Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 9, 2000
Re: Tax break for seniors a bad idea, April 4 letter to the editor:
I'd like to respond to the woman who wrote this article. From what I read between the lines, she is pretty sour on senior citizens.
I'm all for "younger citizens" getting any break they deserve. After all, they are the backbone of the future of our community.
What about the younger citizens who can't afford to live in dwellings that don't exceed $25,000? Pretty good tax break, don't you think? And the ones who send three or four children to school. Who's paying the taxes? Right, the senior citizens and others who have homes costing more than $25,000.
Seniors don't have any extra burdens? What about those who live on a very limited income? Check around and see what their medical and daily prescriptions cost them. Let me tell you, astronomical, to say the least.
Most seniors don't live high off the hog, like the writer obviously thinks.
I'm sure you can tell by now I am a senior citizen. This letter has more to do with attitudes toward seniors than a "tax break." Yes, I agree that the majority of the community is probably senior citizens. Big deal. Ten percent discounts, etc. Look at all the businesses that have sprouted up all over the community in, let's say, the past 10 years. Why? My guess is because of the influx of seniors.
Building contractors, restaurants, discount stores, etc. Who works at them? Yes, mostly younger citizens. If it wasn't for the seniors, most of those jobs wouldn't be there.
If you want seniors to pull out of town, then you'll have to rename it "Ghost Town."
Forget about the tax break, lady. Wake up, smell the coffee and you give the senior citizens a break.
-- Don Probert, Spring Hill
Editor: A new cement plant: hooray!
We really need more rock trucks on our run-down roads, dropping tiny little rocks, hitting our windshields. Not to mention the pollution that Commissioner Paul Sullivan is going to monitor day and night. Yeah.
The good part is we will be the only county in Florida with three cement plants. Maybe we should change our logo. Instead of calling us the Nature Coast, we could call ourselves "Hernando County: Cement Capital of Florida."
Oh, and don't forget it takes thousands of gallons of water each day to make cement.
-- George Colburn, Spring Hill