1615-6 Various Miami Beach : Sunday, July 18, 1993 EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 18 LENGTH: 63 lines
MEMO: OPINION
$50 MILLION FOR HOTEL
COULD BE BETTER SPENT
Editor:
During last November's general election, the city of Miami Beach placed a
referendum on the ballot to raise the tourist tax one penny. The public
revenue from the new tax, estimated over time to run into the tens of
millions, has been earmarked by city officials to cover some of the
construction costs for a private developer to build a mega-size hotel in the
South Beach area. This plan will slide approximately fifty million tax
dollars from the coffers into the pocket of a private interest.
Considering all of the critical needs of our changing community,
including safer and cleaner streets, $50 million in public money could be
better spent to improve the quality of life for both resident and visitor,
without raising local taxes. There is no reasonable argument as to why these
public dollars should be given to a private developer over the public's crying
needs.
The majority of the City Commission is fledgling first- termers,
compounded by a city manager who came on board last year with no previous
municipal experience, therefore it is understandable how they might have
misguided themselves and us on such a blatantly questionable concept. The
referendum passed only because the election was a one-sided, special-interest-
financed abuse of the democratic process. Do you believe you or your neighbors
would have voted for fifty million tax dollars to pay for hotel construction
rather than safer and cleaner streets if the question had been fairly stated?
But, now that city officials are under the mistaken assumption that Miami
Beach residents want their dollars to go to a hotel developer, the city
manager is preparing the proposal that will offer the money to a waiting
private interest.
Former President Bush was kicked out of office because his theory of
trickle-down economics failed; give all the money to one and the money will
trickle back down to all. It never has and it never will. The saddest part
about losing our much-needed public money to a private developer is that it is
based on that failed trickle-down economic policy. There is still time and
opportunity to stop this from happening and to re-direct the money to a more
appropriate and public use that will benefit the entire community.
A.C. Weinstein, Miami Beach
YES TO RESORT TAX INCREASE 11/01/1992