Hurricane Rubio
Hurricane Rubio is potentially the most dangerous storm to ever threaten the State of Florida. Named after the ambitious and personable State Representative from Miami who spawned the maelstrom of tax-cutting rhetoric that has flooded the House and Senate chambers in Tallahassee, this storm looms ominously on the horizon for all local government in Florida. Sadly, the tale told by Rubio is not simply one that is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is a real threat that has the potential to devastate virtually every County, town and city in the State. None will be spared and some (those who can least afford it) literally face extinction.
The inept state legislature has allowed itself to be backed into a corner by a manufactured taxing backlash artfully orchestrated by Mr. Rubio. He says the system is broke. He is correct. But he says it is broke because the cities have been operating like drunken sailors who are taxing and spending excessively. He is a shameless hypocrite and so are the other legislators who have bought into this blatant scam. It is the State legislators who have been reeling down the hallways of State government that have been on a self-serving spending spree and have the unmitigated gall to point their dirty fingers at local government. The State’s own proposed budget raises taxes again, including School Boards, while at the same time trying to slash the budgets of governmental entities that are closer and more accountable to their constituents. Each year the State literally passes the buck down to the counties and cities by reducing their own taxing obligations while requiring local commissions to find the money to cover the additional costs. These unfunded mandates vie for dollars that should be allocated to new and improved service levels, but the State doesn’t care. As long as it doesn’t have to pay, the State feels it has done its job.
In the past fourteen years, there have only been a handful of residents who have ever complained about taxes in our City and the one or two that have done so were invariably those who bought their home a year ago and now find that they are paying far in excess of that paid by the previous owner. This problem was not caused by local government. Ten years ago, the well-intended yet misguided Save Our Homes constitutional amendment locked in homesteaded property owners' taxes despite tremendous increases in property value appreciation. While it did cap annual property assessment increases at 3 percent, it dramatically shifted the burden of supporting local government to non-homesteaded property owners. Now new homebuyers, non-homesteaded property owners, businesses and landlords are crushed with the taxes they must pay. The system is broke. The Save Our Homes amendment is the root cause. Blaming local government is the wrong answer. Penalizing cities by forcing them to reduce spending by some arbitrary amount is grossly unfair. It can only be accomplished by reducing services, laying off people, and dipping into reserves intended for emergencies. The State says: “So what ? Learn to prioritize. So what if one or two parks have to be closed. It’s what the people want.”
Cities have long range plans for balancing service needs with resources. Local Commissions/Councils give thoughtful consideration to the needs of it constituents. Over the years in Coconut Creek, the outcry has never been about taxes. It has been about wanting pre-school programs, a bus service, keeping a neighborhood library open, more parks, more ball fields, more code enforcement and more police officers. The tax proposals being discussed in Tallahassee are cowardly and self-serving. State legislators are foolishly applying a deadly tourniquet to the throats of its municipalities and deluding themselves into smugly thinking that they have found a cure for their own largesse and ineptitude.
We have some consolation in that our State Senators have not bought into the plan coming from our State Representatives. Senator Steve Geller deserves special recognition and praise for his thoughtful attempts to rein in the lunacy that prevails in the House of Representatives. If he and his like-minded colleagues in the Senate cannot broker a more sensible tax proposal, I can guarantee that participation at the upcoming budget hearings in municipalities throughout the State will be unprecedented in participation with great demand for the continuation of existing services that now appear destined to be on the chopping block.
Local Commissions will unfairly be the focus of voter outrage and will have to arbitrate between following through delivering tax cuts to appease those who have suffered the inequities of the Save Our Homes amendment with preserving the programs and services demanded by all those who have benefited from that same amendment.
It could be a long hot summer.
Slainte!
John Kelly
My father never taught me Gaelic, neither the language nor the culture. Though he was proud to be Irish, he never spoke much about our traditions and my only personal experience was the “old-fashioned wake” or an in-house, open-casket, trauma-inducing, “please tell me dead Uncle Patrick isn’t staying overnight in the living room” encounter with the edge of the nether-world. His past (my father’s, not Uncle Seamus) was not something he would volunteer. I suspect that he had issues. He apparently thought ill of intrusive census-takers because my genealogy searches come up empty on all but his birth record. On the positive side, resources and records about other relatives and past generations are available to me and I’m learning some cool and meaningful things about my family.
Growing up in a heavily Italian neighborhood, I gained some modest fame for being able to eat more than my full-blooded Italian friends. The grandmothers, especially Nana DeNicolo, loved me. To this day, I have an Italian stomach. I do remember with some sadness, however, that most of the families engaged in cultural suicide as the refrain “Speakada English, no speak Italian” would echo from their homes and into the street. Today few of my contemporaries (and certainly none of their children) can converse in the wonderful language of their original homeland. On the bright side, young people of Italian heritage can research their rich history, learn their language, and bask in their culture via a variety of media and travel opportunities.
Today, in the far north of this continent, a number of small Inuit tribes are also learning new words for totally new experiences. For the first time, they have seen robins, finches, and dolphins. These creatures had never before ventured into these northern polar climes. The villages of 300-400 people are led by elders who have passed their knowledge of hunting and survival skills from generation to generation. But as the ice thins from global warming, it can no longer support the hunting parties in their search for food. Each year now, hunters are lost as they break through the ice – something that never happened before. Losing 3 or 4 hunters a year may not seem like much, but out of a population base of only 300, it can be a disaster for the future of these close-knit cultures. Dependence on oral traditions to keep their heritage alive places great importance on the role of the elders. Yet the role of the elders is now being questioned (even by the elders) as their wealth of knowledge becomes irrelevant in the changing world around them. So, it seems inevitable that this entire unique culture is doomed to extinction.
In the big scheme of things, it probably isn’t important. Compared to the great civilizations of Rome or Greece or China’s Shang dynasty or India’s Mughal dynasty, how much of a culture could these Inuits possibly have? Compared to the wonderful cultural accomplishments of our own modern society, these people are bereft of beacons of advancement such as American Idol, Jerry Springer, reality shows, most rap music, and slot machines. So, we probably shouldn’t lose too much sleep over their pending demise, unless, of course, they represent our canary in the mine shaft.
Slainte!
John Kelly