District 3 County Commissioner Trudie Infantini thinks only people who visit the beaches or boat ramps in Brevard County should pay for them. To me this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the governing body to which she was elected. We pay our taxes together so that we can provide the community with several services and benefits, one of which is access to the natural beauty for which Brevard County is famous.
Pay to Play? Brevard County considers elimination of free parking at public beaches and boat ramps.
Her line of reasoning is a slippery slope: Some days I don’t have any garbage to take out, why not weigh everyone’s garbage and make them pay for only what they have to collect? How about the roads I never drive down? Why should I pay to have those repaved? My child is not yet of school age, I am just being robbed of tax money aren’t I? I don’t ever have any need for building permits, why is all my money going to pay for the salaries of that office? Does Infantini envision a county where we have little coin slots on every park bench, a toll booth on every mile of road, or a bevy of itemized bills we have to wade through each month that list every time we flushed our toilet or every ounce of can we put out to recycle? I’d bet she’d say no, but Commissioner, I’d have to point out the logic is one in the same.
Look, we all pay taxes so that we can provide a lot of things for each other, some we personally might use right now, some we don’t. It’s part of living in an organized community, and if you get right down to it, the entire reason we have them in the first place. If not, why have a county at all? Why not just go live on your sequestered compound somewhere and let the surrounding area descend into anarchy? It just sounds to me like instead of finding ways to make us pay more for less services (because let’s be clear, they are not simultaneously proposing a drop in everyone’s tax rate) they ought to be working to find creative ways to be more cost effective and create new revenue streams, just like every other resident is having to do right now. Just slapping a meter on services we already are taxed for is a failure of problem-solving.
One Comment
This was submitted and published in the September 4th issue of the Brevard County Hometown News, in which the Commissioner responded.
I thought to take her up on her offer and sent her the following:
My wife lost her job back in January and a result our household income was cut pretty much in half. Being a terrible job market at this time that income was not able to be replaced. Also not having the power to raise taxes or assess fees and metered payments from those around us, we moved on to the strategy of cutting costs. We eliminated cable, began shopping at Aldi (which is great by the way), cut back on eating out and various other methods of reducing our expenditures. As a result we have been able to cover all of our basic needs, have money to put into emergency savings and pay a little down on debt each month.
I bring all this up to illustrate the point that every day Brevard County residents go through this same process, and you propose to just ask them to fork over more money. You say “I could not in good conscience raise tax rates”, but that is exactly what you want to do. Call it a fee if you like, it’s still a tax on public services.
You’re first defense seems to be that other people are doing it (ie: Indialantic and The City of Cocoa Beach.) Failure to meet objectives in company is still a failure to meet objectives. You also mention that you prefer to save the county’s reserves for a genuine emergency, to which I would point out that the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression would certainly qualify.
I do, though, understand that you are sincere in your goal to serve your constituents, and your offer to be open to suggestions on efficiency and/or improvements is gladly accepted. If you could please forward me a copy or location to where I may find online the current Brevard County budget I will take a look and offer some notes based on my own cost cutting experience to where you may find some fat to trim.
And as much as the extra income would help, I won’t even ask for a share of a County Commisioner’s salary. Just knowing I can enjoy the beach after a hard week without another ounce of flesh being taken is reward enough.