Brevard County Commission Candidate Ron Taylor Issues Statement

2014 BREVARD COUNTY COMMISSION ELECTION

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is a statement issued to the voters of Brevard by Candidate for District 2 County Commissioner Ron Taylor. In the above video, Taylor talks about his background, campaign platform and his vision for the future of Brevard County. The Brevard County Commissioner District 2 includes Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Port Canaveral, Cape Canaveral, Avon by the Sea, Cocoa Beach, Snug Harbor, portions of Cocoa, Rockledge and Patrick AFB.

1. Tell us the Truth Michael Hartman…you are NOT a licensed CPA in Florida! Period.  

Michael Hartman represents himself in public as a CPA without qualifying he is NOT licensed in the state of Florida but in the state of Maryland. This is clearly not in the spirit of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation rules (1) [Advertise or represent oneself to the public as a CPA: ONE NEEDS A LICENSE]. At the very least Michael Hartman is unethical and at the worse in violation FDBR rules.

Further, Michael Hartman loses the advantages of *Practice Mobility due to his public CPA declarations without reference to being licensed only in Maryland.

Michael Hartman either state where your CPA license resides or get a CPA license in Florida.

* Practice Mobility for CPAs is the general ability of a licensee in good standing from a substantially equivalent state to gain practice privilege outside of their home state without getting an additional license in the state where they will be serving a client or an employer.

2. Michael Hartman says repeatedly he will cut your county tax bill by 20 percent over the next four years and implement zero-based budgeting. Can anyone take him seriously without a detailed plan to accomplish these goals?

A 20 percent tax bill cut is a very bold and adventurous statement of great interest to taxpayers that must be backed up with serious analyses of the County Budget. What CPA would make a statement like this without presenting detailed budgetary analyses to back up their claim? CPAs have a trusted reputation and Michael Hartman owes that profession more than just words to garner votes from voters.

His 20 percent tax bill cut is ridiculed by those who know the county budget. Put in plain and simple terms much of the budget is mandated by the state/federal government or not under the control of the County Commission.  Even simple back-of-the-napkin analysis show the impossibility of this claim. It just panders to the hopes of our citizens and reinforces their disillusionment with politicians and government.

Zero based budgeting (2) has been successfully implemented into the private-sector, corporate environment. It has NOT transitioned well into the government sector. In fact, Jimmy Carter was a big proponent of zero-based budgeting and implemented zero-based budgeting into the federal government. It was a disaster. When Ronald Reagan came into office he dumped this budgeting methodology posthaste.

The State of Florida as well as many other governmental entities large and small have tried and dropped this budgeting process (97 percent abandonment rate). Only a few small municipalities still use zero-based budgeting. Does Michael Hartman really know what he’s talking about or is he just using buzzwords?

3. Is Michael Hartman a real Fiscal Conservative Republican…or just a Smoke and Mirrors Opportunist?

Michael Hartman declares himself a Fiscal Conservative Republican and represents himself as a Free Market Capitalist. But his employment since the collapse of the condo/housing market until last year was based on an association with the Tejas Housing Group (3). This group spawned Development Companies to take advantage of a marketable Federal tax credit (which can be sold for cash!) incentive program called the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (4) signed into law by Barack Obama. Michael Hartman was engaged by a development company called Roundstone Development LLC.

He instructed participants on how to best convert Federal tax credits to cash. On the one hand Michael Hartman condemns the County Commissioners for giving a $6.5 million subsidy to a Miracle Mall developer while on the other hand he has no problem helping developers get multi-millions in cash subsidies from the Federal Government. You can’t have it both ways Michael Hartman. You either believe in the unsubsidized free market or you don’t.

The tax credit opportunity with the Tejas Housing Group and Roundstone dried up for Michael Hartman last year when he was let go. Most recently, Michael Hartman has partnered with two former business partners to form Concur, Inc., an unfunded Timeshare Project in Daytona Beach that is simply an artist’s rendering and a vacant lot in Daytona Beach.

Coincidentally, one of these partners has a thank you note on his website from non-other than Charlie Crist himself: “Your thoughtfulness in sharing your talents and information are deeply appreciated (5).

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