A Florida sales tax cut would bring unpleasant service cuts
Last Wednesday, the Florida House unanimously passed legislation to permanently reduce the state's general sales tax rate from 6% to 5.25%. The measure also includes corresponding 0.75 percentage point reductions for several other taxes, including those on commercial rents, electricity, mobile home sales and amusement machines.
If signed into law, the rate changes will take effect on July 1 and are projected to reduce state general revenue by $4.89 billion annually and local government revenue by more than $500 million.
Sure, we all want to pay fewer taxes, but how do we run our state and municipal governments, pay for infrastructure improvements, police, fire, air and water quality efforts, education (now that the U.S. Department of Education has been gutted) and many other services that citizens expect government to furnish, when we are sucking air on providing these services today, before a tax cut?
Florida is already nearing the red ink over storm coverage, to the extent that Citizens Insurance Florida can barely cover existing losses, while private carriers are threatening to bail on Florida — again.
George Lipp,
Cooper City
Depressing thought
Anyone who has studied economics at the college level knows what a tariff is along with its negative effects. In 1930, Republican Sen. Reed Smoot and Republican Rep. Willis C. Hawley, backed by a Republican congress, passed the now infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods.
The act spurred retaliatory actions by many nations and was a major factor in reducing imports to the U.S. during the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians alike agreed unanimously that the passage of this act worsened the effects of the Great Depression, hurting every sector of the U.S. population.
Against the backdrop of this history lesson, President Donald J. Trump has unleashed an economic monster set to destroy economies and relationships across the globe — all at the expense of Americans and people of other nations who will surely feel the pain.
Edward Blanco,
Cutler Bay
Deportation details
News articles about the recent deportation of people from the U.S. to prisons in El Salvador referred to an agreement between both countries to accept the deportees.
What kind of agreement is that? Is the U.S. paying the CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Center) prison to keep these people?
Is El Salvador paying the U.S. to send them inmates as possible laborers? Does the prison have a roster of who they are holding for the U.S.?
We need this information to make sense of our Executive Branch's claim that it can't bring back a specific prisoner.
Heidi Markovitz,
Washington, D.C.
Harmful hunches
President Trump's reliance on gut instinct, not evidence-based logic, when navigating the complexities and challenges of his presidency, is a stark reminder of how his dependence on intuition resulted in controversy during his first term. With little or no conscious reasoning for the recent sweeping tariff impositions, which his administration falsely claimed were a tax cut for Americans, Trump is betting heavily on a hunch once again.
His belief that he understands economics better than seasoned economists is being met with near universal censure and is destabilizing our financial markets. Effective governance requires balancing intelligence with pragmatism. When either becomes subordinate to instinct, chaos rules the day. The president would be wise to understand this.
Jane Larkin,
Tampa
Bring these to life
Re: the Miami Herald April 8 online article, ''De-extinction' startup with $10 billion valuation revives dire wolf.' Colossal Biosciences has made a monumental scientific breakthrough by resurrecting the dire wolf from extinction through DNA and bio-engineering.
Dire wolves once roamed Florida more than 12,000 years ago, evidenced by bones discovered in the 1990s at the Cutler Fossil Site near Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County. Also discovered at that archaeological site were extinct American lions, saber-tooth cats, American mastodons, long-horned bison and more.
Instead of resurrecting the dire wolf, seemingly better choices would have been the Caribbean monk seal, Carolina parakeet, or the passenger pigeon.
Roger Hammer,
Homestead
Police reform
The tragic death of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Roger Fortson in May 2024 showcases the urgent need for comprehensive police reform in Florida. Fortson, a 23-year-old Black serviceman, was fatally shot in his own home by an Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy responding to a disturbance call. According to reports, Fortson was alone at the time, raising critical questions about the circumstances that led to this fatal encounter.
This incident is not isolated. A study by Florida Atlantic University revealed significant 'hotspots' of police misconduct across the state, highlighting systemic issues that disproportionately affect communities of color. As a Black social work student committed to social justice, I find these patterns deeply troubling.
The dying of trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve compromises public safety and well-being. Florida must implement statewide reforms to address this crisis, including independent civilian oversight boards, mandated de-escalation training and stringent use-of-force policies.
Policymakers, law enforcement leaders and community members must prioritize these reforms. The cost of inaction is measured in lives lost and communities fractured. We must act now to build a system that truly protects.
Jonathan Sanon,
Miami
Awkward MAGA
I remember a time in American when playing the victim was not a good look. However, in the MAGA world, being a victim is good. According to MAGA, America has been victimized by the entire world: victimized by teachers, by doctors, by Muslims, by Black and brown people, victimized by gays.
When life has not gone your way, it's not your fault, you are a victim. You lost your job; not your fault, you're a victim. You have no education; it's not your fault, you're a victim. You have no money; it's not your fault, you're a victim.
America is not a victim. Real Americans make their own destiny. They don't allow another group of people determine their lives and their destinies. Real Americans don't play the victim. Real Americans don't blame someone else for their problems.
America is, by far, the wealthiest country in the world. We have, by far, the strongest military in the world. It is absolutely ridiculous that we play the victim and MAGA thinks that's okay.
Reject calling yourself a victim; it's embarrassing, quite frankly.
Don Whisman,
Stuart
Net worthless?
'No Country for Old Men' was the title of a 2007 neo-Western crime thriller film.
Today, it could easily be moniker for the United States under the second Donald Trump administration.
Trump is the worse president since Herbert Hoover. Just ask any old man who has seen his financial portfolio disappear before their very eyes in recent days.
Barry Levy,
Miami
Malnourished minds
Humans today are not as psychologically fit as we were generations ago. The present deluge of information represents an excess of calories which is fueling an epidemic of political obesity. We are being force fed a diet of information designed to trigger our strongest emotional and physical responses. In a word, we are 'infobese.'
We must stop ingesting these excess political calories maintain a political diet that will keep us in the best physical and mental condition to achieve political longevity without infobesity!
Bill Silver,
Coral Gables
Severe condition
President Trump justifies his tariffs by claiming that we are in a 'national emergency.' I agree with him, not on what the emergency is, but rather, who it is!
Marcia Braun,
Miami Spring
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