Thanks to all you patriotic Floridians for taking off
a day you normally spend to earn money for taxes! My Name is Dr. David Mckalip and I am the Spokesperson for the Florida Taxpayers
Alliance and the founder of Cut Taxes Now.
We all know why we are here. Local Governments have gotten fat! They
have taken your hard earned money and are spending it like they earned it! Well they didn't earn that Money ---
YOU Worked hard and they took it away!
It is out of control spending....by BIG governments who forgot they were
designed to be small...that has made our taxes skyrocket. Since 2000, our local governments have doubled their revenues in
nearly every county around the state. That is far past what inflation and the population have grown.
I have some
questions for you.
Did your income double? (Did it?)
Can you Vote Yourselves more money? (Can You?)
The
local governments do it every year!
Now, some people wonder where all the money is going....The local officials cry
that the sky will fall and the oceans will boil off if they had to have a 20-30% cut in taxes.
Well, I got an answer
one Saturday. Can you all read what this says? What's it say? If you can't, I will read it for you....it says STOP!
I was in my yard and two City workers - two of them--- on a Saturday with overtime hours - drove up and replaced 47
Stop Signs in my neighborhood. Clearly, the sign still works, you just told me what it says! But our City has TOO MUCH MONEY...and
if they don't spend it, well they won't be able to keep raising your taxes....so they thought they would replace these
perfectly good signs, with new ones!
Now, when it comes to spending, "STOP" must not be a word that our local
governments know how to say, because they can't stop wasting our money!
That's why we need some Tax Relief.
That's why they need to STOP SPENDING and --- CUT TAXES NOW!
Can you say it with me ?- - CUT TAXES NOW.- -
They
can't hear you at the top of the Capitol---let ‘em know.....CUT TAXES NOW!
Let 'em hear you in Tampa
Bay and Orlando CUT TAXES NOW!
Let 'em Hear you in Miami and Palm Beach and Broward CUT TAXES NOW .
Let
all the Governments hear you: CUT TAXES NOW!
There are a few good proposals floating around here in Tallahassee and
we have to thank Speaker Rubio and the House for getting the closest to helping us....They want to rollback taxes to year
2000-20001 levels That's great! They want to cap future growth to inflation and population growth. That's Great.
But
they want the same wasteful local governments to be able to ignore the caps....We think only voters should OVERCOME those
caps.
Here in Tallahassee, they are trying to let off the hook 30 counties they call small - or fiscally constrained
in government speak- even though nearly all of them have raised taxes too much ....and their citizens need relief too. Don't
exempt ANY OF THESE COUNTIES!
The Senate's response, to be kind, has been a major disappointment. We hope that they
can listen to this crowd and deliver for Florida Taxpayers. They have offered the good proposal to make government spending
transparent...They have tried to aim at fair valuations of our properties. Let's thank them for that.
Our Governor
got our debate started...and we should thank him. But We all worry about expanding exemption to HOMESTEADERS ONLY and giving
HomeSTEADERS even more protection by allowing the portable save our homes cap for only them!
We can't keep separating
out those who are protected from those who pay the taxes.....ALL FLORIDA TAXPAYERS NEED TAX RELIEF!
Homesteaders and
NON-HOMESTEADERS. That means business owners, Snowbirds, second homeowners. They deserve a rollback, not continued inequity...
We
all know what has caused the runaway taxes...outrageous local government spending. Our Cities and Counties are traveling the
state and they are Waging War on tax relief this year with deceptive scare tactics about closing police departments and firing
Firefighters. Well, if this is the FIRST THING our local governments want to Cut, then they must have forgotten why they are
there in the first place.
Public safety should be TOP PRIORITY, NOT a political pawn by greedy politicians.
Don't
believe their fear mongering. Let's see where else the money has gone and I will use my own Pinellas County as an example,
because their behavior is typical for the rest of the state.
They brag that they have 458 more staff in the Sheriff's
office, but only 47 of those are cops on the street. Over half are in bloated administrations and the rest are jail guards.
In
St. Pete, taxes have doubled, but the number of police officers is the same as it was in 2000...and they can't even fill
all those positions because the officers can't afford to live there with the high taxes!
In Clearwater, since 2003,
property tax collections are up 60% while the budget for police on the street is up 8%!
Their outrageous spending is
having real and dangerous effects.
We have older homeowners looking to move out of the state because they can't
afford to stay. This is while cities are building their fifth or sixth dog park, sports teams get millions of years in taxpayer
money, Taxpayer funded casino ships that go bankrupt and brand new stop signs!
We have Young Families who can't
buy their first home while the cities pay for most of the cost of health insurance for Family members of government employees
- the family members. The average worker in Pinellas county costs taxpayers $75 thousand a year. I can guarantee you that
that breadwinner for that young family is paying for their OWN family's health insurance while they also pay for the health
insurance of a government worker's family through high taxes!
THEY CAN"T BUY THE HOUSE THEY COULD HAVE BOUGHT
FIVE YEARS AGO if they can afford one at all.
We have Small businesses struggling NOT to pass their outrageous taxes
onto consumers or to even stay open while mega-million and mega-billion dollar companies are getting 60 and 100 million dollar
CORPORATE welfare checks from our local governments. They promise jobs to open companies on the taxpayer's dime,
but the workers they bring in won't be able to afford to live here! AND THEY ARE GETTING AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE AGAINST OTHER
BUSINESSES! This is what happens in Socialists countries...governments:-picking winners and losers! BUT THIS IS AMERICA and
this corporate welfare is UNAMERICAN and must stop!
BY THE WAY, We have Renters who might be chased to the street or
to another state while the people who refuse to pay their own way are receiving tens of millions from FAILED SOCIAL WELFARE
PROGRAMS!
We have the snowbirds - valuable seasonal residents who mean so much to the Florida Economy - Thinking it
might just be better to go to Arizona or Georgia or Elsewhere in the winter. All the while the government is making them bear
the largest tax loads. Since Seasonal residents don't vote here it is the same as TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTAITON! Well,
they are going to be VOTING - VOTING WITH THEIR FEET to leave the state!
So here is what we need this year Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Senate President and Governor Crist:
Our Taxpayers need a Bill of Rights... a REAL ONE.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN
START:
Rollback taxes now to 2001 levels.
Cap future growth in spending and taxation to inflation or 3% and population.
Don't let the local governments overcome these caps...only the voters should have that privilege.
AND PLEASE,
Value our properties on how they are used, not how they could be used if someone built a condo there!
Finally Give
Fair relief to non-homesteaders.
DO IT ALL BY JULY!
If Tallahassee can't get the job done then WE WILL RESTRAIN
OUR GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND TAXES BY AMENDING THE STATE CONSTITITION IN 2008 WITH a REAL TAXPAYER BILL OF RIGHTS!
I
want to finish up by thanking you.
It is patriots like you that are going to take this country and this state back
from the big governments that are hurting ordinary hardworking, honest people.
BUT WE NEED YOU TO KEEP WORKING!
WE
need you to spread the word and recruit more soldiers.
We need you to be ready to gather petitions to amend the state
constitution.
We need you to raise money so we can battle the wealthy special interests and Powerful governments and
win.
Go to our Website at Cut TAXES NOW. Com
Go to the Florida Taxpayers Alliance website at FTPA.org.
From
there you can get involved. Email your elected official and let them know what you want.
AND I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO
TELL THEM ALL: say it with me: YOU WANT THEM TO -- CUT ....TAXES NOW!!!!
