Jim Stillman
Randy InmanLetter to Governor Charlie Crist
August 6th 2007 20:18
August 6, 2007
Honorable Charlie Crist
Governor, State of Florida
Executive Office of the Governor
400 S. Monroe Street
The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
Dear Governor Crist:
My wife, Joan, and I moved to Florida in 1969 and, except for the heat and humidity during the summer months, which Joan hates, and the remarkable size and quantities of truly ugly bugs which bother us both, we have never regretted the move. As a retired employee of the Florida Department of Revenue, after nearly 25 years, and a long-time liberal Democrat, I was concerned about “Chain Gang Charlie” as my new Governor. I had fresh recollections of your predecessor standing on the Capitol steps, looking around the state office buildings and opining that, if he were successful, all would be vacant! I did not vote for you, sir, but, had I been paying attention, I would have recognized your political courage and applauded your efforts.
While you were Attorney General, you refused to bow to the zealots and politicians who chose instant popularity over principle by rejecting further state intervention in the tragic Terri Schaivo case. During those same years, your office took on challenges that were, and remain, worthwhile, as in consumer rights, anti-spam efforts, and in some of your opinions on abortion
You deserve applause for the tasks and positions you have taken with regard to safeguarding the environment, including joining with Governor Schwarzenegger at your recent workshop conference, and issuing your Executive Order 07-127, and your proposal for a $20 million grant program for stem cell research at USF, matters at variance with the beliefs of many of your party’s core-base. I honor your courage in supporting reinstatement of voting rights to ex-felons, another proposal, according to conventional wisdom, is against the political interests of your party.
I remain uneasy and displeased by some of your positions. I wish you were more uneasy about the proliferation of guns in this country; I wish you were more vocal in your sympathies in regard to civil rights and civil unions for gays and lesbians
You have joined in the movement that assumes the tax burdens on Floridians are too great and unfairly assessed. There is some merit in the latter, but our taxes, generally, are not too high; we insist on and require better than merely adequate services from our government and too many office seekers have told too many willing voters that services may be maintained at no cost.
I would welcome a leader who will lead, a man or woman with the courage to tell the people that which must be said: our roads are inadequate, the pipes providing water to our major cities are old and in disrepair, we cannot keep building roadway after roadway that are inadequate upon their opening, we need more and more schools to serve the thousands of new residents that arrive without let up, we need more and better paid public employees to guard our food and restaurants, watch over our kids, and on and on. We need libraries, parks, clean beaches and water to make us enjoy quality life. And we need to pay for it – all of it.
Can it be done without taxes? Probably not, but taxes can and should be imposed in a socially desirable way. We have gambling. Tax it. Increase taxes on cigarettes and beer and liquor. I loved a cold beer or a whiskey at the end of the day, but if an additional tax on the stuff may provide for longer library hours, sock it to me!
Please, Governor, treat us like adults.
No platitudes, no promises of gain without pain. Just the truth.
Tell me the truth, and I will, in the words of politicians from near Boston where I grew up, vote for you, early and often.
Honorable Charlie Crist
Governor, State of Florida
Executive Office of the Governor
400 S. Monroe Street
The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
Dear Governor Crist:
My wife, Joan, and I moved to Florida in 1969 and, except for the heat and humidity during the summer months, which Joan hates, and the remarkable size and quantities of truly ugly bugs which bother us both, we have never regretted the move. As a retired employee of the Florida Department of Revenue, after nearly 25 years, and a long-time liberal Democrat, I was concerned about “Chain Gang Charlie” as my new Governor. I had fresh recollections of your predecessor standing on the Capitol steps, looking around the state office buildings and opining that, if he were successful, all would be vacant! I did not vote for you, sir, but, had I been paying attention, I would have recognized your political courage and applauded your efforts.
While you were Attorney General, you refused to bow to the zealots and politicians who chose instant popularity over principle by rejecting further state intervention in the tragic Terri Schaivo case. During those same years, your office took on challenges that were, and remain, worthwhile, as in consumer rights, anti-spam efforts, and in some of your opinions on abortion
You deserve applause for the tasks and positions you have taken with regard to safeguarding the environment, including joining with Governor Schwarzenegger at your recent workshop conference, and issuing your Executive Order 07-127, and your proposal for a $20 million grant program for stem cell research at USF, matters at variance with the beliefs of many of your party’s core-base. I honor your courage in supporting reinstatement of voting rights to ex-felons, another proposal, according to conventional wisdom, is against the political interests of your party.
I remain uneasy and displeased by some of your positions. I wish you were more uneasy about the proliferation of guns in this country; I wish you were more vocal in your sympathies in regard to civil rights and civil unions for gays and lesbians
You have joined in the movement that assumes the tax burdens on Floridians are too great and unfairly assessed. There is some merit in the latter, but our taxes, generally, are not too high; we insist on and require better than merely adequate services from our government and too many office seekers have told too many willing voters that services may be maintained at no cost.
I would welcome a leader who will lead, a man or woman with the courage to tell the people that which must be said: our roads are inadequate, the pipes providing water to our major cities are old and in disrepair, we cannot keep building roadway after roadway that are inadequate upon their opening, we need more and more schools to serve the thousands of new residents that arrive without let up, we need more and better paid public employees to guard our food and restaurants, watch over our kids, and on and on. We need libraries, parks, clean beaches and water to make us enjoy quality life. And we need to pay for it – all of it.
Can it be done without taxes? Probably not, but taxes can and should be imposed in a socially desirable way. We have gambling. Tax it. Increase taxes on cigarettes and beer and liquor. I loved a cold beer or a whiskey at the end of the day, but if an additional tax on the stuff may provide for longer library hours, sock it to me!
Please, Governor, treat us like adults.
No platitudes, no promises of gain without pain. Just the truth.
Tell me the truth, and I will, in the words of politicians from near Boston where I grew up, vote for you, early and often.
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