injected into the Social Security Trust Fund won't keep pace with the outflow.

Unlike Dunlap, I don't take comfort that the solution is "Congress simply appropriating enough money to cover the shortage." Oh, I guess Congress could cut spending in other areas to compensate for the money that must, by law, be returned to the Trust Fund, but I wouldn't count that ever happening. No, as usual it will be the income taxpayers who will be made to bear the burden and, yes, it will also be their "wealth" that will be attached via the IRS as they pay taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains. The other alternative is to turn on the printing presses and pay retirees with inflated, devalued dollars.

I agree with Mr. Dunlap that Social Security is a "safe" program in that it will always be there unless something is done to phase it out. It may not be worth what the recipients were promised and it may not kick-in when they expected, but they'll certainly get something. The difference is that while I find what must be done to America's earners and producers to provide that something is corrupt and unconscionable, and he does not.

John S.V. Weiss

Spring Hill

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