The following appeared in:

Florida Today Newspaper , July 01, 2002

Letters to the Editor Section

Incorporation causes problems

By Andrew Barber, Merritt Island

My advice is don't incorporate Port St. John. Several years ago, I was very active in favor of a similar Merritt Island movement.

Merritt Island was paying a huge amount in taxes to the county and getting very little bang for its buck. Merritt Island has only one elected representative, a county commissioner.

Things have changed on Merritt Island, mostly because of economics, but due in part to the early efforts of the Merritt Island Redevelopment Agency.

The most significant reason to not incorporate Port St. John is it would create a government that would be too controlling. Our county government is so much less intrusive, so much more user-friendly and so much more flexible than any small local government.

Small cities just can't do the specialization and acquire the professionalism from top to bottom that our county government already has done. But even more important, small city governments are nothing but giant homeowner associations. They want to tell you what you can and can't do, and they watch you.

I doubt there are many Port St. John residents who would take kindly to the scrutiny of a dominating homeowners association. And residents' taxes would go up and up.