Let me start this by saying that I am one of the most “anti-tax” people you will meet. I strongly feel that we, as a nation, a state and a community are already over taxed. Back in March of 2012, when the issue of the 1 cent tax was about to hit the ballot, I wrote a somewhat lengthy post on Facebook voicing, not only my opposition to the tax, but outlining my reasoning in detail. Today, I STILL feel that we pay more in various taxes than we should. I STILL feel that every time we turn around, there is a new tax, fee, or whatever you want to call it. And they all have attached to them….reasons that seem valid on their face. I STILL feel that our National, State and local governments should learn to live within their means…..just as I have to as a business…and as we all do in our everyday lives. I STILL feel that with my wife and I trying to operate 3 businesses, more tax is the last thing we need. That being said, there are times where it is important to look at the big picture….the present picture vs the future picture. We need to look at the outcome if we stay with the “status quo”, vs the outcome if we make a change. The facts are the facts…period. Jacksonville is suffering a slow death, and it will continue unless we do something to change it. Whether or not our community chooses to believe it, I am convinced that some of the businesses that have left Jacksonville, did so because of not only our rapidly deteriorating schools, but because they saw that our community was not willing to take action to fix the obvious problem. I also believe that some industries that have shown some interest in Jacksonville, walked away for the exact same reason. I said before that as a business owner, I need the schools to succeed and improve. If they dont make it, neither does our community or our businesses. We need to improve our schools by funding drastically needed improvements that we have ignored….in some cases, for more than half a century. We need to improve our quality of education, and I believe that can only start with our school buildings. We will not be able to grow if we do not fix the poor quality and condition of our public school infrastructure. It is obviously crumbling at a rapid rate. And now that the makeup of our school board has changed, potential conflicts of interest have been addressed and now that there is actually a well thought out plan, I believe we need to pass this tax. Truthfully, if we do not, the chance of us getting a Fortune 500 headquarters or expanding our manufacturing business will be zero. There are valid arguments on both sides of this issue. In a debate setting, I could likely argue some points on either side and come up with good arguments for both. But the one issue that I cannot come up with an argument against is that our system and buildings are broken……and if we don’t fix them…….we are in grave trouble. In the arguments for both sides of this issue, numbers have been thrown out…moved around….changed to fit the need of the statement they are used in…and so on. But no matter how you massage the numbers…..our current heading is in a negative direction. As in sports, we need to keep our eye on the ball. In this case…the ball is our educational system. We need the best equipment and the best players. That takes money. No matter what numbers are thrown out….it’s a penny !!! PLEASE….start the process of saving our schools, our community and our businesses. VOTE YES !!!! If you agree, please share this. If not, tell me why.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:56:04 +0000
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