Letter: Roll the Tape

Dear Editor:

The Traveling “Tax-Rate-Increase” Show is about to begin its last viewing on Monday, June 27, 2011, 6:30 p.m., and you don’t want to miss it.

Yes, taxpayers; don’t miss out on the Traveling “Tax-Rate-Increase” Show being presented by St. Johns County Administrator Michael Wanchick, with a cast of County Commissioners and support staff. This slide presentation will have its last performance Monday, June 27, 6:30 p.m., at the Main Branch of the Public Library, 1920 N Ponce De Leon Boulevard in St. Augustine.

This is the last of seven “Town Hall” style meetings to sell the .75 millage rate tax hike to property owners like you. Come early because the seating is limited.

The Show opens with Administrator Wanchick making a disclaimer that the one-hour slide presentation, which he is trying to sell, is not the finished product. Yet, by the end of the sales pitch, it is obvious that the cast of this play are in lock step with this ‘do-or-die’ rate increase.

The theme of this Horse & Pony Show is to convince you that, in order to continue your “quality of life” in St. Johns County and live in “safety,” they must impose yet another tax hike of .75 mills.

If you are unable to get to this last showing of the Town Hall meeting at the library you can see it on the Internet at: www.sjcfl.us/TownHall/media/2011TownHallppt.pdf.

A quick review of the slide presentation: If you have seen one slide presentation, you have seen them all. But this one is professional and well-crafted for the “close”; that is, to “con-vince” you that, first, they have made every tax cut possible and second, that the only way out of this mess is to raise the millage on your property…that is, raise your taxes.

Why raise your taxes?

1) Revenues are down due to the housing debacle.

2) There is a $12 million dollar shortfall out of a more-than-a-half-billion-dollar budget.

In other words, Your County Commissioners have tax revenues projected to cover 97% of the budget but just can’t seem to cut a tad more here and there to avoid raising your taxes.

They, the (paid-by-the-tax-payers) $170,000-a-year un-elected County Administrator (appointed by the Commissioners) Wanchick and the elected $62,462-per-year Commissioners, want to increase your taxes…again. You decide. He will boldly tell you that they do NOT have a spending problem, they have a revenue problem.

The puzzling thing in this Tax Rate Horse & Pony Show is that the five elected Commissioners that accompany these presentations are rooting for the increase. They are bit actors in this human tragedy. It is they, whom we voted to represent “we the tax payers” who are part of the supporting cast in this tax increase sales pitch.

There is something wrong here.

“We the people” voted representatives in to represent us and we pay them salaries to do WHAT? To hire someone else to do their job and pay that person more than twice what they are paid?

Then they trail around the county trying to tell us what a great job Administrator Mike is doing?

…in raising our taxes?

Are you kidding me?

Don’t miss this last performance at the Town Hall Meeting at the Main Branch Library, June 27th, 6:30 p.m. You “owe it” to yourself.

David P. Heimbold
Vilano Beach