Letters to the editor: Local elections, Buchanan and red tide and Trump vs. Obama
Vote ‘No’ on Amendment 1
Amendment 1 would increase the homestead exemption, which sounds good but it’s not!
Right now the first $25,000 of our home value is exempt from taxes; we all benefit. Then it is taxed from $25,000 to $50,000, then exempted from $50,000 to $75,000. Thus if you own a modest home valued at $75,000, you only pay taxes on $25,000 worth. This helps those of modest means.
Amendment 1 would continue to tax homes from $75,000 to $100,000, then exempt from $100,000 to $125,000 value. Everything above $125,000 remains taxed.
But these exemptions don’t apply to school taxes, which is 42 percent of my bill.
If this exemption passes, each city and county will still have the same number of residents who expect the same services BUT they will have less money to provide those services. So, services are cut OR tax rates raised OR more likely both. Thus you will pay more from $25,000 to $50,000, more from $75,000 to $100,000, more about $125,000, and lose services.
You really lose if you rent. Neither you nor your landlord have any homestead exemption. For every $100 the landlord’s taxes increase, your rent will go up at least $100.
David Cheshire
Holmes Beach
Don’t vote for Servia, Whitmore
This is a critical election for our county. We have seen unbridled development, reduction in environmental protections and a tendency for commissioners to favor profits over the needs of citizens. The races in Districts 4 and 6 are mostly developer influenced with Misty Servia and Carol Whitmore receiving more than 75 percent of their total contributions from the developers.
Misty Servia stated in a newspaper comment her loyalties are 100 percent to our community but at the Long Bar Pointe hearing at the Civic Center she stood up and stated this project was a good thing and should be approved. About 1,200 citizens were at that hearing and 95 percent were against this project. She was not concerned about traffic or destruction of the bay, fish nurseries and lost revenue from the fishing industry. It was all about business, greed and money. Now the “red tide” has imperiled our fishing industry and businesses. How will this revenue be made up? Will tax increases be passed along to citizens? We can also thank her for the capping of impact fees at 90 percent. She told citizens developers would sue if they had to pay 100 percent.
Carol Whitmore was the swing vote to cap impact fees, costing taxpayers TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS PER DAY or $10,000 out of our budget to pay for new development infrastructure. She is costing us $3.65 million per year.
Carol Whitmore also supports developers and Mosaic phosphate mining even though thousands of citizens voice opposition at many hearings. Don’t vote for Carol Whitmore; she doesn’t listen to citizens.
Districts 4 and 6 deserve better commissioners.
Vote for Melton Little in District 4 and Candice Luther in District 6.
Barbara A. Angelucci
Bradenton
Keep Hopes on school board
I urge everyone to support Chairman Scott Hopes in the only remaining Manatee County school board race on Nov. 6.
The school board desperately needs financial and business owner acumen. The other candidate has no business owner experience. Hopes brings fiscal accountability to the board because of his background and financial experience. The school board already will have four members with no financial or business owner acumen. The board benefits from Hopes’ fiscal knowledge and experience to help guide the district through its disastrous financial problems that plague the district today, for instance, the ERP software system that is currently more than $10 million over budget.
Please endorse Scott Hopes on Nov. 6The teachers and children need him. The district and board need him. And the taxpayers need him. If you care, the choice is clear.
Garin C. Hoover
Manatee
Rep. Buchanan and red tide
Congressman Buchanan is suddenly concerned about red tide and gets in the news by personally delivering a grant to Mote Marine, despite his bad record on water and the environment. This may explain why he is locked in a statistical tie (40 percent to 37 percent) with David Shapiro on who would do the better job as congressman in dealing with red tide and the environment (Bradenton Herald Oct. 5).
Over six terms Buchanan has voted against clean water at almost every opportunity, including this May to eliminate Clean Water Safeguards (Roll Call 203). Last month he did it again, voting for HR4606 supporting oil and natural gas drilling.
Buchanan has been in Washington too long, and the recent University of North Florida poll shows voters know it. Only 81 percent of likely Republican voters said they would vote for him, after representing the district for 12 years. Eleven percent of Republicans were undecided and 8 percent choose Shapiro.
The incumbent has also lost his local roots. We checked FEC filings to find that he has received $1,050,649 from PACs but only $20,350 from his neighbors on Longboat Key. Shapiro, with $123,988, is favored by 6:1.
Thousands have contributed to Shapiro’s campaign, many supporting a Democrat for the first time to prevent Buchanan from being elected to a seventh term. Indeed the future of Florida is in the balance. Despite Buchanan’s PR blitz, nasty commercials and sneakily-worded InstaPolls, his voting record and disparities in campaign funding persuade us that Shapiro will be the better Representative for clean water and the environment for Florida District 16.
Bob McCaa, Lakewood Ranch
Truman Becker, Longboat Key
‘Stop and Frisk’
“Stop and Frisk” has recently been the subject of numerous newspaper articles. I thought it would be helpful to explain the legality.
Usually the issue is presented to the court in objection to evidence obtained in what is so called stop and frisk. The court must decide if it is what we called a “Terry Search.”
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)[1], was an opinion by the United States Supreme Court that held that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures is not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the street and frisks him or her without probable cause to arrest, if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person may be armed and presently dangerous.
The key is “reasonable suspicion.”
This reasonable suspicion must be based on “specific and articulable facts” and not merely upon an officer’s hunch. This permitted police action has subsequently been referred to in short as a “stop and frisk,” or simply a “Terry frisk”. The Terry standard was later extended to temporary detentions of persons in vehicles, known as traffic stops; see Terry stop for a summary of subsequent jurisprudence.
The judge outside the presence of the jury must take evidence and rule if it was a “Terry Stop.”
The rationale behind the Supreme Court decision revolves around the understanding that, as the opinion notes, “the exclusionary rule has its limitations.” The meaning of the rule is to protect persons from unreasonable searches and seizures aimed at gathering evidence, not searches and seizures for other purposes (like prevention of crime or personal protection of police officers).
Thomas Gallen, Senior Circuit Judge
Bradenton
Trump vs. Obama
Love is blind, so is hate. Candidate Obama was fawned over by the press as cool by the media because he fit their world view of pluralism, socialism, globalism, cultural Marxism and moral barbarism. They ignored his close ties with haters such as Ayers, Alinsky, Acorn, abortionists, Muslim Brotherhood, Black Lives Matter and Rev. Wright. His campaign slogan of Forward was a symbol used by Marxists and he even donated money to the election of his communist relative Odinga in Kenya. His only leadership experience was as an Alinsky trained community agitator. During his presidency the media overlooked one scandal after another and also his aid and comfort to Iran, Muslims in Arab Spring, illegal gangsters and cop killers. Hillary got a similar pass despite a string of corruption over two decades.
Trump has been vilified by the press and the deep state characters since he became the chosen Republican candidate. Washington has never taken kindly to outsiders who seek to drain the swamp. Trump does not belong to their secret societies and globalist puppet masters and he does not need their money. The media and others hate him so much that they have ignored his positive accomplishments. They lionized Obama but demonize Trump. Trump wants to Make America Great Again. The leftists and media seem to have made it their aim to Make America Hate Again.
We have recently observed the animosity towards Brett Cavanaugh and those who support the rule of law, which just goes to prove, you can lead people to facts, but you can’t make them think.
John Beckerink
Bradenton