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Hernando Today

As Promised, Property Tax Savings Go To Charity

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2008

The checking account balance is down. Savings are way down. Credit card debt seems insurmountable. And yet, I'm not complaining.

Hernando County Tax Collector Juanita B. Sykes CFC sent me a personalized notice of amount due on my 2008 property taxes. The assessed value on my home is nearly 5 percent less than 2007; the exemption figure is an additional $25,000; the taxable value is 25 percent lower. State and county governments have reduced my contribution to their spending by $355.09!

Thanks to fellow letter writer Christopher Miles, that unexpected reduction has gone to charity. In response to a letter I had submitted opposing Amendment 1, Miles shamed me with pointed comments that put me in a shady place among other slugs, suggesting I back my words with a charitable contribution.

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is my charity my choice. As I tallied the difference of this and last year's property tax responsibilities, the thought occurred to me that in all fairness the contribution should be given in Miles' name. The receipt shows the name Christopher Miles.

Of course, I could have made good use of the bonus for my selfish wants. The glass frame and lenses are worn and scratched but optometrists have assured me that the new bifocal script is again unchanged.

I don't spend money when it isn't necessary. If vanity overrides common sense, I've lost my family's conservative oversight to keep the scales balanced towards needs rather than wants.

A major shortcoming of Amendment 1 is that homeowners who have lived in the same house for a number of years will realize higher property taxes if they move to another home in Florida whose taxable value is in excess of the current home, whether across the street or elsewhere on the peninsula. Current laws prohibit property owners from taking their homestead exemption with them. You start all over again with subsequent years' increases eligible for the current 3 percent cap. People have to take this into consideration before moving.

NAMI Hernando, located at 10554 Spring Hill Drive in the Brothers 1 & 2 strip mall just west of Mariner Boulevard, operates The Beautiful Mind center with funding from the parent NAMI in Arlington, Va., and United Way. The grassroots organization was formed in 1979 and now operates in 46 states and two Canadian provinces.

"Consumers," not patients or clients, come from a variety of social groups: alcoholics, drug users/abusers, vets with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and others with diagnosed mental disorders such as bi-polar, schizophrenia, panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Self-diagnosis is very, very bad and too prevalent among consumers - with no health insurance, no housing, no subscribed medications and no income, many revert to playing mind games with whatever drugs they can get their hands on.

I can't imagine the hopelessness they feel when there's no one to turn to, all alone. They become street people.

With the help of Hernando NAMI, it doesn't have to be that way. For the helpless, there's a group home; subsidized housing is an option through the Harbor Behavioral Health Care Institute, although strict government requirements of Medicaid can be obstacles. The Harbor, itself, provides a wide range of assistance of social services.

I still feel misled by The Tampa Tribune and other major Florida newspapers' viewpoint that Amendment 1 was poorly written, deserving a "no" vote.

This fortunate donation comes as a result of ignoring the opinion laid out well in advance of Election Day, Jan. 29, by Hernando Today Editor Chris Wessel.

With much thanks to Christopher Miles, the $355.09 donation will be spent assisting people to safely pass through a period of life too challenging for their mental illnesses.

Whatever my complaints, I'll survive; others might not.

Ron Rae

Spring Hill

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