Today's Letters: Need all the facts to compare to '87

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published August 22, 2007

Re: Plain facts about property taxes and the budget Aug. 20, guest column

It was very nice of Hernando County Administrator Gary Kuhl to give us all a civics lesson. Unfortunately, in the process of patting himself and the Board of County Commissioners on the back about how great a job they have done since 1987 with his comment "note that the proposed rate of 5.84 is just slightly higher than the 1987 general fund millage rate," he failed to tell the rest of the story, without which, his comment is totally meaningless.

In order to give us all the complete lesson, why not tell us what the property tax assessment base was in 1987 and what is it now? Also, what was the property tax revenue in 1987 and what is it projected to be in 2008? What was the population of Hernando County in 1987 and what is it now?

I believe if the residents of Hernando County are to really appreciate the job our county government has done for the past 20 years, we need all the facts, not just a selective few.

Harry Spicer, Weeki Wachee

Open up all fire district meetings

I think that all meetings of the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District should be open to the public, including any news conferences or town meetings to inform the residents of Spring Hill what the Hernando County Commission has tried to pull off recently.

In April, Spring Hill Fire Rescue had a meeting with the county commissioners, and they agreed 3-2 to place a vote for independence from the county on the ballot in 2008. But some fat cats were sneaky and tried to pull a fast one on the fire district by stopping payments to all our firefighters and rescue staff, saying the district had been disbanded about 14 years ago.

What's strange was all of the fat cats said they did not know about this foul-up, but the Clerk of the Circuit Court was told by one of the attorneys he had frozen Spring Hill assets. The county administrator and the head attorney for the county said they did not know this had happened. Wow! Now we know why Hernando County is in such a mess. All the overpaid leaders do not know what is going on. This looks like a good place to cut some fat.

After the assets were released, fire Chief J.J. Morrison asked the head attorney if he would agree with him and he would cancel an injunction hearing and this would save Spring Hill and the county a lot of money and time. But the county attorney would not agree. He wanted this to be a judge's decision.

I think this was a plan of the county's for some time because some people want Spring Hill Fire Rescue to be a part of the Hernando County Fire District. They think this is a good time to save their butts and let someone else make the decisions, especially since the goof-up before when they blamed the county clerk and one of their attorneys.

Jim Monk, Spring Hill

Re: Letters should be original and brief Aug. 20, letter

Ditto that on succinct letters

As one of those whose name might be recognized as a sometimes long-winded contributor to these pages, I have this to say to E. J. Lohn: You're right!

G B Leatherwood, Spring Hill

Your voice counts

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[Last modified August 21, 2007, 20:56:49]