Sunday's Palm Beach Post: "Cities should reject fire tax"
Sunday’s editorial came out strongly against the fire/rescue sales tax proposal. Many of the points made echo those made by both the Economic Council as well as those highlighted in the website One of the closing remarks in the editorial states:
Firefighters suggest that the shift would spread the burden of paying for fire-rescue service to tourists, who use the service but don’t pay for it directly.
Perhaps, but a higher sales tax would fall disproportionately harder on the poor. The real reason they want the tax shift is to put firefighters in a separate financial pot, to spare the union the pain of budget cuts that all cities are having to confront in all departments. As governments cope with declining tax bases, fire-rescue reductions have to be part of their calculations.
The editorial can be found here.