The following essay was written by Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County member Joe Andrews, Candidate for City Council, District 12 in opposition to City Council bill 2010-856.  To find out what you can do to stop this bill, go to the meetup on the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County meetup group.

I do not understand why City Council is so hell bent on repealing the Law of Supply and Demand.  Throughout history, governments around the world have tried this and they have failed every time.  The closest to succeed were the Communist governments of the Soviet Union and China, but they only managed to drive their free economies underground where supply and demand flourished.  Eventually, even these governments realized the folly of their efforts and returned to at least a partial capitalist free market system.  Now our city government is trying to perpetrate the same foolishness that those governments did.  And this is not their first attempt: It was tried with 2005-091, the seafood Bill, again a couple of years ago with the Local Preferences bill and this past year with the Residency Requirements bill.   All of these bills were ultimately withdrawn.

The Law of Supply and Demand cannot be repealed  because it was not legislated into existence.  The Law of Supply and Demand is manifested by the actions of people who produce, trade and consume goods.   Passage of 2010-856 will be nothing more than a disruption of a working market system, causing higher prices, reduced production, reduced trade and reduced consumption, none of which, does one want in a down economy.  Think about it.

I call on this City Council to abandon this legislation and then advise those constituents who initiated this movement that they are now free to compete.

Joe Andrews
Candidate for City Council, District 12

Greetings Everyone,

Last Tuesday night was a tremendous victory in the fight for the Concerned Taxpayer’s of Duval County. This was the most attended council that I can EVER remember seeing. The vote was deadlocked 9 – 9 as amendments for sensible budget cuts (things that Taxpayers should not spend one penny on) were ignored. They went on until 3 am last night and “recessed” until 11:00 am today. Although the City Council ultimately voted to raise your taxes today, they deliberated more than any other budget hearing in history.

Despite some unusual tomfoolery of “power failures”, you stayed so that you could be heard.

Thanks to all the First Coast Tea Party, The Republican Liberty Caucus, Libertarian Party of Duval County, Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County, Ferret Tax Protesters, small business owners and working families who came out to fight. This would not have been possible without each and every one of you!

Again, this was a huge victory for us. We fought last year, the year before that, the year before that, etc. It has become increasingly difficult for the tomfoolery to continue. More and more people come out and scrutinize how our hard earned money is being wasted on special interests for corporate, social and cultural welfare. The City has no business picking winners and losers in any of these areas. .

In the past, the righteous anger of the people over continued tax increases to fund special interests on the right and the left has been quickly forgotten. However, this year is different. WE WILL HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE IN THE SPRING ELECTIONS.

We have targeted the Habitual Tax Offenders for “unelection” in the spring with our operation Recidivism. The final details and logistics are being worked out now.

We have focused on those who are up for re-election in the spring and are not term limited. The list is being finalized now based on past voting records and other research we have been conducting to root out special interest ties and influence.

Also, we have in mind to target Habitual Tax Offenders who are term limited for City Council when they run for other political offices. WE WILL NOT FORGET.

Now, more than ever, all the groups that fight waste and corruption must continue to work for this common goal. It is perilous to let the special interests divide our common goal of fighting for the Taxpayer.

Please stay tuned for more information at:

www.teamtaxpayer.com

Best regards,

Victor L. Wihelm Jr
President Concerned Taxpayers Duval County

This is it! The final vote on the budget and property tax rate takes place this September 28th in Jacksonville City Council chambers. Between now and voting time, we need everyone to make at least one phone call, email or fax to their City Council members (remember you have six, one in your district and the five at large) and tell them the following:

• Unemployment in Duval County and Florida is at a record high level! (Florida Times Union 3/26/2010)
• Floridians’ personal income has taken a hit and is now near the bottom of the nation! (Jacksonville Business Journal 3/25/2010)
• Unemployment continues to rise! (Jacksonville Business Journal 7/16/2010)
• Now, Mayor John Peyton wants to convince City Council to increase his three new taxes and the property tax rate again!
• Our garbage tax has already been doubled!
• No more tax hikes!

In 2007, Peyton broke his promise not to raise taxes “on his watch” with the creation of three new taxes.

In 2008, Peyton and the City Council expanded spending with the new Jacksonville Journey entitlement program.

In 2009, Peyton broke his promise again with increased property taxes in the middle of the worst economy in decades.

Taxes and government spending in Jacksonville are at an all time high. The Jacksonville economy simply can not afford another tax increase by Peyton and the City Council.

It’s time to end the Jacksonville Journey, Jacksonville Children’s Commission, and Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and let the taxpayers decide for themselves in which charities and economic development they wish to participate.

Contact your council members by phone or e-mail.

Remember to show up in force on September 28, 2010 for the Team Taxpayer Tailgate Party!  For more information, go to the Concerned Taxpayers meetup site.

Here is a budget proposed by the Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County.  You can read more about this budget in the article in the Jacksonville Liberty Journal (page 1 and 6) that further explains the rationale used to develop it.  We need real spending cuts, not tax rate increases!

The City’s Budget vs. What We Can Afford

Recently, Councilwoman Denise Lee opined that “she would rather see the city use more reserves if it could keep people from losing work during this recession”. Our question to Councilwoman Lee is since when did the Jacksonville city government become a jobs program? The last time that we checked, city government was supposed to provide essential services to Jacksonville taxpayers, not create jobs for city government employees. Considering the pension costs associated with these employees, maybe a few layoffs could save us a lot of money now and in the future.

If you do not agree, consider the Florida Times Union story on the Equal Business Opportunity office. Apparently, productivity for this office was measured in number of websites viewed per hour by its employees rather than in anything useful to the taxpayers who are footing its bill. Not surprisingly, a sharp reduction in staff who seemed to not having anything better to do with their time was recommended by the Inspector General’s office. We couldn’t agree more.

Jacksonville City Council members want to hear from you during the following town hall meetings! Let them know that you want no more taxes!

City Council Town Hall Meeting – Districts 7, 9 and 10
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
FSCJ Downtown Campus – 401 W. State Street, Jacksonville Florida

City Council Town Hall Meeting – Districts 12 and 14
Thursday, April 08, 2010  6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
FSCJ Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Boulevard, Jacksonville Florida

City Council Town Hall Meeting – Districts 8 and 11
Thursday, April 22, 2010  6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
FSCJ North Campus, 4501 Capper Road, Jacksonville Florida

City Council Town Hall Meeting – Districts 1, 2, 3 and 13
Thursday, May 06, 2010 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
FSCJ South Campus, 11901 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville Florida

2010 will be a tough year for Jacksonville city government.  With revenues down, hard choices will need to be made on the spending priorities of city government.  Of course, it would be easier for the politicians to avoid these tough decisions by raising your taxes.  If you do not want to pay more taxes, here is your opportunity to let them know that they will be held accountable if they avoid the difficult decisions that they were elected to make.   Don’t let them take the easy way out by raising your taxes.  For more information about the upcoming  budget workshops, see the city budget website.

Upcoming Budget Workshops

Thurs., 2/11/10 – 6-8 p.m.
CPAC District 2 Budget Workshop
Blue Cypress Community Center
4012 University Blvd. N.

Sat., 2/27/10 – 9:30-11:30 a.m.
CPAC District 4 Budget Workshop
Cecil Community Center
13531 Lake Newman Drive

Sat., 3/06/10 – 9:30-11:30 a.m.
CPAC District 1 Budget Workshop
Jacksonville Children’s Commission
1095 A. Philip Randolph Blvd.

Thurs., 3/25/10 – 6-8 p.m.
CPAC District 5 Budget Workshop
Clanzel T. Brown Community Center
4545 Moncrief Road

Sat., 4/17/10 – 9:30-11:30 a.m.
CPAC District 3 Budget Workshop
Balis Community Center
1513 LaSalle Street

“As mayor, I can’t sit idly by. It is my job to help lay the foundation for Jacksonville’s strong post-recession recovery, by creating new job opportunities and a stronger financial foundation, improving our city’s quality of life and ensuring the safety of our citizens.” -  Speech given by Mayor John Peyton at Snyder Memorial Church on Jan. 20, 2010.

When you read the above excerpt from Mayor John Peyton’s speech, you get the sense that Peyton has a rather ambitious view of his role as Mayor.  Rather than running an efficient government that provides an essential but limited set of services to local taxpayers, Peyton instead want to be the savior of Jacksonville dispensing  job opportunities and improved quality of life to everyone like Santa Claus on Christmas day.  While this may seem noble to many, you have to question whether Peyton has the godlike powers to make this happen.  Cities are complex social organizations that defy top down control by politicians no matter how sincere or self confident they may be.  The reason that free markets work is that they do not presume that one person or even a committee of people have the knowledge and available tools to manage the complex web of personal and economic relationships that take place within Jacksonville.  Free markets rely on the decentralized decision making by entrepreneurs trying to discover what their customers need and then meeting that need before their competitors beat them to the punch.

Recently, the Jacksonville Charter Revision Commission proposed that the mayor develop a four year strategic plan that includes a “vision statement, mission statement, financial plan, goals and measurements for annual performance reviews”.   While strategic planning is important for any organization including city government, we need to be careful to identify what the goal of this foray into strategic planning should be and should not be.  It should not be a strategic plan for Jacksonville.  Instead, it should be a strategic plan for Jacksonville city government.  There is a difference.  The former assumes a godlike remolding of a city of 800,000+ people while the latter is more realistic in its desire to do just a few essential things and do them well.

A savior mentality seems to be inherent within the politician psyche.  Efficiently provide a limited set of services that the free market finds difficult to duplicate is way too mundane for politicians like Peyton.  It is more fun for Peyton to throw around taxpayer money in a vain attempt to transform Jacksonville into his vision of what he thinks that it should be regardless of whether Jacksonville residents want to go along for the ride.  My advice to Mayor Peyton is to get the city budget under control without another tax increase, reform the city pension system and leave the quality of life issue to the private sector which is more responsive to its customers than governments tend to be.

The title of this post is from the song Downtown sung by Petula Clark in the mid 1960s.  The song was inspired by composer-arranger Tony Hatch’s visit to New York City in which he extols the vibrant atmosphere of Broadway and Times Square.  Having been to New York City, I would agree with this characterization of Manhattan.  With its museums, nightspots and Central Park, New York City truly is the city that does not sleep!

If you read the recent Florida Times Union series on downtown Jacksonville, you get a sense that Jacksonville’s political leaders really want to transfer some of that vibrancy to Jacksonville’s city core.  According to the Florida Times Union, downtown Jacksonville is essentially dead in the weeknights and weekends and is short on residents and workers. What city leaders envision is a walkable downtown full of shops, restaurants, condominiums and lots of people frequenting and living in them. As usual, this vision requires tax money and city government planning.

Before we go flying off the cliff in our enthusiasm to keep moving forward with this vision, let us pause for a second and ask why we need a vibrant downtown.  Even if we agree that the downtown area should be different from what it currently is, is it possible for realize this new vision for downtown? How should we realize this vision? How much taxpayer money are we willing to sink into downtown to realize this vision?
Read the full story

A fee does the city no good if it doesn’t get paid. That is the issue with the stormwater and garbage fees. According to the Florida Times Union, 17% of the stormwater and garbage fees have not been paid to the city even though it appears to be more like 30% lately.  The city would like to reduce this statistic to 5% by adding the fees to your property tax bill.  When that happens, failure to pay the fees could get a lien placed on your property.   With this motivational trick, the mayor is hoping to persuade Jacksonville residents to pay the unpopular fees.

The up side of putting the fees on the property tax bill is cost savings.  The cost savings projected by the Central Operations department is about $737,000 per year. In a tough budget year, that is not exactly chump change.  Billing customers is a major expense for businesses which explains why so many businesses like e-mailed billing notices and automatic debits which reduce this cost.

On the other hand, the down side is that the fees become more entrenched as they become easier to collect.  Many of us were not happy with the fees mainly because they rolled back the property tax relief provided to us by the Florida Legislature in 2007 and which we taxpayers approved in 2008.  Personally and I speak only for myself and not for Concerned Taxpayers, I have no problems with the fees in and of themselves and I actually like the idea of diversifying the city’s revenue base.

However, my problem with the fees is that the political establishment in Jacksonville was not willing to give up its obsession with spending other people’s money even when the Jacksonville taxpayer was clearly being overtaxed.  Sometimes, the money is spent on indispensable services like police and fire suppression.  Other times, it is spent on government charity and corporate welfare which I believe the taxpayer should not be forced to fund.  Until Jacksonville city government restricts its responsibilities to the core functions of government (police, fire suppression, parks, etc) and not whatever pet project some City Council member or Mayor fancies at the moment, I will reject any tax increase that makes hard earned taxpayer money available to politicians to play with.  That is especially true in hard times when a failure to pay the fees could lead to the loss of your home.

The Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County has released a report today on the 2009-2010 Jacksonville city budget. This report reflects our observations on the proposed budget and our recommendations for program cuts that could minimize or even eliminate the need for an increase in the millage rate. This report has been sent to the members of the Jacksonville City Council who will be deliberating on the budget this Thursday. You can view the report at http://jaxtaxpayers.org/pdfs/BudgetReviewReport.pdf.