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Highlands Today

State Legislature, Governor Use Con Job To Trick Citizens

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2008

Highlands County Commissioner Guy Maxcy asked an interesting question at this week's meeting where next year's budget was approved. He asked if anyone in the audience thought they received tax relief from the governor or the legislature last year. All that was heard was a groan from the large crowd. That is a perfect example of how the Legislature and governor have passed the buck to local governments, claiming they are cutting taxes, when in fact they are not.

Florida is famous for its land scams and people swindling others for swamp land. Perhaps that still happens, but the real flim-flam these days is performed by the legislature. They play a shell game with tax money, making voters believe they really did something, when in fact they did nothing.

Voters were bamboozled into Amendment 1 by legislators and the governor, believing they were getting property tax relief. Very few received any relief that's noticeable, but we certainly can feel the devastation on our local government. City councils, county commissions and school boards face the task of cutting money they don't have from services they barely have. And it's going to get much worse than we see right now.

Most of us understand that when times are bad, drastic measures are necessary. What too many people don't know is that it doesn't have to be this bad. Our Legislature's sleight of hand to make people think they were actually helping them worked wonderfully, but had no effect whatsoever. The sad part is that now these citizens are turning to local governments wanting cuts that would adversely affect the cities, counties and schools where we all live.

Let's hope voters are smart enough to quit kowtowing to our elected officials at the state level and vote them out of office. They are not responsive to our needs. They only tell voters what they want them to hear through their "newsletters" mailed to home mailboxes.

The bottom line is: Do you feel any benefits from what they are doing?

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