DeSantis nod snubbed; Vero Beach downtown; insurance woes, growth related? | Letters

With all this growth, when will wildlife we revere be gone?

Laurence Reisman's recent column on insurance exposed one of the hidden costs of living in Florida.

Then, I saw and was particularly amazed at the article accompanying it on the front page of the newspaper addressing this region's explosive growth. It outlined the thousands of new single-family homes coming to the Treasure Coast with hardly a comment on the long-term problems associated with them.

This is not progress, it's a prelude to disaster. There seems to be no long-range plan on the ratio of green area to developed area and population estimates that affect municipal services to accommodate the growth.

Imagine, if you will, a county commissioner talking to his grandchild some time in the future:

Ahh, back in the 20s, we used to have birds in Vero Beach. You'd see an occasional bobcat or armadillo and even a manatee in the lagoon. You could drive to Fort Pierce or Sebastian in a half hour. That was before the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Fellsmere and the Omni Sebastian Hotel. Yup, we never had pollution alerts or water rationing. But you can't stop progress.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool snowbird. I come for the wildlife, the warmth and the ability to go out each day in my wheelchair. How much time do I have left?

Alan Vincent, Vero Beach

Indian River County commissioners paying attention to growth?

We’ve been wondering whether Indian River County commissioners are going to try to address the rapid growth in South County. It seems every time we turn around there’s a new development starting.

Do they have studies done in how this affects infrastructure, the school system, traffic?

We live in South County, and the simple thing of road work on Johnston/43rd Avenue is a nightmare. What happens with another two or three more developments and the new exit for Interstate 95 planned for Oslo Road?

You see where I’m going, right? If this continues, people will start fleeing.

Paul & Ellie Gorski, Vero Beach

Thurlow-Lippisch snub shows politics, environment bad mix

We feel that Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch has done a remarkable job representing the Treasure Coast’s efforts to restore water quality in the Indian River Lagoon in her time as volunteer on the South Florida Water Management Board and agree with your editorial that she should be reinstated.

It’s unfortunate that politics continue to get in the way of doing the right thing for residents and our environment!

Bob & Pat Ditmars, Stuart

ICYMI: Not racist to return paddle, prayer; Trump & DeSantis; debt issue; Reagan legacy | Letters

Florida's hidden secret: Homeowners insurance got you down? Paying attention to the rest of your bill?

High auto insurance rates only part of problem for Florida drivers

Thanks to Laurence Reisman for bringing to light Florida’s high auto insurance rates. If the proposed Florida Senate Bill 586 becomes law, there will be higher required minimum coverage and likely higher insurance policy rates.

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is the enforcing body for the state’s driver's license laws. Florida residents can lose their driver’s license for many reasons: failure to maintain auto insurance, financial inability to comply with a program, too many unpaid tickets, child support issues and, of course, DUI.

When we suspend an individual’s driver’s license, we take away his ability to travel to work. If the individual loses his job, he can also lose his home. Now we’re talking about reducing hardworking Floridians to homelessness. 

Not only are auto insurance rates out of reach for many, but the fees the FLSHMV charges to reinstate and maintain one’s license are also unaffordable for the working person. For instance, the FLHSMV monitors the court-ordered requirement that an ignition interlock device be installed on a driver’s vehicle, but does nothing to control what the vendors charge for this service even though they state on the FLHSMV website that they want to assist Floridians to become lawfully permitted to drive.

They further acknowledge that cost of the program is the biggest barrier to compliance. Yet they do nothing.

Caught in the web of the FLHSMV, one can satisfy a five-year driver’s license suspension and still be faced with an additional two to three years of fees, monitoring and high insurance rates (FR44.) Many hardworking Floridians cannot untangle from this web of fees and are becoming uninsured and unlicensed motorists and possibly homeless.

Our state Legislature must correct these financial barriers to maintaining and reinstating a driver’s license.

Eileen Forster, Sebastian

Five ways to ensure more Floridians get auto insurance

There are a couple of fixes that can cure the problem of Florida's unusually high auto insurance rates. The question is which representative will take the ball and run.

1) Track insurance compliance through Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. When issuing a ticket or at an accident scene, law enforcement would run the checks and impound the car if not insured.

2) Require plate surrender, which would require proof of insurance every time you register a vehicle to verify compliance.

3) Require insurance companies to report cancellation of coverage to DMV. If there's a lapse and coverage wasn't placed elsewhere, invoke a $20 fine per day until coverage is secured or plates are surrendered.

4) Increase no-fault benefit levels up to a $200,000 medical expense limit for first-party payment of bills. Include a loss of wage and death benefit.

5) Only pay uninsured/underinsured benefits for significant injuries, such as loss of use, scarring and permanent soft-tissue injuries.

By implementing item 3 above, the fine will be more costly than insurance, and insurance companies will collect greater premiums if all are insured to offset losses. Items 4 and 5 will significantly reduce court cases and legal fees.

As many politicians are attorneys, I don't know if this could get off the ground.

Ed Kipp, Vero Beach

Private, public, nonprofit partnership will spruce up Vero Beach

Who would ever think we’d see a public, private, nonprofit initiative in Vero Beach?

Well, here it is! Main Street Vero Beach’s three roundtable discussions organized by CEO Matt Haynes resulted in a summary video he presented to City Council. Mayor John Cotugno and his colleagues recognized immediately corrective action was needed and fast. Pocahontas Park, 14th Avenue/Main Street and surrounding areas are in trouble and citizens are hesitant or unwilling to visit the area.

Cotugno’s rapid behind-the-scenes work resulted in a special town meeting. Piper President/CEO John Calcagno announced they would provide substantial funds to help restore Pocahontas Park to the crown jewel it was long ago. He made it clear they appreciate what Vero Beach has done for their business and he wanted to pay it forward and invest in the community. Great investment decision!

Tony Zorbaugh, CEO of The Source, then announced his staff would clean up this area and the $30,000 cost would be taken from his operational budget. That is, his five members who were formerly unhoused will work three days a week for four hours a day and continue indefinitely.

One of the obvious benefits will be that unhoused in the community will see the impact of formerly unhoused who are now making a positive impact on the community, with pay, and wish to do the same. Linkage!

Hopefully, a domino effect will happen and reduce the number of unhoused. Hopefully, members of the community will wish to become a part of this initiative.

Zorbaugh priced out the cost of four hours of work, including overhead, at $200, a small amount compared to the impact on the community. It's a $200 charitable contribution I hope many wish to make. Perhaps some will wish to fund several days work, like I will. Time will tell!

Barbara Ruddy, Vero Beach

Debt crisis? Congress, president have a spending problem

This is in response to Joan Fox’s letter “Who is really responsible for U.S. debt Issues?”

First, “the self-inflicted debt-ceiling crisis” is caused by all members of Congress, not just Republicans. Forty states have in their state constitutions that they must balance their budgets every year. Not so with the federal budget, and that’s on all members of Congress and the president.

Ms. Fox states that “the Trump tax cuts (which all agree contributed to the deficit in a big way).” The reason we have a deficit problem is because we have a spending problem, not an income problem. President Donald Trump’s tax cut put money back into all Americans' pockets, not just the “rich mostly Republican donors.” (Giving money back to those that actually paid the taxes.)

Here are the facts concerning federal taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan, educational organization, that has earned a reputation for independence and credibility.

“The average income tax rate in 2020 was 13.6%. The top 1% of taxpayers paid a 25.99% average rate, more than eight times higher than the 3.1% average rate paid by the bottom half of taxpayers.”

“The top 1%'s income taxes paid rose from 38.8% to 42.3%.”

“The top 50% of all taxpayers paid 97.7% of all federal individual income taxes, while the bottom 50% paid 2.3%.”

Finally, in 2020 taxpayers paid a whopping $1.7 trillion in individual income taxes. And yet all members in Congress and the president can’t figure out a way to run the federal government without printing money and running a deficit? It's a debt our great-great-grandchildren will be forced to pay because this generation was reckless in our spending.

When is enough, ever enough?

Bill Fredericks, Vero Beach

Stand up to moral police, book banners

I want to address the book bans happening in this state.

Parents essentially can now pull a book they think is questionable. Many have done so without even reading the book. How can you deem something inappropriate you yourself have not read?

The ignorance and audacity of these people is astounding. They are literally saying with their actions, "Well, I don't know what it's about, so it must be bad; let's ban it."

Case in point, a young Black poet's work can no longer be read by younger students. Not one person who called for the ban has read it. They are banning things they know nothing about, perpetrating ignorant, baseless moral decisions for every Floridian.

I don't need moral police. This is America, not Afghanistan, where the moral police walk around punishing those they deem immoral.

Wake up, Florida! For every ignorant person that bans a book, there should be thousands of us fighting it. Personally, I encourage everyone to read the banned books. I've read almost all of them — some as a child, some as a teen and some as an adult.

My favorite book at 9 years old was "To Kill a Mockingbird" and I can honestly say it did not harm me in any way. All it did was help me be a more empathetic person to others. I don't see any of the myriad of ignorant reasons these people have come up with for banning books like this.

So Florida, stand up to ignorance. Read and share these books and use your voices and votes against this moral policing done by the extremists who haven't even read the books in question.

Reading kills no one; ignorance does.

Adele Burich, Vero Beach

President Ron DeSantis? Let's hope not

Ron DeSantis should in no way become president of our great country.

What this man has done to us in Florida, I can only imagine what he'll do as president!

Giving the insurance companies higher rates shows he doesn't care about the middle class. And what about letting the government decide when a woman can have an abortion?

I thought he was a good man, but I would not vote for him if he was the last man on Earth.

Roy Pelella, Stuart

Failure to follow Bible's teachings leads to problems

We are living in a unique time that directly affects our growing children. As a Christian center owner working with young children ages 1-5, we hold tight to the values and teachings from the Bible that are disregarded more and more by the institutions we trust our children with: the schools.

How would we allow 4-year-olds to make gender decisions and celebrate “being you”? Our young children are being manipulated by simply wrong information, ideology and truly evil agenda.

The Bible says God created us male and female. Simple, right? When us people try to make up our own truth, including gender, God’s truth, it will bring a lifetime of wrong choices that will only lead to unhappiness, loneliness, and separation from a relationship with God, and that’s something we all need!

Choosing whatever gender you want to be is not part of God’s creation plan. How can I be so sure? I've read the Bible, the Word of God that for decades has served as the light and only truth that genuinely fulfills our lives here on Earth and in Eternity.

Children are being indoctrinated with false, unbiblical information that will forever change the course of their lives. We will see it negatively affect this generation of young children in our communities, in the families as they grow without God’s truth in the name of choice, freedom and happiness.

What is happening to our growing children will negatively impact the world and the future of sound, healthy adults.

Carmen Saavedra, Hope Montessori Academy Inc., Vero Beach

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: DeSantis nod dissed; Vero Beach work; insurance woes; growth | Letters