The Gainesville Sun made some "slight" revisions to my letter to the editor. Here is the letter I sent in:
Free Money
I came before the County Commission about 2 years ago and asked if there was any doubt that they would increase the bed tax. I was told that no decision would be made unless it could be proven beyond any doubt that any project would be fully justified. Rigorous rules and STRICT business criteria would be followed.
When millions of dollars can be extracted from people who don't live here, you can justify any expenditure. Heck, pay me $50,000 as head of the ACTDA, and I'll whip up a PowerPoint presentation complete with spreadsheets, expert testimony and back-up data to show that the ant farm in my bedroom is an eco-tourist attraction.
No doubt hundreds of hours of staff time at taxpayer expense and many hours of volunteer time, have been expended for each of the requests deemed worthy in an attempt to justify a claim on the booty. Virtually all the participants agree that the tax should be imposed.
What would be funny if it were not so unseemly is to watch commissioners bragging about holding other commissioners' projects "hostage" unless their own pet project is funded. They have already spent the money even before the final vote. To liken this to a pack of laughing hyenas chasing after a hapless water buffalo is an insult to hyenas.
Would there even be any discussion if it were not for the bed tax? No, because without someone else picking up the tab, none of these projects would be viable.
Somehow the notion is abroad that WE won't be paying it. It's like free money just dropped from the sky. Really? I venture to guess that a rather sizable percentage of the nightly and weekly and certainly the monthly stays are, in fact, Gainesville residents.
More to the point, why does the tax apply to a stay of up to six months? Are there non-resident, ball-playing, museum-going, eco-tourists who would stay in a motel for 6 months and thus pay for and reap the rewards of a 5% bed tax?
And finally, here is the vital question that should concern us locally. What happens when whatever projects you decide to "invest" in fail? For example, what if gas prices rise to $6 a gallon and no one drives? Are they going to do what the city did with Ironwood and simply roll it back into the general budget?
Friends, this is an immoral, beggar-thy-neighbor money grab, pure and simple. The folks who will pay this tax are not here to argue against it. It's taxation without representation.
Here is what they printed:
It's like free money
I came before the County Commission about two years ago and asked if there was any doubt that they would increase the bed tax. I was told that no decision would be made unless it could be proven beyond any doubt that any project would be fully justified.
When millions of dollars can be extracted from people who don't live here, you can justify any expenditure.
Somehow the notion is abroad that “we” won't be paying it. It's like free money just dropped from the sky. Really?
This is an immoral, beggar-thy-neighbor money grab, pure and simple. The folks who will pay this tax are not here to argue against it. It's taxation without representation.
George Elmore,
