🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4p94q0$s99@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
Bsgenius <bsgenius@aol.com> wrote:
>VOTE NO ON THE PROPOSED 8% INCREASE IN YOUR ALREADY OUTRAGEOUS SALES TAX!
>
>Before you join the other lemings and march into the sea with ever more
>taxes, taxes, taxes, try asking yourself if you think you are already
>getting the most bang for your buck with the property tax you pay for
>schools.

Maybe you think we should do what a number of other states do and inact
a state income tax?  eh?

>Do we really need more police to man radar traps to give speeding tickets
>and catch criminals making U-turns on Dale Mabry?

I think this statement is insulting to law enforcement agencies who hap-
pen to risk their lives each day to protect the people of this area.  I
think if, God forbid,  you were to ever find yourself in need of police
protection you'd have a different view.

>Any good marketing or sales guru can find a soft spot in your heart and
>head for just one more tax increase on top of one more tax increase on top
>of one more tax increase until we find ourselves contributing 101% of what
>we earn!

I'm not a mathematician, but an $80-million one-time investment which pro-
mises to yield an approximate $300-million economic impact (a Super Bowl)
by 1999 along with substantial annual economic impacts makes sense to me.

>Do you realize that by the time you add up what is already sucked from
>your paycheck and checkbook by all forms of government (from income tax to
>gas tax to telephone tax), the average American wagearner ALREADY
>"contributes" more than 50% of his wages back to someone else who THINKS
>he knows how to better spend our money than we do.

200 years ago,  when most Americans lived on farms and we weren't urban in-
tensive,  placing 80% of our earning potential back into the family budget
made sense.  That's not where we are today.  That's not now.  Today, urban
renewal -- re-investing into our infrastruture -- has to happen.  And, yes,
it takes a lot of money to make that happen.

>Isn't it nice to finally have a chance to have a voice in whether we wish
>to tax ourselves for more "can't live without" goodies?
>
>If a new stadium is such a wonderful financial idea, why can't it be self
>supporting?  If it can't be self supporting, why do we need it?

Because there is competition for these franchises and other cities exist
that will provide a stadium for our team if we don't.  All we'll have if
we allow that to occur is the shortfall.

>If parochial schools can produce a better product for less than half what
>we pay for public school education, do we really need to throw more money
>at a problem to make it go away?  Democrats and liberals have been doing
>just that for 30 years and how many problems have they fixed?

What about people who can't afford private education?  What you suggest
is commonly referred to as an "elitist" educational system.  Also, I am
not convinced that private schools *would* do that much better  if they
had to face the challenge that public schools do in terms of budget, di-
versity, and student/teacher ratio.

>Will more money for a new police station or newer cop cars keep the drug
>addict from busting into your house at night or car-jacking your new
>wheels?

I personally believe having a police force that is as well equiped and as
well compensated as possible is a positive for Hillsborough county.

>Get smart, people!  Take control of just a little bit of your purse and
>say NO.

No.  It's time for us to invest in our city and our children and vote YES.

>We don't need an 8% increase in our sales tax!!!   PERIOD !!  Can you
>spell F-I-F-T-E-E-N  Y-E-A-R-S ???   I'll learn to live with the 
>consequences of defeating another tax whack out of my pocket.  ENOUGH IS
>ENOUGH - VOTE NO!!!   DON'T BE A SUCKER!

Florida is somewhere between 46th and 50th among states in this union as
far as quality of education is concerned.  It's not surprising that that
is about where we are also on the investment side.  What you don't spend
today to educate these kids, you'll pay many times over tommorrow to put
up new prisons to put them in.  It's easy to close your eyes and believe
that it's somebody else's problem; but we don't live on an island.  That
is what "community" means.

>Go Bucs, but leave my checkbook alone!

Vote YES in September.

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