t…

Yes we can find egregious examples of crooked cops and bad firefighters, but overall these men and women are genuinely committed to help, and they deserve every nickel they get.

If you don’t like the decisions your representatives are making you organize and elect new representatives. Or, you make a persuasive case for why they should decide otherwise.

The op-ed you cite makes no argument, but is a pejorative-laden attack piece. “Tax-and-spend liberals” even though it is precisely the role of government to raise taxes and spend them. This is not a liberal or a conservative issue. Both Republicans and Democrats have proven to be effective money managers in different times and places, and both have been poor money managers. The ability to manage money is not rooted in political ideology.

The council didn’t “come to a reasoned conclusion” the council “caved.” This BS rhetoric from someone who can’t make a reasoned argument for their position.

It’s a “bleeding-heart council,” because presumably someone willing to put their life on the line to save your life and property isn’t worth diddly-squat.

And remember, this “devastating economic downturn” is rooted in the taxcut-and-spend policies of so-called fiscal conservatives.

And, taxpayers have time to pack the city council. To say otherwise is simply a lie. Maybe, just maybe, taxpayers (and I am one of them) applaud the city council level-headed commonsense efforts to make this a better place to live by making sure, as we enter the long drought months, we have reliable public servants to come to our assistance when we need them.

Firefighters deserve a raise. Tampa firefighter pay is not competitive with surrounding areas which makes it hard to recruit and retain firefighters.

Low wages leads to incompetency. If we want Tampa to attract new businesses (which means more jobs, more tax dollars) we need to have strong infrastructure. We need to make sure our firefighters, teachers, and other public service workers are competent. Higher wages are not the only way, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Does anybody really buy the boogeyman of the tax-and-spend liberal anymore? I thought that sort of political currency went out with “I like Ike.”

Would you rather have contractors protect our homes and businesses? As we’ve seen over the last eight years, and the astonishing escalation of contractors doing government, public service jobs, costs go up and efficiency goes down.

If anything the city council didn’t give the firefighters enough of a raise.

I want to rid local government of stupidity, not Republicans, and not Democrats.

Partisan whining (such as yours) stifles all manner of discussion, which IMHumbleO is killing democracy.

Having said that, I’d truly love to hear you defend City Council’s ACTIONS (feel free to separate the parties for this UNANIMOUS vote) without whining about adjectives.

Led by tax-and-spend liberals John Dingfelder and Mary Mulhern…”

I suppose the other 5 are fiscal conservative conservatives?

IMHumbleO I’d prefer teachers get this money but issues aside, why do you reprint partisan dribble like this?