Letters to the editor: Expressway 'behemoth'

Letter to the Editor

The expressway 'behemoth'

Regarding "Keep hands off local tolls, state" (Letter of the Day, Feb. 4):

Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, was critical of the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) "bureaucrats" and their "behemoth organization" for wanting to swallow up the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA). He suggested you contact your legislators and support THEA. But he didn't tell the complete story.

Consider a 2012 total budget of $13 million, of which only 65 percent is going to operations and maintenance. How about $4.1 million of that budget alone going for administrative costs, including $2.1 million for compensation of only 16 employees, including a "communications manager" and the director's compensation of more than $200,000?

Sure, there is the "road ranger" program, a worthy initiative that helps stranded motorists. It costs only $144,000 per year.

Am I talking about the DOT? Nope. The behemoth here is THEA, the organization Rohrlack wants us to support.

The crosstown expressway has been under construction continuously since 1998, and much of the money being used for current "improvements" comes from federal stimulus money or from the DOT.

Meanwhile, users of this "award-winning" road pay more than $100 per month in tolls if they use its full length to commute to and from work five days per week.

Frankly, there should be more serious discussion from THEA about doing what Brevard County did with its stretch of the Beach Line: Pay for it, end the tolls and use it as a basic road funded from the usual local, state and federal coffers.

Of course, if that happens, local authorities lose their cash cow to pay for other pet projects.

So beware of what Rohrlack is suggesting and know that bureaucrats are bureaucrats, whether they come from Tampa or Tallahassee.

Fred W. Van Cleave

Brandon

Equally neutral

The Tribune's editorial, "Praying for Guidance" (Feb. 4) is ill-informed and misguided. Perhaps the editorial staff should have studied more closely the Florida Constitution:

"Section 3. Religious freedom. There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof. Religious freedom shall not justify practices inconsistent with public morals, peace or safety. No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."

Authorizing schools to appoint students to deliver a religious message at school functions is an obvious violation of Section 3 insofar as it involves state revenues funding such events.

This in no way prohibits or penalizes the free exercise of one's religious sentiments. It simply says, in effect, do it on your own time and on your own property.

The same goes for religious messages delivered at the statehouse in Tallahassee. We should not have to subsidize government chaplains or suffer some pious congressman's or senator's less than clear idea of what it means to be righteous at official functions and events.

The Tribune stacks the deck against opponents of the bill by labeling them "anti-faith activists ever alert for opportunities to be offended" who are trying to "enforce a secular sterility found nowhere else in everyday life."

This ignores the fact that many opponents of such theocratic measures are members of mainstream religions, including Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Episcopalians and Jews. The leader of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is an ordained Protestant minister. It would be quite a stretch to accuse them of a "pointless hostility to religion in school."

The Tribune argues that the bill avoids the unconstitutional and unequal promotion of one religion over others. That misses the point entirely. Section 3 treats all religions equally by not promoting any in any fashion. It is neutral, as is the U.S. Constitution.

According to the "Father of the Constitution," James Madison, this neutrality is one of the most basic foundations of a liberal democracy. Chipping away at this foundation is dangerous business, and we ignore it at our peril.

"Let those who want to, follow the words of Jesus himself and go into their own closets, shut the door and pray to their Father in secret." (Matthew 6: 6).

Tommy Moore

Riverview

Organize python hunt

In response to the Tribune's Feb. 2 editorial, "Ruinous Reptiles," the writer is right that we need "vigorous controls on the import of exotics."

Even so, controls on exotic animals are not enough to curb the increasing problem of invasive species in the Florida Everglades. While controls on imports might curb any future problem, they will not address the growing population already present.

The most effective way to stop the rapid growth of these species in the Everglades is to allow a year-round hunting season of these invasive species. If the state would allow hunters to hunt Burmese pythons — there are an estimated 150,000 of them alone — and other invasive reptiles, their population would be greatly reduced. Bans on imports would not address the heart of the problem.

Allowing Florida's many avid hunters to obtain permits for Burmese python hunting would, at the minimum, check the population of theses snakes and, at the maximum, eradicate them.

Jonathan Hixson

Wesley Chapel