The Political Whore

Cut Taxes Now, the anti-tax effort fronted by St. Pete neurosurgeon David McKalip, has issued a “Final Report” wrapping up its efforts to put tax-cutting referenda on the ballot. McKalip writes:

It is a bittersweet moment for me and for Cut Taxes Now.  In August of 2006, a small number of fed up taxpayers met in the City Council Chamber of St. Petersburg.  We quickly grew into a new grassroots organization that joined with others around the state to work for smaller government and lower taxes.  Today, it is time to close one chapter and begin a new one.  Cut Taxes Now is officially disbanded as an organization.  The www.CutTaxesNow.com website will remain open for a month or two so anyone who likes can copy the files and research freely and use in any way.  This it the last email from Cut Taxes Now.

Full text after the jump:

Cut Taxes Now

Final Report

(please forward)

¨    Moving on to bigger things for Taxpayers, Floridians, Americans and Freedom.

¨    Join the Florida Taxpayers Union: www.FloridaTaxpayersUnion.org and CONTRIBUTE!

¨    Successes: 1.35% Cap (in Supreme Court), Penny for Pinellas, Grassroots activation, lower property taxes, good prospects for future tax cuts

¨    Challenges: Big and expanding government, special interests, pandering politicians and corporate cronies. The battles continue.

¨    Thanks to allies and friends.

1.       Fight for Freedom and Lower Taxes Moves To The Next Phase.  It is a bittersweet moment for me and for Cut Taxes Now.  In August of 2006, a small number of fed up taxpayers met in the City Council Chamber of St. Petersburg.  We quickly grew into a new grassroots organization that joined with others around the state to work for smaller government and lower taxes.  Today, it is time to close one chapter and begin a new one.  Cut Taxes Now is officially disbanded as an organization.  The www.CutTaxesNow.com website will remain open for a month or two so anyone who likes can copy the files and research freely and use in any way.  This it the last email from Cut Taxes Now.

It has been a wonderful education for me as I got to meet like-minded folks who wanted one simple thing: freedom.

They were sick of out of control governments and politicians taking their tax money and spending it so they could stay in office.  They wanted action.  Frankly, I had wondered if such people existed and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that:  THOSE WHO WANT FREEDOM, SMALL GOVERNMENT and LOW TAXES ARE THE MAJORITY IN OUR COUNTRY!! We just have not been organized enough lately to win in the halls of federal, state and local governments and overcome the special interests, corporate cronies or pandering politicians who are not leaders, but lackeys. 

      I will be continuing the fight with bigger and better organized groups.  On tax relief I have joined the Board of the Florida Taxpayers Union (see below) and am still working for the 1.35% cap –see below. I also happen to be an active and recognized leader in health care politics and will be devoting considerable time to ensure that government and big insurance companies can’t impose cookbook medicine and ration care.  This will mean empowering individuals to access routine annual health care on their own without interference from third party payers.  I will continue that fight where I serve on the Board of the Florida Medical Association, the President of the Florida Neurosurgical Society, Vice-President of the Pinellas County Medical Association, delegate to the AMA (working for change there) and the Founder of Doctors for Patient Freedom.  Also, my family has been sorely neglected and will get more of the much needed attention they deserve.

      Here are lessons I have learned on an individual and organization level I would ask each of you to remember and act on.

1.       Fighting for less government and lower taxes is a marathon. The special interests know how to work the system and need a counterweight. Don’t let them win by giving up.  The fight must continue every year.

2.       Individuals can make a difference and win. Keep showing up at city council, county commission and school board meetings and keep the heat up.  Join and give money to grassroots groups that will fight for your right to limited government, low taxes and freedom.

3.       Most Politicians don’t lead –they follow.  Sadly, most politicians only address “a crisis”.  They are mostly afraid to offend the special interest that got them in office.  This can be used to our advantage by building large coalitions (tens of thousands) and communicating directly to them and running ads against them.  There are a few rare and wonderful exceptions of elected officials actually trying to downsize government and taxes.

4.       Money is the fuel that powers a successful effort.  Volunteers are great and we all do our part.  But we are constantly outspent by professionals working for special interests and supporters of big government.  If we don’t each regularly budget for financial contributions to groups like ours, we will constantly be beat.

5.       You are among friends.  We all want the same thing and can win if we work together within an organized effort to achieve goals we share. 

6.       Don’t Compromise your principles. We must not give into the temptation to take a smaller or compromised “victory” or avoid defeat out of fear.  We must not make deals that buy us off in exchange for our silence.  We must remember that in the fight for Freedom, there can be little compromise.

2.       Join the Florida Taxpayers Union at: www.FloridaTaxpayersUnion.org. Thankfully there are big groups working for the freedom from taxation and big government Floridians expect and deserve.  The Florida Taxpayers Union was recently formed in partnership with the National Taxpayers union. Our President, John Hallman, is an experienced freedom-fighter who helped us win key victories for the 1.35% cap this year. He is a respected presence in Tallahassee and experienced grassroots Organizer. The same is true of my fellow board member Tom Gaitens who helped get Cut Taxes Now off the ground in the first place!  Please visit and join.  We will keep working for you if you will join us and help us keep our doors open with your contributions.

 PLEASE GO TO www.FloridaTaxpayersUnion.org  and contribute today!

3.       Successes. We have had many

a.       1.35% property Tax Cap.  The fight continues to cut property taxes by about 25% WITHOUT RAISING OTHER TAXES!.  Over 100,000 Florida voters signatures to amend the Florida constitution, raise awareness of high property taxes and big government.  We had the Florida House pass a bill to place it on the ballot.  We won a key Senate committee victory but the personal agenda of Senator Ken Pruitt interfered with the 1.35% cap from ever getting a simple up or down vote on the floor of the Senate. We are now in the Supreme Court fighting to ensure that they won’t keep it off the ballot.  This Supreme Court (mainly appointed by Lawton Chiles) hates tax cuts, loves big governments and has a history of inventing law to prevent tax-cutting initiatives from making it to the ballot.  This is despite the clear mandate of 2 million voters in 1994 to allow initiatives that “limit the power of government to raise revenue” on to the ballot more easily.  (That was more votes received by any politician running for office in Florida that year!). We are fighting for victory on a shoestring budget against well funded special interests of the Florida Association of Counties, Florida League of Cities, and Florida School Board Association who believe that a $6 billion cut in their $30.4 billion tax collections will be “cataclysmic” (per their brief) despite the fact they had only about $16 billion in the year 2000 and functioned just fine.  If we lose in the Supreme Court, the only avenue onto the ballot will be through the Legislature in 2009 – we shall see if incoming Senate President Jeff Atwater remains the ardent supporter he was last session and if incoming House Speaker Ray Sansom leads as strongly as Speaker Marco Rubio did for Florida Taxpayers (if the need arises).

b.      Penny for Pinellas – We launched a credible effort that lowered the margin of success for the additional penny sales tax in Pinellas County.  If we had been better funded and entered earlier, we likely would have won.

c.       Local Property Tax increase caps -  The Florida Legislature did pass caps on local government property tax increases. It can be overridden by supermajority votes of local government officials.  That is why they need a watch dog to call them out when they do. 

d.      Amendment 1. Many local governments are starting to cut their budgets due to the portability of Save Our Homes (and lowered property values caused by their high taxes in the first place!). While the cuts are far too small, there is none of the gloom and doom scenarios of closed fire departments, police stations and the like.  Governments are discovering they have PLENTY of room to cut their budgets even deeper despite their fear-mongering rhetoric.

e.       Amendments on the ballot this year. Amendment 5 is on the ballot this year that will cut property taxes. Unfortunately it allows other taxes to increase that will all be passed on through businesses to you.  As an individual, I will be voting “no” on amendment 5 (see “not compromising principles” above). (LATE UPDATE – Amendment 5 thrown off ballot 8/14/2008!  1.35% is the only hope now!)

f.        Grassroots activation. Multiple other groups are fighting the fights we started and joined.  This is the best result of our efforts.

4.       Challenges.  You can bet that there will be the ever present cry from people who think that government is the best and only way to solve all the problems they perceive.  They will call for bigger spending, higher taxes and less freedom (through more regulation and removal of basic constitutional rights).  The best way to address these folks is to ask:  If it isn’t working now through government, why should I give them more money to try again?  Is the African-American Educational achievement gap better or worse with the highest school budgets in history and 40 years of school bussing? Are more businesses growing around the taxpayer funded Devil Rays Stadium or are a few corporate cronies benefiting from these subsidies? Are more people living in better housing under government housing programs or are they being kicked out with no skills to provide for themselves?  Are their more or less homeless people since Pinellas Hope got government money? The list goes on and on.  In the end, the best solutions to our social problems lie in the hands of individual and charitable organizations with more money in their pockets to spend in ways that work. They know the real problems and can hold beneficiaries accountable. For instance giving school money to African-Americans
(and all) through vouchers will allow them to choose a better school for their children as they hold the schools and their top-heavy administration accountable.  The economy will do better when multiple businesses are competing in a free market and costs are driven down, quality is driven up and more services are offered to meet the needs of people.  For instance, taking the millions in property taxes destined for the Devil Rays and putting it back in the pockets of citizens will allow them to build the businesses that will serve the community and help us all. The Devil Rays can pay for their own stadium. Remember, as Ronald Reagan said, Government is not the Solution to the Problem, Government IS the Problem!

5.       Thanks. No group or effort like this is a success through one person.  I must thank many. I would point out that many of these people are starting their own efforts or continuing to fight in other arenas. (forgive me for those I am sure I have forgotten to mention). First, the original Cut Taxes Now Board:  J. Kipp Wall, David Simpson, Rich Knipe, Judi Reed, Tom Gaitens, and Sherwood White. I still remember that first meeting in the back of a Panera restaurant in 2006! Valuable leaders in Cut Taxes Now: Hamilton Hanson, Scott Samuels, Jim Overby, Jemie Russel, Sara Lopez, Rod Moren, Lynn Shelby, Donna Ivanko, and many others. Speaker Marco Rubio for being a great leader and a rare exception in politics. Charlie Hilton, Lee Sullivan, John French, Rich Johnson, Ira Paul, Dave Biddulph, Bob Sanchez, Bob McClure, Doug Guetzloe, Fred O’Neal, Don Schroeder, Barry Gould, Lynda Hayward, Winnie Nelon and so many leaders in the Florida Taxpayers Alliance, Lower Hernando Tax Alliance, CART, Levy County tax rebels (my favorite name – rebels!), Canadian Snowbirds Association, COTS, Boyton intracostal Group and so on….all listed at www.CutPropertyTaxesNow.com.

Thanks Much. Remember, Individual Freedom is hard to win and very easy to lose. 

Keep fighting and Join the Florida Taxpayers Union and make a contribution!

www.FloridaTaxpayersUnion.org

________________________________________

David McKalip, M.D., Neurological Surgeon

1201 5^th Ave. N., #210, St. Petersburg FL, 33705

727-822-3500 (phone), 727-822-3228 (fax), dmckalip@neuro3.net

Individual Freedom – Hard to earn. Easy to lose.

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