The road ahead
To the editor:
There have been many letters to the press recently concerning the council meeting on Feb. 23, perhaps for good reason.
At that meeting, citizens expressed their growing frustration over the unwillingness of City Manager Stewart, Mayor Burch and some council members to lead an urgent initiative that will deliver difficult, but necessary, budget reductions in the face of today’s economic reality. My remarks focused on our need to redirect city staff away from its preoccupation with a new $40 million “Regressive Tax Strategy” and toward significant cost reductions, beginning with the Financial Advisory Committee’s, still dormant, $54 million proposal from last August.
The reaction from the dais was swift and undeniably unprofessional. Many of us were vilified and discredited, receiving baseless criticisms regarding the accuracy of our information and the merits of our message. Admonitions from Stewart, Burch, Tate, Donnell and Day reflected a certain disrespect for public input as well as a lack of knowledge and even a complete “disconnect” from reality with Tate’s declaration that we now need to pay for services that have previously been “free.” Member Day intimated that any significant budget reductions would hobble City servicesleading to “deaths” that would fall upon our collective conscience, while Mayor Burch declared that the city would fall into “ruin.” We simply cannot continue to be pulled down to this level of unjustified histrionics.
Contrary to Mayor Burch’s denunciation of my numbers as “astronomical” and “not true in the real world,” the devil is always in the details. My facts came from impeccable sources, including: Cape Coral’s FY 2010 Initial Forecast and the state-regulated Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Perhaps the Mayor should read them. The City’s $40 million regressive tax strategy actually targets two very significant, but not-so-obvious details (on pages 19 and 20): a Public Service Tax at the statutory limit of 10 percent, not 1 percent (that’s $10 million) and a Franchise Fee at $1.7 million per 1 percent, not limited to 1 percent. At 5 percent, that’s another $8.5 million. When you add those two numbers into the mix, the total rapidly approaches $40 million, not $20 million. Citizens, do not be fooled.
Far more troubling is the fact that when valid public input is demeaned and summarily dismissed, the integrity of both the process and our leadership becomes tainted. As a community, we cannot allow this to continue. It is imperative that we raise public debate to a strategic level that is conducted in a professional and open manner that fosters our very best collective thinking. Our leadership should not limit public awareness by questioning the economic value of broadcasting Council meetings on local television, as Member Day has. The stakes are simply too high.
It is now “game time.” For the city’s leaders who “get it,” you will have many allies. For those of you who endorse continued big budgets and ever-more-creative tax strategies, you can expect a growing presence of noble adversaries on the road ahead. Concerned Citizens, we want to hear from you. Send an email to: TheRoadAheadCC@gmail.com.
Gary King
Cape Coral