Today's letters: Readers comment on tax breaks, Roe v. Wade and education
Questionable tax breaks
Waiting for a flight home from San Francisco on May 7, I read the online Star-Banner above-the-fold headline "$1.1B tax relief bill comes to Ocala." Sounded great! Then I read on.
Speaking at Sam's Club with a background of Huggies diapers (how apropos), Gov. DeSantis crowed about the benefits of a tax break funded by a $20 billion revenue surplus. He failed to mention that the surplus was possible due to $3.5 billion in federal COVID-19 aid.
He also announced a 25-cent-per-gallon gas tax holiday, patting himself on the back while conveniently disregarding the fact that he's paying for it with President Joe Biden's "American Rescue Plan" money. Yes, the federal government is paying for our gas tax break.
We could use that break now, but DeSantis isn't in any hurry to implement it. He's waiting until just before the November elections. How transparent.
Of course, taking federal money doesn't stop him from biting the hand that feeds him. He accepts federal funds while asserting that Biden is causing inflation.
DeSantis also didn't mention that the tax-cut package favors several well-off businesses, many that are campaign donors: a sales tax exemption on Daytona 500 tickets ($6 million) and Formula One Grand Prix tickets ($5.8 million), a $7.5 million tax break for one salmon farming company, and a $300,000 exemption for equipment that will benefit only FP&L.
Marion County will see lower revenues from tax breaks, but it won't hurt us. Right?
Shari Bernhard, Ocala
Overturning Roe v. Wade
First of all, I believe that abortion is wrong. But this leaked decision is not about the right to life. If these people really believed in the right to life, they would show the same concern about those same lives after they're born. They would work to make sure that children would not go hungry rather than wanting to reduce the school lunch program. They would protest environmental racism that affects countless thousands of children of color. But such behavior would force them to confront their hypocrisy.
This decision is a naked power grab by a weaponized conservative wing on the Supreme Court and their political enablers. It is about forcing their beliefs on others. And as a Washington Post columnist wrote a few weeks ago, don't believe that Roe v. Wade will be the end.
What is to keep those same people from deciding that the rulings allowing interracial marriage, school integration, the purchasing of contraceptives and the government providing a lawyer to indigent defendants were just as unconstitutional as the decision legalizing abortion?
Others may cheer this decision, but they should realize that what politicized justices have decided also can be overturned by other justices.
Moreover, if Justice Alito and the rest continue down this path, all it will do is cause people not to accept the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. How will they enforce their decisions then? They don't have an army or police power. Their power rests in people accepting their decisions. But, what if most Americans no longer accept their rulings?
Alan Hawkins, Ocala
Straight, white men
Straight, white men like me are lucky. We don't have to wait for landmark legal decisions to give us rights, and we don't have to live in fear of landmark legal decisions taking any away.
No, that's left for my female family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow citizens to worry about. That's left for my gay family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow citizens to worry about. That's left for my minority family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow citizens to worry about.
Yes, while I get a free pass — that was totally unearned; just dumb luck that I was born into through no choice of my own — my female, gay and minority friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow citizens get to go through the rest of their lives worrying about who the next politician that will demonize them will be.
They, not I, have to figure out which state they’ll be able to live in without being singled out and forced to suffer long-term pain in order to be used as pawns for short-term political benefit. They, not I, have to worry about having their civil rights removed according to the political whims of strangers whom they’ve never met. Guess they should’ve been born a straight, white male like me.
Taylor Benson, Ocala
Take back education
It is far past time when those who are supposed to work “for the people” have revolted against the views and demands of the people regarding education.
Now the strongest unions that forced schools to be closed across the country for months for no reason are demanding that only they can control and manage the education systems.
We see that the unions push sex changes, racism, socialism, communism and more in place of American values.
Here is what should happen. We should eliminate the departments of education (aka indoctrination) for all federal and state governments, ban unions in the public sector and civil service agencies, give the former education funding to the counties in the states for them to manage all aspects of their education, and require complete school choice by parents to go to any school of their choice. This would include home schooling and private school.
It is time for Americans to take back our schools and the education of our children.
Wiliam Francis, Summerfield
An ironclad contract
The Federalist Papers No. 45 states, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.”
The Constitution enumerates those few powers as the power to lay and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, establish a uniform rule of naturalization, create bankruptcy laws, coin money, establish post offices, grant patents and copyrights, establish federal courts, define and punish piracy, conduct foreign affairs, raise and maintain armed forces, call forth and organize militias, govern D.C., declare the punishment of treason, govern territories and propose amendments.
The Federalist Papers No. 45 continues, “Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. … The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the state.”
Profulla Singh, Belleview
Write to us
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This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: May 22 letters: Readers comment on tax breaks, Roe v. Wade, education
