These following Letters to the Editor were submitted to The Palm Beach Post Opinion Page. The Palm Beach Post wants to hear your opinion − conservative, liberal and all points between. Letters must include the writer's name, address and daytime phone number. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and length, and become property of The Palm Beach Post. We ask that you limit your letters to 200 words. To send a letter, email to
letters@pbpost.com, or fax it to (561) 820-4728. You can also send it via snail mail to: The Palm Beach Post, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Whether the topic's growth and development, traffic, the environment, or government spending, we want to hear from you.Palm Beach County no tax haven
I'm a pre-COVID transplant from the Northeast
believing I was escaping bloated government and high taxes. Much to my surprise Palm Beach County turns out to be masters of ever-increasing property taxes and bloated government! Your Oct. 7 article on the brouhaha at the county commission meeting because of the county holding over $1 billion in Israeli bonds was interesting, but missed the larger issue: What is a county of approximately 1.6 million residents doing with an extra $1 billion to invest in bonds of any sort? It looks like there's over $2 billion in total reserves in the budget so the Israeli bonds are only half of the problem.
Despite this enormous and ever-increasing wealth, The Post has been running article after article about the cuts in services that will occur across the county if Amendment 3 passes in November. Why would we suffer all these cuts in services when the county is sitting on $2 billion in reserves? Having a fixed value for the homestead exemption while the county appraisers raise the taxable value of home year after year is ludicrous. The exemption should inflate with the appraised values.
Gene Cavanaugh, Palm Beach
Rural areas face Amendment 3 devastation
If Amendment 3 passes it could devastate rural counties. But I understand why residents of counties, where property values are much higher, are asking for relief. Real estate taxes are based on a percentage of the assessed value of property. The homestead exemption could also be based on a percentage. My suggestion is to keep the $25,000 floor and then add a percentage of the property appraiser's value, with a cap of the amount proposed in Amendment 3. This would be much fairer to rural county governments and, in the end, the residents who would not lose needed services. Please vote "no" on 3.
Mignon Craig, Williston
Peace prize? Who's Trump kidding?
Trump became incensed when he didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. Considering he started a war with Iran, no wonder he didn't win it. His forever war has spread over most of the Middle East and is snowballing beyond there,. It was only supposed to be a few weeks not hurting the American public. Instead, it has lasted for now eight months and has hurt Americans financially. Thousands of serviceman and women have been injured and more than 18 have died that we know of. Billions in military equipment and bases have been destroyed to fight this war. Shortages of equipment, long deployments, yet Trump is more concerned about his vanity projects to preserve his legacy renaming buildings, highway roads and bodies of water and anything he can slap his name on. This egotistical president only does things to enrich himself and family, yet he golfs and pretends that all is well with the nation. Congress needs to stand up and stop this unlawful war as quickly as possible or more Americans will suffer.
Joan Parsons, North Palm Beach
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Post reader vents: I thought I left high taxes up North | Letters
