End tax and spend
To the editor
Where do I begin?
Well, let’s start with the council members (and our pathetic City Manager) who in their hubris, decided at a time when the citizens in Cape Coral are being crushed by Biden’s inflation, think it is a good idea to increase our property taxes, to pay for parks we don’t yet need (they can’t even take care of the established ones) and proposed projects that haven’t even started, and none of them IMHO reflect the history of the Cape as a city for regular, middle class people. We are not Naples and do not want to be. If you have a home valued at, say $300,000, the city manager, who cannot keep his fingers out of our wallets, wants to increase the taxes which will cost the property owner an additional $560 if not homesteaded and approximately $300 if it is.
Well, if you earned $245,000 a year like the city manager does, it is no big deal. He can well afford it. But those of us on fixed incomes it IS a big deal. The total lack of empathy of these four people is depressing. All the city manager is worried about is that his liberal agenda many of us want no part of, (to quote last week’s Breeze) “to create a budget at the rollback rate, even warned that doing so would hinder the city’s flexibility going forward.” Apparently these four think their visions overrule ours.
Well, apparently, these four that want to raise our taxes think it is all well and good that WE have to sacrifice and cut back on OUR spending, but they’ll just reach into our wallets to pay for their vision for Cape Coral whenever it so moves them. There is no compassion for those suffering during this horrific inflation and the looming recession. Yet do we see the city pulling back on spending? Heck no.
Example. Throwing good money after bad-the $13 million “streetscape” which was sold to us as a “pedestrian destination.” Really?? Who would willingly add visiting Streetscape in Cape Coral to their itinerary? Well, they will get to see strip malls, Big John’s parking lot, the Firestone repair shop, and vacant overgrown lots-an international sensation to be sure. Then a couple of months back I saw an article in The Breeze about the $50,000 “sculpture” in the roundabout in the streetscape. So I went to see this “marvelous” piece of “art.” To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement and IMHO a total waste of taxpayer money.
Now they are touting The Cove at 47th that will have 327 apartments, retail space and a 585-space parking structure-yet they have no plan for improving the infrastructure to accommodate all the cars this will bring in. Streetscape is certainly not going to help with the increased flow of traffic. Then we have the multi-story apartment/condo project on Coronado and Miramar that will add yet another few hundred cars. Our streets are clogged now and they are doing nothing to improve them. Then they have the Bimini Square project that will have a five-story parking ramp? Really? Our infrastructure cannot handle the current traffic but they just keep approving more and more building, looking only at the revenues these projects will bring in.
Apparently an increase of $7 million if they do the rollback rate, is not enough for our spend-a-holic council. Mayor Gunter stated he wants to find a way to fully fund the police request for additional staffing if they go to the rollback rate. Then out comes our liberal city manager threatening “we could be in jeopardy if the city opts to go with the rollback rate.” It is the only thing liberals know how to do. Spend our money and threaten us if we fight back.
So council members no one should vote for next go-around are Tom Hayden and Jessica Cosden who are all too willing to rip more money out of your wallet. The third and fourth council members wanting to increase our taxes were not specifically mentioned in The Breeze article from last week but when I find out who it was, I’ll report it right here. The fifth one is the city manager and we can do nothing to get rid of him — yet.
With the current crushing inflation we are all experiencing and the looming recession, one would think the city would pull back on spending, if for no other reason to have consideration for the economic hardships so many of us are experiencing. But apparently, I am mistaken none of the four who want to raise our taxes have any empathy for the people who pay the bills. They are all too willing to confiscate our money to do what they want. I’m sick of it.
The city council needs to revisit the last financial disaster we experienced back in 2008 when housing prices collapsed and tax revenues did the same. The way they are going now, we’ll be right back there — soon.
Marie Kavanaugh
Cape Coral