It appears that as each election cycle passes, the amount of money spent by candidates and advocates at every level of government increases. Unfortunately, in order to be successful, candidates now have to allot more and more of their time and energy to fundraising. Much of the rest of the campaign consists of carefully scripting every word spoken to prevent creating a negative spot advertisement for their opponent. As a result, honest dialogue, civil debate and useful information on relevant issues becomes harder and harder to find. It is a paradox that with more dollars spent getting out “information”, it seems to take a greater effort on the part of the voter to get the honest data needed to make an intelligent decision. Conversely, it is becoming easier and easier to be influenced by irrelevant generalities and emotional responses generated by focus groups and slick campaign advertising.

Your Taxpayers’ Association continues to receive numerous requests for our position on various candidates and issues from our members and the media. This happens every time an election approaches. We continue to explain that our organization’s focus during elections is on issues and not the candidates. Even when discussing issues, we provide data and explain our position rather than try to dictate a specific answer. While we remain an apolitical organization and do not support individuals, we do endorse positions and try to influence all of the voters’ and candidates’ thinking, attitude and philosophy toward the subjects we believe most relevant. Our obvious emphasis is on fiscal issues that will likely result in a more responsive and efficient government for Martin County. Of course, our members and Board have their own personnel choices, but we take great care to keep our individual preferences just that.

In just a few days, the opportunity to vote in this summer/fall election will be history. You only have until July 28 to register, change your party or update any required address change. Go to www.martinvotes.com for details on the candidates, procedures and qualifying to vote. Now is the time to make sure you can vote in the August primary and begin educating yourself on the candidates and issues.

We see and hear many words of advice on how to game the system by changing party affiliation, voting for write-in candidates or not voting. Our advice to voters is to educate yourself on the candidates themselves and honestly vote your intellectual derived preferences. Concentrate on the candidates’ qualifications and consistency on the issues that are actually relevant to, and can be influenced by, the position to which that candidate or incumbent is aspiring. Evaluate the long-term effects of approving amendments. Look at the big picture and see how a particular candidate’s success or failure can directly affect the issues that you believe are the most important for you, your family, your county, state and country. What history does he or she have on supporting those issues? What are the secondary results of a candidate’s success? How will a majority by one party or another effect the selection of powerful positions such as Judges and Congressional Chairpersons?

It is an old hypothesis attributed to a number of different 19 th century philosophers that a democratic society cannot survive for an extended period of time due to a number of common human traits. The essence of the theory is that citizens will eventually learn that they can vote in politicians that will give them the assets of their government in order to achieve or stay in power. Another threat to democracy is the tendency for these same politicians, and the bureaucrats they hire, to avoid difficult issues until the last minute. This leads to a political failure to acknowledge threats to the overall good of the society until it is too late to avoid catastrophes that should have been obvious.

These are certainly theories that can be demonstrated throughout the history of virtually all civilizations including ours. Fortunately our founding fathers were especially astute in their crafting of a system with checks and balances that try to address these human failings. For all of their thoughtful work this, like all democracies, depend upon an informed, thoughtful electorate to survive. Make sure you are one those informed voters.

Bottom line: put away the emotions, be skeptical of simplistic answers, view sound bites with a jaundiced eye, and become well informed on the candidates and issues – and thenvote.
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All of our local governments begin their budget hearings this month. The County Property Appraiser will present the official 2009 Tax Roll in the next few weeks and it looks to be about 7% less than last year. It might even be less depending on the latest data. It definitely would be less if it were not for the large number of homesteaded properties that are worth far more than their assessed value. The taxes on these homes will continue to increase at the 3% per year maximum until their assessed and appraised value become equal. An interesting note is that this is the first time in more than 30 years that our County’s property values have actually decreased.