Joel Greenberg dumpster fire: Proof we don’t need elected tax collectors | Commentary
The Joel Greenberg saga is the dumpster fire that won’t stop burning.
In the latest court proceedings, we’re hearing accusations about everything from bribery and kickbacks to child pornography and sex with minors.
Greenberg is in prison. Six others have been charged with crimes.
All this, mind you, swirling around what should be the most mundane of public offices — the tax collector.
This bolsters an argument I’ve made for more than a decade: This position shouldn’t be a political one.
Collecting taxes doesn’t require an elected official. It requires a competent office administrator.
When you have political posts, you attract politicians — and you end up with political problems.
Keep in mind: Greenberg is just the latest elected tax collector to cause controversy.
Voters kicked his predecessor in Seminole County, Ray Valdes, out of office after the Orlando Sentinel revealed that he and a family member were buying properties that the tax office was responsible for auctioning off.
Before that, former Orange County tax collector Earl K. Wood admitted he rarely even went into the office during his final years to earn his $151,800 paycheck.
Wood’s defense at the time? The office ran fine without him … which seems to prove my point.
Wood was a Democrat. Valdes and Greenberg were Republicans. I don’t care if the officeholder is a member of the Bull-Moose party. Injecting politics doesn’t do anything to help citizens.
Certainly some tax collectors do fine jobs. The current officeholders in Seminole and Orange — who earn about $170,000 and $190,000 respectively each year — seem focused on their jobs.
But any time you ask a politician to fill the role, you are, by definition, politicizing a position. And here, we sure don’t need it.
Admittedly, fixing this would be tough, since Tallahassee insiders successfully pushed a confusing constitutional amendment a few years ago that established a state counterterrorism office (which people thought sounded swell) but which also required counties to elect their tax collectors … as if those two things were related. So a new amendment would be needed. But a change would probably save taxpayers money, drama and maybe future trials.
Water watch
Speaking of Seminole County, we’re seeing some good news but also some What-the-heck? news in response to the Sentinel’s “Toxic Secret” investigation about how 1,4-dioxane, a toxic chemical, has contaminated drinking water wells in the northwest side of the county.
The good news: Seminole County commissioners agreed Tuesday to increase monitoring and sampling at 25 wells and treatment plants and to urge the federal Environmental Protection Agency to take a more active role in regulating the mysterious chemical.
Seminole commissioners urge EPA action on 1,4-dioxane, ‘long, hard look’ at pollution’s source
The What-the-heck? news: County commission chair Amy Lockhart, who penned a guest column on the topic for the Sentinel, sent an email to her other, fellow commissioners, instructing them to avoid answering questions from the media, saying “cameo interviews will be viewed (at least by me) as obstruction and/or interference.”
When citizens are already concerned about both public health and transparency, you don’t do much to ease those concerns by telling other officials — who were independently elected, mind you — to shut their mouths when asked questions.
DeSantis turmoil
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign for president is in freefall mode right now as he’s falling further behind in the polls, burning through campaign cash at an unsustainable pace (while vowing to stop “runaway spending” if elected) and laying off a third of his campaign team.
One of DeSantis’ biggest problems seems to be that the culture-war chaos and Twitter-trolling tactics that his Florida base enjoys is going over like a lead balloon nationally.
If you want to see how weird some of this stuff is, check out the DeSantis War Room Twitter feed — an odd and angry place full of rants against things like Bud Light and gas stoves.
In one recent video, the campaign talks about Disney allegedly “sexualizing children” and, as supposed evidence, features a Disney exec saying the company now welcomes some audiences by saying “Hello, friends” instead of “ladies and gentlemen.” That’s it. “Hello, friends” is supposed to put you in meltdown mode.
That kinda stuff still may still play well with the governor’s die-hard base. But not the average American. Nor apparently even your average Republican, according to polls that now show the governor fetching as little as 16% support among members of his own party.
Define ‘bold’
And finally, a lot of Sentinel readers were left scratching their heads after Florida House Speaker Paul Renner penned a guest column last week praising himself and his legislative colleagues for all the ‘bold’ action they supposedly took on property insurance reform.
Keep in mind: Farmers had just announced it was dropping customers. And on the heels of skyrocketing rates throughout the state, Floridians were told to expect another 40% rate hike this year alone.
Speaker Renner: Property insurance forecast brightened by legislative reforms | Commentary
Renner’s argument seemed to be that things would be even worse if they hadn’t taken action and that Floridians might see some relief down the road.
He also stressed that Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis was “working closely with Farmers” — around the same time Patronis was fury-tweeting about Farmers, calling the corporation the “Bud Light of insurance companies.”
Bold action indeed.
