Out of Gas

There are times when the ignorance of elected officials sends a shiver down the collective spine of the communities they are supposed to represent. Even though it would feel good to just point at them and call them stupid, you can't really do that when you know that our elected officials are not properly educated on the issues at hand. Sure they talk to their select circle of counterparts that help to convince them that their plans are good ones, but this only leads them to believe that the merits of their self-researched plans are warranted no matter what their constituents say. It is easy to seal yourself in a bubble and insulate yourself from criticism when everyone in the bubble shares the same ideas. It is a rare politician that can step out of that bubble and talk to those who will most directly be affected by an issue like raising a gas tax, to find out the positive and/or negative components the issue might create. Rare indeed.

Before we continue, we would like to point out that we supported an increase in the gas tax if it were to be automatically sunset after a specific amount of time, and if other taxes and fees from local governments were not increased. This has not happened. Local governments have set out to find every way to expand their revenue empires without attempting logical cuts in areas that would not affect services to residents. While some have reduced staffing, most have only reduced payroll expenses by a small margin because they have only rotate positions based on connections and time in service as opposed to benefits to the taxpayers. High qualifications for government jobs mean little when those possessing the qualification would rather spend their time sipping coffee and gossiping... But we digress. Stories of government employee inefficiency are for another un-news article. This one is about the merits of increasing revenue streams into local governmental that are clueless at how to spend the money in ways that will benefit their residents. We were for a short term increase in the gas tax only because it would create the ability to rebuild our roadway infrastructure in a way that would finally allow goods and services to be moved efficiently. This would provide for long term economic opportunities that we do not currently have in front of us because companies look at our transportation grid and laugh. Building a smart road network is the only real shot we have in Osceola County to create sustainable economic development.

Of course ignorant Council Members like the Mayor of St. Cloud Donna Hart, County Commissioner Brandon Arrington, and the entire cast of characters on the Kissimmee City Commission believe that increasing the gas tax will create construction jobs and our community will instantly be saved. Everything will just go back to the way it was and elected officials can go about their daily business of long meaningfully lunches with developers. In an Osceola News Gazette article, that again does not address resident concerns, Mayor Hart states that "If people are put back to work because we can build more roads, it will be a blessing for them," Hart said. "Most of the people out of work are in construction." This quote denotes the limited scope of understanding that not only Mayor Hart has about economics, but her local community as well. First, not everyone in construction has anything to do with road construction. Second, the veiled thoughts that if we build more roads the housing industry will boom again is just wrong and presents a plan for recovery that will fail quickly. Short term fixes will make the problems in our community worse.

We will lay out, again, the feedback we have heard through out the community that should be viewed as some guidance as to what will happen if this tax is passed along with all the other tax and fee increases that have been approved, or are going to be approved. The few jobs created by building roads for homes that will never be built will be drastically offset by the shuttering of businesses that depend on gas based vehicle transportation to move goods and services through our community. Flower shops, produce vendors, on-location service and repair companies, and other delivery modeled businesses will be forced to cut costs by reducing staff or closing all together. For the 100 jobs that might be created over a one year period, thousands more stand to be lost. Not only will more jobs be lost, but the overall revenue into the government stash will shrink because these businesses will no longer be filling up and paying the taxes. Most of these types of companies have already been pushed to the brink because of other increased taxes and fees on top of a bad economy. For the many in government circles who receive healthy taxpayer funded paychecks and benefits think that businesses like this aren't worth saving anyways, and scoff at the notion of 'Good Businesses' going under, we suggest taxpayers change their pay system to one based on performance. Or maybe, in an effort to educate our elected officials, we should set up a thirty-day class where they either have to survive off of the minimum wages their constituents make in a given month, or they are forced to run a small business with government nipping at their profits. Maybe then they would get the "Big" picture and realize that 'unpopular' tax increases are unpopular for a reason. Education of course, is the key.

Until the next article, we would like to note that we hope County Commissioner Brandon Arrington had a Happy Valentines Day and we hope he is having fun planning for next years.