The Times

SM tax hike meet draws irate crowd

By EDWIN KNIGHT Staff Writer South Miami, faced with growing public indignation over a 39 per cent tax increase to support the coming budget, may bow to public pressure and trim the new tax rate. This was evidenced Aug. 24, when close to 100 South Miamians, some of them elderly and on fixed incomes, chose to protest at the first of two scheduled public hearings on the proposed tax hike. At least one member of the city's council, Mrs. Cathy McCann, said following the two-hour public hearing that she would not vote for the millage rate of 5.437 mills. Mrs. McCann and Councilwoman Mrs. Jean Willis were the two members of the council who voted against passage of the budget ordinance at the Aug. 3 council meeting, when only five citizens were in attendance. None of the five residents objected to the tax increase. But last Tuesday night, it was a different story. Since most of those taxpayers in attendance were unfamiliar with the budget, they wanted answers — and copies of the budget. Copies of the budget were distrubuted to about half of the audience before the city's administratinon ran out of copies. Finance Director Charles Stamm supplied answers to the causes of the sharp rise in the tax rate, but some of the visibly irate South Miamians were not mollified. "I know that a 39 per cent increase in taxes is apalling," said Stamm, "but it could have been worse." Eight speakers from the audience, however, were in a trimming mood. "We are being bled dry," said Edward Shippen. "We are reeling and staggering under (city) taxes which have gone up 300 per cent since 1967. We can't take anymore." Shippen attacked the employes' salaries, while pointing out that neither services nor city population has increased. "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, either," Shippen added.

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