Letters: Tax prep volunteers needed to provide vital free services for 2023 filing season
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The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is preparing for the 2024 tax season and is looking for volunteers to provide vital services to the public. Volunteers come from a variety of industries and range from college students to retirees. All levels and types of experience are welcome.
Tax-Aide provides all training and support to ensure success. Volunteers fill a variety of roles, including counselors to work with taxpayers directly by filling out tax returns; client facilitators that welcome taxpayers, help organize their paperwork and manage the overall flow of service; technology coordinators who manage computer equipment, ensure taxpayer data is secure and provide technical assistance to volunteers; and leadership and administrative volunteers to make sure program operations run smoothly, manage volunteers and maintain quality control.
Tax-Aide provides tax preparation free of charge. Neither volunteers nor taxpayers need to be members of AARP, and there is no sales pitch for other services.
During the 2023 tax season, in Jacksonville, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers completed 3,187 returns with refunds of over $3 million. This would not be possible without our volunteers, who make an indelible mark on the taxpayers we work with and the communities where they live.
The following sites will be open this year:
Bradham Brooks Northwest Library ― 1755 Edgewood Ave. W., Jacksonville
Regency Square Library ― 9900 Regency Square Blvd., Jacksonville
Pablo Creek Library ― 13295 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville
South Mandarin Branch Library ― 12125 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville
Beaches Regional Library ― 600 Third St., Neptune Beach
Lake Shore Baptist Church ― 2363 Blanding Blvd., Jacksonville
San Jose Baptist Church ― 6140 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville
Southeast Regional Library ― 10599 Deerwood Park Blvd., Jacksonville
University Park Library ― 3435 University Blvd. N., Jacksonville
Webb Wesconnett Library ― 6887 103rd St., Jacksonville
Mandarin Branch Library ― 3330 Kori Road, Jacksonville
To learn more about our volunteer opportunities, visit AARPfoundation.org/taxaidevolunteer or call (888) 227-7669, or email dianevtax12@gmail.com. For more information on having AARP Foundation Tax-Aide complete your taxes, visit TaxAide.aarpfoundation.org/.
Diane Vokac, Jacksonville and Duval County district coordinator
Lee was epitome of public service
When I heard on Aug. 29 of the passing of Denise Lee, I felt a profound sense of loss and sadness for her family and our city. I had the honor and privilege of serving with her on the City Council during her final two terms from 2007 to 2015. As a fledgling political figure at that time, I learned a great deal from her about the city, the office and how the system actually worked.
It is well-known that Denise and I did not agree on a number of things and often had some very public differences, the subjects of which are now relegated to ancient history. Despite those differences, I knew it was not personal — it was business. She was doing her job to represent her constituents and for that I applaud her.
She always kept the best interest of the city and her constituents foremost in everything she did. One example from my time as council president occurred when I appointed her as chair of a special committee to deal with noise at Metropolitan Park and the city’s noise ordinance.
Activities were happening at the park that seriously impacted surrounding neighborhoods that city procedures at the time were not equipped to handle. Denise and her committee worked very hard studying the issues with the end result being a much-improved noise ordinance for the entire city.
She was a once-in-a-lifetime, larger-than-life person who epitomized public service. With her passing, the city has lost a part of its soul. We need more like her. Godspeed, Denise. Your rest is well-deserved.
Bill Bishop, former Jacksonville City Council member, Council president 2012-2013
Together, we are Jacksonville
A statement of solidarity in the aftermath of Aug. 26:
Together, we represent the organizations of our city. Our businesses, schools and government, our congregations of faith and institutions of culture. We are all races and ethnicities. We are gay and straight, believers and not, living together in this place we call home. Together, we are Jacksonville. We declare to those who doubt our resolve — hate is not welcome here, love is.
We understand that our past is troubled, that our present is a work-in-progress, that our future can be bright. Our promise, to ourselves and to the world, is to overcome the racism, bigotry and hate we see in our midst. To face it head on, acknowledge and confront it, to defeat it with purpose and determination.
We understand that words have power but that this time requires more of us. It requires change: in what we say, how we listen, what we do. It requires change in the way we do business here so that we can move through our disagreements with respect, dignity and kindness.
We recognize that what we choose to support is a reflection of our priorities. We ask our leaders to invest in the people and programs needed to build a city that harnesses our diversity and collaborates across our differences. Together, we pledge to do that work with each other.
Strong in our belief, our goal is to live in a place where diversity is valued as our strength and inclusion is our enduring commitment.
Together strong. Together Jacksonville.
Signed collectively by the organizations listed at FirstCoastReliefFund.org/togetherwearejax/.
Jeers at DeSantis not surprising
Two Sept. 2 letter writers voiced concerns about Gov. Ron DeSantis and his actions in response to the recent hate crime shooting. One blamed columnist Nate Monroe, who only investigates and reports what he observes; someday he will win a Pulitzer Prize for his writing.
But to blame Monroe because of what DeSantis pushed the Legislature to do this past year is disingenuous and wrong. All the attempts to hide African American slavery information, ban critical race theory (which was never taught at any K-12 public school in Florida) and then drawing up his own new voting district that prevents a Black candidate from winning — those are clear reasons to thank Monroe.
The second writer chastised the politicians who keep voting in the same people who don't pass legislation that protects our citizens from gun violence, eliminates background checks or prohibits military-grade guns from being sold to anyone for concealed carry.
She was right — Florida citizens keep re-electing people who only want power, not health, safety or well-being for our state. Gov. DeSantis is the clear leader of this group who has maligned Black history; is it any wonder that the crowd booed him at a vigil for the three Black people who were murdered by a white nationalist?
It’s clear to me that Florida has become the laughingstock of the country. The only way to change that is to vote these disgraceful politicians out of office.
Terri Quint, Ponte Vedra
All schools must follow federal laws
All publicly funded schools should be required to follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Educational Equity Act (Florida Statute 1000.05, the nondiscrimination laws). It must also be required that charter and voucher-funded private schools that don't comply lose funding.
Just because someone doesn't want to go to the public park, it doesn't mean the taxpayer has to fund their country club dues. Similarly, taxpayers shouldn't be required to subsidize the elite private school tuition of millionaires when those schools specifically exclude students with disabilities, from lower-income families and from different religions.
It's illegal for charter schools to not follow the student's individual education plan, but it’s currently up to the victim to sue in Florida. Please ask your representative to propose a bill that offers an avenue for taxpayers to report violations to the Florida Department of Education and authorize them to cut off funding to violators from charter and voucher-funded private schools.
Parents and students should have rights, but taxpayers must have rights also. We want accountability and transparency in how our money is spent. When the state subsidizes expensive tuition, it isn’t funding a free public-school option. When it does that at the expense of actual public schools, then the legislature is in violation of our state Constitution, which calls for fully funding a high-quality, free public school system.
Susan Aertker, Jacksonville
Six GOP candidates' character in doubt
I find it unfathomable that Gov. Ron DeSantis and five other candidates raised their hands during the first GOP debate on Aug. 23 to acknowledge that they would support Donald Trump for the presidency, even if he is convicted in a court of law. How could one trust the judgment and ethical character of DeSantis or the other candidates if they think that a convicted felon who sought to overturn an election is fit to serve another term as president?
Even without another conviction, Trump has already been found liable of sexual abuse and defamation, while his company was convicted on tax fraud. We’ve seen what he did with the classified documents that were stored in a bathroom and other places. We all know what he said and tweeted about a “stolen” election — for which his own attorneys and more than 60 court decisions told him there was no proof.
There are also transcripts of his attempted shakedowns in Ukraine and Georgia; he even apparently still insists that the Jan. 6 rioters were peaceful, lovable people. I urge not voting for any candidate, for any office, who is not clear-headed enough (or brave enough) to state that Trump is unfit for elected office.
Roy Goldman, Atlantic Beach
Nation’s security the only real issue
Living in the U.S. for more than 94 years, I have been through many difficult times, but have always been thankful that I was lucky to have been born here.
I had a fine education and am under no illusions about our history. I could give a long list of criticisms of government policies and actions I felt were wrong, but on balance, our Republic has done better with regard to individual rights than any other government I have studied. No system is perfect, and human error has always existed.
Now, for the first time, I feel we are in danger from within and without the country. The radical right and equally radical left seem not to realize that compromise is vital if we are to survive. While we are fighting over abortion, CRT, transgenderism and other cultural issues, the wolves are circling the camp. The only thing they respect is power and we are letting that degrade.
Our government should spend whatever is necessary to protect us ― that is its primary responsibility. All governmental agencies and cabinet functions that are not vital to national security should be eliminated and the funds redirected to our defense.
Loren K. Seeley, Jacksonville
DeFoor’s appointment perfectly legal
Recently, Mayor Donna Deegan requested an advisory opinion from Florida’s Commission of Ethics on whether former City Council member Randy DeFoor’s service as general counsel would be barred by Art. II, Sect. 8(f) of Florida’s Constitution and Section 112.313(14) of Florida’s statutes.
The request, prepared by attorney Jason Gabriel, establishes that the laws that prohibit former City Council members from lobbying the council they were once a part of for two years after they leave office do not apply here for two reasons.
First, DeFoor as general counsel would not be lobbying the City Council. Rather, she would be providing legal advice to the council. Simply put, providing legal advice is not the same as lobbying someone to take a specific course of action.
Second, DeFoor as general counsel would not be personally representing another person or entity (a developer, for example) before the council as prohibited by law and presenting that client’s view to the council. Rather, she would be acting as the council’s own attorney and giving it legal advice on what legislation it was considering would be legal or illegal.
Accordingly, her appointment is entirely lawful.
Terry D. Bork, Jacksonville
Weak words, governor
Dear Gov. DeSantis: Regarding your comments at a prayer vigil on Aug. 27, a “major-league scumbag” is that annoying person who throws their chewing gum on the floor and you step on it. The white supremacist murderer who killed those three beautiful Black people in Jacksonville was not a major-league scumbag … he was explicitly a white supremacist murderer and a racist.
Why did you try to dismiss the perpetrator of a hate crime as just an inconvenient scumbag?
Even more disturbing, why do you encourage precisely this type of behavior in the first place with your policies and ideologies concerning Black people?
Robert Brown, Jacksonville
Paper carriers were prepared
I got up early on Aug. 30 to walk my dog at 5 a.m. to beat Hurricane Idalia before it made landfall. Much to my surprise, my daily edition of The Florida Times-Union was already in my yard, double-wrapped in plastic bags.
Kudos to the carriers that got up at "zero dark hundred" to deliver papers before the storm hit. This shows dedication to your job and to your customers; thank you.
Kathy Minnis, Fruit Cove
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Volunteers needed at all levels for AARP free tax filing program
