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

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?
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If you want to know what is wrong with city government spending in Jacksonville, take a look at bill 2009-403 that is coming up for a public hearing on Tuesday May 26th.  It spends $5,800 of taxpayer money to restore the Lakeshore Entrance Arches (see the picture to the left).  According to the bill summary, “the Lake Shore entryway at Blanding Boulevard, Appleton Street and Bayview Road was designated as a historic landmark by the City Council earlier this year. The entryway was constructed in 1925 in the Mediterranean style at the height of the Florida land boom.”  So basically what we are talking about is spending taxpayer money to fix up some old structure because someone decided that it has “historic” value.

If this is not bad enough, the money is being awarded to Rhodes Stucco without competitive bidding. The exemption is based upon Section 126.107(g) of the Ordinance Code which stipulates that “supplies or services to be provided by those specifically prescribed within authorizing legislation that appropriates the same” can be exempted from competitive bidding. You would think after the uproar over the no bid Trail Ridge contract to Waste Management that competitive bidding would be the way to go.  But apparently the City Council thinks that the amount is low enough that no one will notice. As you can see, Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County has noticed!

This is also touted as an emergency expenditure. Emergency?! Unless this structure is about to collapse and take out a busload of nuns, this is hardly an emergency!

I do not see how this repairing this structure could be considered a valid government function. If anything, it is a waste of taxpayer money!

Two City Council Bills that will likely come up before the full City Council on January 13th have caught our attention here at Concerned Taxpayers of Duval County.  The first one is bill 2008-1021. This bill appropriates $109,000 from the Special Council Contingency/PSG/Cultural Council account to pay for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s rental of Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts for the 2008-09 orchestra season.  So the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra cannot pay its rent.  It provides a valuable service, right?  Why not let the taxpayers help it out of its financial bind?

As Councilman Stephen Joost pointed out at a recent Finance Committee meeting, the number of people attending performances by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for the past budget year was 110,000+.  If one more dollar had been charged per ticket, there would be no need to burden the Jacksonville taxpayer with this bill.

The second one is bill 2008-1055.  This bill sets a graduated point system for evaluating the proximity of businesses seeking city government professional service contracts to Jacksonville.  The pecking order for favoring contract candidates is businesses that have headquarters in Jacksonville followed by businesses with branch offices in Jacksonville followed by business with branch office elsewhere in Florida followed by business with no offices in Florida. So isn’t favoring local businesses who pay local taxes a good idea?

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