Letter: Folks are a lot smarter than Mayor thinks

PATRICIA REILLY
St Augustine, FL

Dear Editor:

Payments in lieu of taxes are voluntary payments made by some colleges as a gesture of good will to help a city offset the loss of property taxes and to help defray the cost of services provided by the city. In no way should they be confused with fees and they are not assessed.

So why then did Mayor Boles send a letter to all non profits in the City accusing Nancy Shaver of plans to impose fees based on the value of their property which he relates back to an answer Nancy gave to a question from the July Candidate’s Forum? What is very strange about this letter is that it was supposedly motivated by concerns raised in October about that answer from July. What in the world happened over the last three months that might have made this a concern now a few weeks before the election?

I expect a lot of things in political campaigns, but the use of this type of tactic of misleading those who have enough to worry about in their roles as leaders in the not for profit arena is just not right. Why in the world would the Mayor want to cause these folks any stress or concern over something that is not even a valid issue for them? He certainly should know what voluntary “in lieu of taxes” means.

Just Google “payments in lieu of taxes” and get the facts.

Watch the video of the July Forum and see what Nancy really said.

Shame on you Mayor Boles for using your position to write such a misleading letter addressed to all of the non profits in the City. And shame on you for distressing them in this fashion. Don’t you think you can win fairly?

Let’s stick to the issues about providing leadership to the City. This is just another example of your definition of a “clean campaign”. Folks are a lot smarter than you think and they see this for what it really is.