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Hernando Today

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 31, 2008

Amendment 5 Is

Taxpayers' Only Hope

Our only hope in fairness in Florida is the November amendment to remove schools from our real estate taxes and replace it with an additional sales tax of only 1 percent, which still won't impact food.

Every time we get close to some voter relief, the court overturns it. This has to stop. The few judges, whether morally and ethically right, are holding all of Florida hostage to ridiculous rules and laws they make up by their "opinions." What about the majority's opinion? Millions should trump a handful.

More than half of my home taxes are handed over to the local school board and superintendent to squander and that amount is mostly mandated by the state of Florida, not local voters. We have no control over the amount or the direction of that funding.

With a sales tax, we can directly control our spending/costs. Don't need to buy a new car that's taxable as the old one will do fine. Don't need a 72-inch HD TV as the old 33-inch tube-type works just fine.

If my financial ship is going to sink, I would like my cold dead hand to at least be able to optionally clutch a ham sandwich or a TV remote as my ship goes under.

Doug Adams

Spring Hill

Stop The Blaming,

Find Solutions

Lots of heated rhetoric burning up the atmosphere these days about the price of oil and therefore our gasoline, but all that heat isn't doing much to resolve the problems.

Should we allow offshore drilling and tap the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve? Drill into the oil shale? Put up hundreds of windmill electric generators? Cover a thousand square miles of desert with solar collectors? Subsidize the wind farm builders and operators? Drive less and drive slower? Trade in our gas guzzlers (however defined) for pint-sized sippers?

Answer: Yes.

No matter what we do, including all of the above, even if we started today, it's not going to bring the price of gas at the pump down any appreciable amount by next Thursday - or next month or maybe even next year.

We need to realize that the whole situation is incredibly complex, it's been building since we traded in the buggy for a horseless carriage and whole industries and worldwide market forces are involved.

Our country is huge compared with most of the European countries, so it doesn't do much good to try comparing our situation with, say, Britain, or even Germany or France, where you can drive through three or four countries in a day. Even most of our cities and towns sprawl over dozens of miles just like our own Hernando County. Bicycles are fine, but not if the nearest grocery store is three miles or more away. THE Bus is OK for some folks, but the routes and schedules don't come anywhere close to what would make more people climb aboard.

So what to do?

First, starting today, we can all drive less, drive slower, keep our vehicles tuned properly and plan our trips to minimize our gas usage.

Second, we can encourage our government to get behind all of the proposed replacements for fossil fuel - wind, solar, nuclear, biofuels. Yes, it will be a while before these can be built and operating. But if we don't start, "a while" will be farther and farther away.

Third, we can start going after the oil reserves we already have. If oil companies have leases they're not operating, make them start.

Finally, we can stop yelling at each other and putting down any suggestions but our own and start cooperating in finding solutions we can all live with. Stop blaming the Democrats or the Republicans and start letting our representatives know that we want them to do their part in solving the problems.

In other words, lead, follow or get out of the way!

Gail B. Leatherwood

Spring Hill

Humorous Irony

Recently, on the way home from Brooksville to Spring Hill up until my turn off of Cortez, I followed a white city or county pickup 149-06. This vehicle changed lanes several times and never once used a turn signal.

I thought that I would get up beside him and tell him he needed to have the shop check out his turn signals. When I got up beside him, there was a round emblem with Maintenance Department in the center, so I just smiled and drove on home.

I told my wife when I got home, and she also thought it was funny.

Walter Searle

Spring Hill

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