Editor: The benefits and promises from county commissioners about all the pending sales tax increase will bring us sounds great. But before any of us vote on this tax, let's look at how poorly our commissioners have managed our money.
Linda Pederson Park sounded great, too. The county was getting grants from the state to build a wonderful park for all county residents to enjoy. The Southwest Florida Water Management District even donated the land. This park was advertised as the "jewel" of the county parks system. It was to offer swimming, hiking, biking and much more.
The commissioners approved and spent close to a half-million dollars of your money on this park and then decided not to pursue it.
What does this mean? It means the state wants its grant money back, and so does Swiftmud. All monies spent on surveying, in addition to county employees' time spent (salaries are your tax dollars) working on the project, were lost. Additionally, residents lose a valuable resource - that "jewel" of a park that was promised, paid for, then taken away from us.
The moral of the story is this: Commissioners promised us "rewards" previously, only to have those rewards disregarded with no thought for what the majority of residents wanted or how much money was lost in the process.
If you feel the commissioners were right to abandon Linda Pederson Park and the hundreds of thousand of dollars that had been spent on the project, then vote for the additional sales tax. If you feel they abuse their power and monies that are already available to them, then do like I will and vote no to another tax.
I'd say it isn't so much about money not being there, but more appropriately, poor decisions and planning of the monies available to them.
-- Rick Henry, Hernando Beach
Ax the tax, then vote out incumbents
Editor: Re: Voters should ax the tax to send message to commission, Feb. 4 Times.
We agree completely with James Willan of Brooksville. We need to ax the tax and get all of the incumbent county commissioners out of office in 2004 and 2006.
The commissioners not only have a history of irresponsible spending, as Mr. Willan pointed out, but they also overlook policy they have approved. For instance, according to policy, membership on the county Planning and Zoning Commission should be based on population with more members representing the west side of the county, i.e., Spring Hill, where the majority of the people reside. The makeup of the current P&Z commission does not comply with the policy that the commissioners approved. It is these very commissioners who selected the members of the P&Z Commission.
It makes no sense to adopt policies that are not going to be adhered to. If the county commissioners are allowed to deviate from their adopted policies, in this case they are doing so with disregard to the majority of people who reside in Spring Hill.
-- Dr. and Mrs. S.P. Kokocki, Brooksville
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[Last modified February 11, 2004, 12:01:15]
