If in doubt, faith belongs in Pasco, not Tallahassee
By JAN GLIDEWELL
Published November 23, 2003
Since I don't get to say it very often, please indulge me while I say, "I told you so."
And I want to point out one reason not to trust your state government, and ask you to trust your county government, if you live in Pasco, that is.
Those of you in other counties are free to trust and distrust at will.
Some of you might remember when I made a suggestion for when the now-passed medical malpractice limits legislation went through. I said to call your hospitalization insurance carrier and ask how much your rates were going to go down.
Did I have any takers?
Was anyone told, "Oh yes, we're cutting rates right away because doctors and hospitals are paying less now so they are going down on their prices to medical consumers; therefore, your premiums are really going to drop"?
Anyone get that?
That's what I thought.
My rates went up, and so, probably, did yours - if you can afford insurance.
Notice a smile on your doc's face and an extra bounce in his or her step during your last office visit as lowered malpractice premiums allowed the rendering of services at a lesser rate, and, by the way, pay raises all around for the office staff?
Nope, probably not.
In fact, as reported in a St. Petersburg Times editorial Monday, malpractice insurance rates, and, presumably, all of the other costs they affect, including hospitalization insurance rates, are going up.
A little numerical hocus-pocus and some legislative fine print led to the news that rates are still going up, but not as quickly.
So, things are still getting worse, but they are doing so more slowly.
Come on, from this governor and legislature, what were you expecting?
But, on to the slightly misnamed Penny for Pasco tax referendum scheduled for March.
I call it slightly misnamed because it actually refers to an increase of more than 16.6 percent in the sales tax you and I will pay on just about everything we buy in Pasco County.
I am totally convinced that Pasco, like most other counties in Florida, is woefully behind in the game of trying to make an overburdened infrastructure care for a burgeoning population. Unlike other governmental entities we could name, it honestly owes that inability not to corruption or incompetence but to a long-standing unwillingness of the county's voters, and those whose jobs are in the hands of the voters, to pay for the things we need.
"Wait until you're retired and living on a fixed income," people have been telling me for years, "then you won't be so ready to tax-and-spend."
Well, I am retired, and I am living on a fixed income, and I still believe I have an obligation to pay for schools, roads, law enforcement and environmental protection that are not keeping up with need.
Impact fees won't do it all, and building moratoriums in the west Florida economy are tantamount to suicide. What are we going to replace building and services with? Coal mining? Heavy equipment manufacturing?
To be fair, I also belong to a class that some say will benefit from the tax proposal. Because of its built-in lowering of the school construction property tax from 2 to 1.5 mills for the proposed 10-year life of the sales tax increase, some of the burden will shift from those lucky enough to own land to those who can't afford it. It will also, however, shift part of the burden to those who, because of generous homestead exemptions, pay little or no property tax.
The truth is (and for most of the past 31 years I would not have said this) I actually believe the people who say we need the money, and I believe they mean to do well with it.
Lest you think I have gone completely Pollyanna on you, I doubt that the sales tax increase will last only 10 years, even if that is provided by the referendum. Ten years is a long time to come up with reasons why it should be reinstated in 2014.
I also don't believe the tax will pass. Asking people in this neck of the woods to tax themselves is like asking them to outlaw early bird specials.
