A firefighter backing Florida tax cuts is a conflict voters shouldn’t ignore | Opinion
Debate property taxes
One of the strongest advocates for increasing Florida’s homestead exemption is state Rep. Omar Blanco, who also serves as a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue captain. That dual role raises an important question: How can a public safety professional support a policy that may reduce the revenue local governments rely upon to fund essential services?
Property taxes are a primary funding source for fire rescue, police, emergency medical response and other local services. While a larger exemption may provide relief to some homeowners, it also reduces the tax base for counties and municipalities. The result can be budget shortfalls that force difficult choices, including hiring freezes, delayed equipment replacement, reductions in staffing and pressure on employee compensation and benefits.
Public officials should be candid about these tradeoffs. Tax reductions do not eliminate the cost of providing services; they simply reduce the resources available to fund them.
Voters deserve an honest discussion about whether the short-term benefit of a larger exemption outweighs the long-term impact on public safety and local government services.
Abel Fernandez,
Miami Lakes
Compassionate judge
Re: the May 31 story, “R. Fred Lewis, Florida Supreme Court justice and champion for disadvantaged, has died.” As a former public guardian for the 17th Judicial Circuit and former employee of Florida’s Protection and Advocacy System under late Broward Circuit Judge Marcia Beach, I am grateful to the Miami Herald and reporter Carol Marbin Miller for highlighting Lewis’ dedication and compassion for his daughter and for all persons with disabilities appearing before the Florida Supreme Court.
Justice Lewis reminds all of us in the legal profession that we have a role to play in the promotion of disability rights and compassion for the persons we serve.
Ginger Lerner-Wren,
Judge, 17th Judicial Circuit,
Broward County
Thank your teacher
As the school year draws to a close, take a moment to thank public school teachers who, unlike their charter and private school fellows, must accept and educate all students in exchange for compensation consistently in the lower tier among all U.S. states. Meanwhile, the local cost of living ranks among the most expensive in the country.
Many public schools are in need of significant upgrades and so short of supplies that teachers often spend their own money for basic classroom needs. Despite this, testing — albeit too frequent and time-consuming — tells us that these teachers are up to the task.
Our university education departments are seeing diminishing aspirants to the once esteemed teaching profession, while non-teachers set themselves up as knowledgeable experts to criticize teachers. Our country was, once upon a time, deservedly proud of the public education system. Woe to that system when a huge crop of experienced teachers retire.
L. Gabriel Bach,
Key Biscayne
Shorter tenures
Two congressional representatives have been in the news recently: Frederica Wilson and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Their media appearance has nothing to do with the length of their tenure. Implicitly, at some point, a seat in government becomes a perceived entitlement. Wasserman Schultz in particular underscores the issue.
One of her assertions is that her district needs an experienced legislator. Point taken. But it is clear that assertion also becomes a facile, self-serving circular explanation. To be sure, there are more extreme examples of tenure-sitting representatives in Congress, but that does not negate the problem.
We and our representatives must acknowledge that this position is not meant to be a lifelong job. Their actions and words should make that clear.
Sid Kaskey,
South Miami
Senseless tax plan
Florida has a system that works efficiently, based on many decades of good service. We have property appraisers who honorably fulfill their roles. We have appeals of assessments. Now, our governor wants to undo the bulk of real property taxes by giving many homeowners a tax break. The consequences are monstrous.
We will lose valuable government services. Dealing with municipal and county governments will be extremely difficult as they will likely lay many people off. Everything that a local government does will cost more because it’s not getting tax money to pay for them.
The governor’s proposal is the most ludicrous idea. Instead of tweaking the existing system by gently increasing the exemption for homeowners and noting the fallout, he is throwing the whole thing out with a huge exemption and limiting the increases that can apply to non-homestead property. The legislature already investigated the 10% cap that applies to non-homestead properties and determined that was sufficient.
Why a 5% cap? Where did the governor get this percentage? What will be the fallout from this new, much lower cap on assessment increases?
Overall, this is a most inane plan. It’s hard to believe that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the Florida House and Senate can be so dense.
Gary P. Simon,
Pinecrest
Where’s the value?
“Projects” are afoot in Washington, D.C. — a ballroom, a war with Iran, a triumphal arch, a reflecting pool, deportation and detention centers — to name a few.
If the aim is indeed deportation, why the need to detain?
What became of the much talked about airport and bridge modernization across the U.S.?
When can we expect something of tangible national, state, even community value?
Sonja I. Pantry,
Miramar
Declassify shoot-down tapes
The recent indictment regarding the Feb. 24, 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft contains a significant acknowledgment: after murdering Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña and Armando Alejandre Jr., Cuban pilots continued pursuing the third aircraft, Cessna N2506.
The indictment, however, leaves unanswered a crucial question: how far north did that pursuit continue?
The reference to N2506 being followed “near the 24th Parallel” should not be interpreted as the end of the chase. I was aboard N2506. The pursuit continued well beyond the 24th Parallel, until Key West was visible on the horizon.
The definitive answer may lie in the still-classified recorded communications between the Cuban MiG pilots and their ground controllers. Those recordings were among the most important pieces of evidence generated that day, yet the American public has never been allowed to hear them.
Thirty years later, justice requires more than indictments. It requires the full truth. The MiG tapes should finally be declassified.
Arnaldo Iglesias,
Brothers to the Rescue aircraft survivor,
Miami
End Iran war
President Trump’s continued inability to bring an end to the war in Iran is deeply concerning. After years of escalating tensions, shifting objectives and inconsistent diplomatic signals, the American public deserves a coherent strategy that prioritizes stability, human life and long‑term security. Instead, we are left with prolonged conflict and no clear path toward de‑escalation.
Leadership in moments of crisis requires clarity, consistency and a commitment to diplomacy. The ongoing failure to secure a meaningful resolution has only deepened regional instability and placed American service members and civilians at continued risk. Accountability and renewed insistence on a foreign policy grounded in competence and restraint is needed now.
C. M. Taracido,
Miami
‘Tis the seasons
I was amused to see in the June 1 Miami Herald Tropical Life/Home & Design section an article about starting a vegetable garden.
In south Florida, we start our tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, greens, etc. in October. They flourish over the cooler winter months. Come May, the temperate-zone vegetables are all over and in summer it is time to enjoy mangos, avocados and maybe some okra and long beans — not much else thrives in our hot wet summers!
I hope the Herald gets with it and starts paying attention to our local seasons for columns about gardening.
Suzanne Kopturs,
South Miami