Conservative PSJ, US

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Being the ex-Vice President of the Port St. John Home Owners' Association, I attended a monthly meeting with Commissioner Scarborough. On June 26, 2003, I attended one such meeting. The discussion covered a few problems we would like to see fixed in PSJ, and then, naturally, turned to the proposed 1¢ surtax. Below is part of the discussion (paraphrased):

Comm. Scarborough said that he had no support from Mims, there's bad communications from Titusville because they do not want to do matching funds on projects with the County, and Canaveral Groves has people in favor of paving and people who don't favor paving.

Comm. Scarborough said that Comm. Pritchard said that he'd (Comm. Pritchard) vote to put it on, but he's opposed to taxes.

Comm. Higgs is alleged to have said that she would be for a ½¢ sales surtax for 10 years instead of 1¢ for 20 years.

Then on July 10, 2003, there was a meeting set up specifically to discuss the possible projects to spend the money raised by the surtax. I heard a lot of interesting things, and I thought I'd share some of them with you. Maybe some of these direct, exact quotes will help you make up your mind about the one Billion dollar surtax.

"The math is not perfect to say that growth pays for itself." -- Direct, exact quote: Commissioner Scarborough, July 10, 2003, talking about the need to have the surtax instead of relying on an increase in Brevard's population for an increase in property taxes to use instead of the surtax.

"It's politically popular not to do the right thing." -- Direct, exact quote: Comm. Scarborough, July 10, 2003.

"They shouldn't be giving tax breaks." -- Direct, exact quote: Comm. Scarborough, July 10, 2003, referring to the President and Republicans wanting to give us back some of our money. Reminder to the people of Brevard County: It ISN'T a "tax break"; it's giving you back what is rightfully yours. It's YOUR money, not the federal government's. And even if you look at it as being the federal government's money, it is a government, "of the people, by the people and for the people." So it is the people's money; and who are the people? You and I. So it is our money any way you look at it. And Comm. Scarborough says that "they" shouldn't be giving "tax breaks"? I think he needs to think again!

"I probably won't vote against the tax." -- Direct, exact quote: Comm. Scarborough, July 10, 2003. He later said, when questioned as to whether he'd run for re-election in 2004, that if the tax went down to defeat that he probably would not run because he doesn't like to hang with "losers" (Comm. Scarborough's exact word and in that context) and that if the tax was defeated, we are all "losers".

So as you can see, Comm. Scarborough is pushing for this thing pretty hard. He wants it very badly; enough to say that we're "losers" if we don't pass it. But he fails to publicize the whole truth he told us that day. The truth is that if this thing goes through, there is no guarantee that any of the projects in any district will definitely be done with the money supposedly earmarked for that particular project. If an emergency happens (we are in hurricane territory), that the money would have to go toward that. He said that if there is money earmarked for a pool in PSJ (which is one of the things supported by some people in PSJ), that the money could disappear from this project if something drastic happens. We could vote for the surtax increase in order to get our "dream item" done, and then not get it done anyways. You could be without the particular project you specifically supported the surtax increase for and still have over a billion dollars in surtax to pay. Nice, huh?

There are other ways to lose the project earmarked for your district: cost overruns on a big project in "District X" could take money away from your project. A tornado hitting "District X" could mean the end to your dreams of having your street paved with part of the surtax money. "District X" sees drastic growth in year two of the surtax and thus needs more infrastructure, so your project's funds go down or up to "District X" in order to help out there. Remember, it is being divided by the school system, the cities and the County as a whole, not the districts. It doesn't matter where the money is needed, as long as it's County money, it will go wherever it needs to go. You can be kissing your project good-bye and still paying.

Do you see what I am saying here? The "dirty little secret" that no one is saying very loud is that:

There are NO guarantees!

Join me in voting NO to the surtax on November 4, 2003. Don't pay for something you might not get anyways. And, considering Comm. Scarborough's thoughts on us "losers" if we don't pass it, we may be getting two birds with one stone, so to speak!