 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Entire Zephyrhills council should review sales tax© St. Petersburg Times published January 15, 2003 Mike Bussell needs a history lesson. Monday night, the Zephyrhills council member joined with Cathi Compton to reject the idea of asking voters to consider a sales tax increase to build schools, pave roads, expand parks and libraries and fill public safety needs. "It's been voted down twice. The people have spoken twice. How many times do they have to bring it back," Bussell said, according to the Tampa Tribune, after declining to second a motion from Lance Smith that would have requested that the County Commission put the issue before the voters. It is certainly skewed political thinking from a guy who lost his first election for Zephyrhills City Council, but won his second time around a year later. If Bussell shared that same philosophy about his own candidacies, he wouldn't be in public office right now. More imperatively, it is erroneous. Pasco voters have never considered a sales tax increase for widespread infrastructure improvements. Bussell's assertion that it's been twice rejected is flat out wrong and typical of the misinformation that gets lobbed around too frequently on tax issues. Voters did turn down a sales tax increase for school construction eight years ago, the same time Hillsborough County also killed a school and public safety referendum. Those same Hillsborough voters okayed a 30-year, $2.7-billion sales tax increase one year later, which brought Raymond James Stadium and other improvements into existence. Good thing somebody had the fortitude to ask voters to again consider the tax issue there, otherwise the Buccaneers might be preparing for the NFC championship game right now from their home base in Los Angeles. We suspect Bussell's frame of reference might include Pasco voters' 1998 rejection of a municipal taxing district for law enforcement personnel, a vote which turned into a referendum of the previous sheriff's management style amid a campaign promoted with flawed data from the Sheriff's Office. Contrary to Bussell's politically convenient pessimism, others can point to voter approval of $23-million in property taxes in 1986 to build parks and libraries. Just eight months later, voters authorized another property tax increase to build new schools in June 1987. Those schools now are just as crowded as their predecessors, and the county's parks and libraries are in need of a $58-million, 10-year expansion, only half of which can be paid for with impact fees. In its current status, the proposed referendum would ask voters to increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent, with the 1 cent on the dollar increase dubbed Penny for Pasco. A school district consultant estimates the tax would generate $31-million a year, with schools and county splitting 90 percent and the six cities sharing the remaining 10 percent. For Zephyrhills, it would mean nearly $900,000 annually to be used for capital expenditures. There are certainly valid reasons to debate the sales tax issue, particularly with suspicions emerging that the county will attempt to grab more than 45 percent of the annual proceeds. Except Bussell and Compton don't even want to give voters the opportunity to have their say. That is unfortunate. Zephyrhills City Council should reconsider its position on the sales tax with all five council members present. Monday night, the absence of sales tax supporter Clyde Bracknell helped kill Smith's motion. Debate on a widespread quality of life issue shouldn't be killed by a council minority's narrow view.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Pasco Times |
