Volusia County resident Margie Patchett is rallying Volusia County residents for the big Fourth of July Tea Party tax revolt Saturday at the Amway Arena in Orlando.
The 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. rally on the north side of the Amway is intended get people involved in the main problems of the State of Florida, and Patchett, executive director of LowerTaxesNow.org, is helping to lead the charge, saying: “The purpose of the tea party is to energize, motivate and educate citizens to get involved in the problems of the state of Florida and find out what government is doing with their money and do something about it. The government just doesn’t “get it”; the people of Florida just can’t pay for all this government.”
Just to throw gasoline on the fire, government bodies have moved to jack up the taxes extracted from the people. The Legislature in Tallahassee just passed some “revenue enhancements” that include higher fees for driver's licenses and license and court filing fees.
In a particularly galling move, the Volusia County School Board opted to raise the school millage by 25 cents per thousand of evaluation, even as its administrators and elected members claim student enrollment is on the decline. What's not on the decline and fueling higher taxes are salaries.
To have bloated government bureaucracies put extra burdens on the citizens who are feeling the pain of a bad economy with pay cuts and job losses is simply unconscionable. To try to spare the government workers the pain that the rest of us are feeling is really thoughtless and selfish.
Some of the statistics that add fuel to the fire are that government workers earn about twice what workers earn in the private sector. (That is $63,000 per year compared to $35,000 annually in the Orlando Area and about the same for Volusia County) The Florida economy has slipped from the top to 47th in the nation as the cost of doing business has skyrocketed. This is reflected in the fact that the migration into Florida has slowed to a trickle.
At a time when the private sector economy is shrinking the government is holding steady in magnitude or even growing. This is bad for everyone and cannot be sustained.
At the tea party people, will be informed about what is happening to them. They will be told where to go for more information and will be encouraged and shown how to become involved in various ways.
Matthew Falconer, one of the leaders of the Lower Taxes Now, has announced that he will run for mayor of Orange County. Falconer plans to lead the charge to reduce the cost of government.
A few of the methods that will be considered are:
# Reducing payroll. It is no secret that almost every government body is overstaffed and overpaid.
# Eliminating government activities and functions that are not needed or that have a very low priority.
# Consolidating government functions where it would be beneficial. This might include police and fire protection. Note that consolidating whole governments is usually not a good idea.
# Pension and health care reform. Such concepts as personal investment accounts (401k type accounts) and health savings accounts might be considered here.
# Outsourcing and privatization. This would gain efficiency by letting the private sector take over some government functions.