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ditor: Well, senior citizens and charitable organizations, shame on you. You did not do your homework and located yourself in the wonderful tax-them-until-they-bust city of New Port Richey. So now you can get out your checkbook and get ready to pay, pay, pay.
The current plan is to charge you a fee (tax) of up to 41 percent or more of your current real estate tax. How's that for a little raise in the old mortgage payment? The reasoning for this is to receive money from the person not paying their fair share, or any share. However this is slightly flawed reasoning. How many people in New Port Richey live in homes valued at $100,000 or more and pay no taxes? Probably none.
Under our City Council plan, a person living in a home valued at $24,000 will pay $70.22 lighting and fire protection fees annually. A person in a $100,000 home will pay the fee and still have to pay property taxes.
Seems some council members want to punish the people that have flexible incomes, people on fixed incomes and let's not forget the needy. They will now pay also. Let's see, have we forgotten anyone? Given the time I'm sure the City Council will find them and punish them.
Re: Judge may toss suit in rape, May 30
Editor: It's amazing to me that even as we have entered the 21st century that crimes against women are still taken so lightly. I am so upset and just plain angry by the statements in this article.
And there are so many, that I can't even begin to start quoting them. The stance of the city's lawyer for this case is disgraceful, quote:
Peter Walsh, the city's attorney for the civil case, said that under the law, "there is no duty that New Port Richey owes to a citizen to protect them from a criminal." What kind of tenet is that? Why do New Port Richey residents pay taxes? Or anyone in any town? Don't residents expect a certain amount of protection from criminal activity? No police force can be everywhere all the time, but what about the effort and attitude when a crime does occur?
Does anyone on that police force think that this woman caused this to happen to her?
Apparently so.
The gross negligence of this agency with the first rape is shameful. Maybe if the correct testing had been done, the perpetrator would have been captured before the second event occurred. It has been since discovered that this person had a history of this type of crime and had been in prison for 14 years for a previous rape.
Most of all, the attitude of Cpl. Jackie Pehote during this whole episode is an insult to all women. The insult and degradation practiced by the detective team against the victim including badgering her friends and family "to encourage the woman to tell the truth" is truly heinous. It would really be interesting to see how their attitudes would be if this happened to any female members of their own families.
You wonder why the statistics are so high for women not reporting rape? Don't wonder anymore, just read this article.
Editor: It's not much, this little parcel of land. Everyone who owns or rents a home has one unless you reside on a street without sidewalks. It is that little parcel of land between the edge of the curb and the edge of the sidewalk. Whenever people walk by our home, they comment on how nice this parcel looks. Our parcel is bordered by terra cottas tile, covered in cypress mulch and contains ground cover, shrubs, and flowers. It used to be covered in red ant hills and sand spurs.
But according to Pasco County, "It's got to go. That land belongs to Pasco County."
That was what I got when I answered my door the other day. There stood a Pasco County employee, who did not identify himself or announce what department he worked for.
I was told I had seven days to cut it to ground level or the county would come with a chain saw and do it for me.
The city of New Port Richey offers several grants to residents to upgrade their properties by either fixing/repairing, painting, or doing room additions, etc. Some of us on Grand Boulevard have upgraded by changing this much aligned strip of land, at our own expense, to something a little more eye appealing.
How come shrubs, flowers and mulch area are okay on the median on Little and Rowan roads?
We recently received a letter from the post office offering us a free mailbox if we relocated ours from the house to the side of the street. I wonder if Pasco County will use their chain saw to take down the mailbox that is located within the confines of the area between the curb and the sidewalk?
Editor: We have sent four or five e-mails to our U.S. representative over the last two months with no response whatsoever. We have a very simple question that she refuses to answer.
Our question is this: How will the Bush tax cut help the average retiree in Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's district? Our example was a 65-plus couple, with retirement income of approximately $45,000, no write-offs, except a maximum $3,000 capital gains loss, standard deductions. What's so tough about this? A few months ago, I read on how much she enjoys helping her constituents, and that she is there for them. Obviously you are on her phoney bandwagon. She could care less, like most politicians.
Editor: I am appalled at the disregard and exploitation of the disabled senior citizens who may need home improvements. When I wanted to widen my front doorway by one inch and add a ramp for my wheelchair-bound mother, I contacted three local contractors and received three estimates from $2,900 to $300.
The first used the scare tactic, "If you want cheap, you get cheap." Also, the local hardware stores did not know of, nor carried special equipment. I bargained with my son-in-law that in exchange for a home-cooked family meal, he would do the job. It cost me less than $100 for three bags of cement, non-mortise hinges and a handicap threshold.