Letters to the editor

Tax hikes rooted in envy

When “the rich” are paying approximately 50 percent of all of the federal income tax in the United States, it is hard to make the case that “the rich” aren’t paying their fair share. While you say, “The richest among us will do anything they can to avoid contributing to the necessary good,” (In “Buffeting a move for fairer taxes” published April 19) the correct statement should be, “While the rich are paying half the federal income tax, they will do almost anything to avoid paying it all.” Moreover, having half the citizens paying no federal income tax is bad public policy. It makes them free to vote for politicians who will raise taxes, knowing the taxes will fall on someone else, but not on them.

At the core, almost all calls to increase taxes on someone else, (but not on yourself) are rooted in envy. Given what has happened in the last decade with respect to newspaper circulation, there must be a lot of envy developing on newspaper editorial boards.

—Jeffry R. Jontz

Winter Park

Tree photo misleading

Regarding the Observer’s story “V-shape trees cause an uproar,” (published April 26) unlike a certain commissioner and perhaps a citizen or two, I spoke to someone at City Hall familiar with the issue and determined the following: First, it should be noted that the picture shown at the top of the article, which was also sent to many Winter Park residents by a single commissioner, is of a tree that a trained arborist had determined was a compromised tree for health, mortality or safety and was scheduled to be cut down (notice the red mark on the side of the tree about 5 feet up the trunk). This was not a healthy tree with a bad trim job. Second, it is misleading to send this picture with the message that it’s an example of the city’s practice for pruning trees. It was cut back to those points so that it will be easier to fell when the Forestry Department takes it down. The practice of sending photos of trees that are not genuine representations of the city’s pruning practices is disingenuous and designed only to incite politically motivated agendas. This could easily have been verified with a single call to the city manager, as Commissioner Carolyn Cooper well knows. The citizens of Winter Park don’t deserve to be manipulated in this manner. Third, if we are to believe that open and transparent communication from an elected official and concerned citizen(s) is key to making sure voters are not discouraged from participating in good government, they should not hesitate sending out an email to the same email list as before indicating that the information sent over the internet and to the media was found to be an inaccurate representation.

All in all, it reminds me of a Ronald Reagan quote from one of his presidential debates –“There you go again….” OK, I can understand concerned citizens questioning what happened to the trees and wondering if it’s a prelude to more drastic measures in the future, but instead of looking at the issue with an attitude of addressing the problem, instead (if you read the blog comments) there seems to be a desire, to quote a line from the Blues Brothers’ movie, “We’re getting the band back together… we’re on a mission from God.” More specifically, to quote one of the bloggers, “…I don’t believe that aesthetics needs to be sacrificed for safety when the results are as appalling as those poor specimens circulated in this newspaper and by WP resident Steve Goldman on the Internet.” We see these trees for ourselves every day. If there’s any virtue to the city’s draconian tree-trimming policy, it’s that it has brought together many citizens who do not always see eye-to-eye on development issues, such as building size, zoning variances and density. Gee, I wonder which supposedly non-existent group of citizens has been carrying that flag for the last three election cycles. Can you say Carlisle, Fleet Peeples Park, SunRail or election mailer campaign violation?

So what’s my point you ask? Look before you leap! Otherwise, it’s “déjà vu all over again,” and in the end, “There they go again!”

—Ed Sabori

Winter Park