Prosperity

Economist, Hank Fishkind proclaimed that our county was in recession at the Hernando County Board of Commissioners meeting on July 22, 2008. After listening to Mr. Fishkind's presentation, which included a long list of statistical data for his recession claim, he suggested that the county government increase our sales tax by 1 cent and to get creative in raising additional money with more MSBU's.

Obviously, Mr. Fishkind believes in the philosophy that we can tax our way to prosperity by raising sales taxes, and additional fees through MSBU's, in Hernando County. Dr. Fishkind sounds like the democrats in Congress that want to add 10 cents tax for fuel. Congressional democrats are using the logic that less fuel is being purchased so they need to raise more money through taxes for transportation funds. Congressional democrats apparently haven't heard anything about supply-side economics. People are buying less fuel because the price is so high and now democrats in Congress want to raise the taxes. Go figure!

President Ronald Reagan was quoted in his farewell address to the Nation as saying, "Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people's tax rates and the people produced more than ever before". Hopefully our county commissioners will keep this quote in mind when they begin to discuss an economic stimulus package to jump start Hernando County and put people back to work. A reduction of impact fees, and additional Ad Valorem reduction for property owners using local contractors, would surely spur the economy better than a raising the sales tax and MSBU rates.