Response to “tax the rich” bill critique
Dear Editor:
Sergio E. Ortiz’s critique of the “tax the rich” act (“Spending Bill to tax retirees,” Dec. 2) as actually a “redistribution of wealth” act is essentially correct. It is an attempt to offset the top 10 percent’s share of the country’s wealth, which, beginning in 1980, rose from 65 percent of the country’s total wealth to 75 percent, and the top 1 percent’s share rose from 25 percent to 40 percent.
This is due to the Republican business friendly policies, including union busting, lowering corporate taxes, and wage suppression.
The effect of the “tax the rich” bill will not affect me directly as a retiree, any damage to my well being was done during the years of Republican anti labor pro business policies beginning in the 1980s.
The recent difficulty of filling low-wage jobs is a result of the reordering of priorities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those workers are realizing that they haven’t been getting a fair share of the wealth produced by their labor.
James Weatherspoon
St. Cloud
Problems With Poinciana Parade
Dear Editor:
Something needs to be done about (the APV parade route closures), people can not arrange job schedules to meet demand, since these are the only roads in and out of here. APV/FSR has to move their parade elsewhere since Poinciana now has an overwhelming amount of traffic now on any given day, and blocking the main streets has to come to an end. Poinciana is not like Kissimmee, Winter Haven, Davenport or Haines City, where people can get around and bypass any parade, and do not even bring up the toll road as most cannot afford it either.
The last parade took hours to clear up, with many very upset people trying to get to work. FSR does not want anyone to know the number of complaints that have arisen on social media due to heavy traffic problems when their parade takes place, of which most who do live here will avoid the Christmas Parade all together. Move it to another area or stop having it and just have a Christmas festival on one spot, all day where high school concert bands and choirs can preform, at the amphitheater for outdoor festivals and performances. Vance Harmon Park was built for this, instead of blocking the only roads in and out of Poinciana.
FSR/APV are depriving people from getting to their jobs or coming home from their jobs who have to wait for hours, and some of us cannot even get to the stores because of it. I for one avoid this parade and have never attended it but once, and it was enough for me not to ever go again. I may also add both counties have done very little to address the needs of Poinciana’s huge traffic problems and it is only getting worse by the day and will be even a horror story once Avatar/Taylor Morrison starts to build even more headaches for this area.
I like parades, but the one in Poinciana is not worth it as long as Poinciana does not have the roads to avoid a parade. It becomes a real headache for a lot of people trying to make a living, now that the APV board has raised their HOA assessments, plus burden us with mandated bulk cable/internet agreement that took place 2020 with very little warning that also increase our HOA assessments even higher in a low income community.
Donna Simpson
Poinciana
