Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tourist would pay fair share with toll road

Nonresidents of Monroe County are invited to visit and use our facilities. They pay nothing extra in the way of taxes except they do pay sales tax of 7.5 percent, the same as residents pay. They avail themselves of police and fire protection, use our bathrooms, taking showers and adding to the wastewater problem. They leave garbage at all the state and county parks. If involved in an accident, they use our emergency rescue services and maybe visit the emergency room at a local hospital. They wear out our roads and cross bridges that are all high maintenance costs. If arrested, they add to our incarceration and court costs. They drink our precious water.

It would only seem fair that some method of paying their fair share should be devised to help us to fund all these expensive services. I support the road toll proposal as the easiest method to do this. The SunPass is economical to implement, and the software permits easy solution of who pays what.

Income from this toll system (only charge is coming into Monroe County) would help maintain both the federal highway and portions of the county-maintained roads and bridges that the tourists also use. Part of the income could go toward funding our wastewater and stormwater treatment with the unfunded mandate by the state government to upgrade.

Robert Page

Islamorada

High Court decision restored free speech

The [Jan. 28 Opinion page] presented two well-crafted opinions against the Supreme Court decision throwing out McCain-Feingold. The writers expressed their concerns of corporate and foreign influence in our elections. However, the court's decision restores the freedom of speech that was previously reserved only for the likes of filmmaker Michael Moore and MSNBC through their media associations.

Few of us raised these concerns of influence when General Electric, NBC, SEIU, and George Soros paid the way for our current president's election to office. Need I remind you of the investments by GE in global warming? Are you aware the United Nations has manipulated data to advance that agenda upon this nation? The foreign influence is already present.

The assumption is that Americans are not intelligent enough to evaluate the information and determine for themselves its relevance -- the same elitist thinking that is harming this republic and its liberties. They think the electorate may thrive only under government programs, administered by those that would destroy our economy further under cap and trade legislation.

The federal government argued that books could be banned and pamphlets must be banned before elections. The frightening aspect of this decision is that the court did not unanimously oppose this ban. The 5-4 split over free speech demonstrates how determined we must be in our defense of the Constitution, because it would seem the other four justices trust the FEC [Federal Elections Commission]would never actually ban books.

David Carter

Key West

Key West's character is steeped in generosity

In February 2009, a fire in the 500 block of Duval Street destroyed two businesses and melted a high mileage crepe pan. A thick brick wall blocked the blaze from the Margaritaville café blenders, allowing owners and employees the opportunity to arrange for donations, both monetary and merchandise, to offer relief to the staff of the damaged stores.

Six months later a local carpenter is severely injured on a job site, rescued by firefighters who placed themselves in danger and flown to Miami for critical care. After several weeks in a coma he confounded the caretakers, battling pneumonia and infection in the process, and now must relearn to do everything that we take for granted: to walk, talk and care for himself. Dick Pischke returned to his home and family for Christmas.

Last Friday, friends held a fundraiser asking the community to help this longtime local in what will be a lengthy rehab and recovery. The standing-room-only crowd at Salute! was silenced as Dick, joined by his wife, Julie, and their lovely daughters, expressed his appreciation. The full moon lit a path across the water and moistened the eyes of more than one raffle-weary bubba.

Among the many individuals and businesses to donate time, money and material to the cause was Montage Signs -- one of the stores lost in the February fire whose employees benefited from the generosity of others. One of the stores that has since reopened. One of the stores that answered the call. This is how Key West works. This is why I live where I live.

Martin Lehmann

Key West