[Editor’s note: A couple of Grassroots Corners ago, I wrote about a New Years’ resolution to promote the FAIRtax. Our Floridians have acted in a big way. Here is Florida Grassroots Director Ron Maiellaro’s message to his supporters that we can all use as a model. To shorten the message and make it clearer to a nationwide audience, I have made some minor edits to the original message.]
A MODEL ACTION PLAN
By Ron Maiellaro
State Director, Florida FAIRtax Educational Association
It’s been rather quiet on the FAIRtax front since the election hasn’t it? Well, that’s about to change. Even though the government shutdown and the battle of the border wall are dominating the national news cycle, we have work to do here in promoting the FAIRtax. The issues of the shutdown and the wall will be resolved in due time, but the issue of REAL tax reform will still be an unresolved goal for our country.
Our Florida Board of Directors has put together a 2019 Action Plan. And we need your help to begin its implementation.
As you know, the 116th Congress was sworn in on January 3rd. All legislation begins anew and HR 25 was sponsored by Rob Woodall of Georgia with 25 cosponsors. Two more have cosponsored since then. We won’t see the companion bill in the Senate until after the shutdown.
One part of our Action Plan is to contact members of the House of Representatives to encourage them to cosponsor HR 25.
Elaine & I have mailed letters to the Washington offices of all 27 Florida Reps. To the four current Florida cosponsors, we sent a thank you letter. To the others, we sent letters encouraging them to cosponsor HR 25.
Attached to each letter for all the Reps is a copy of the cover letter of the 2014 Florida Senate Memorial 118 and a copy of the 2009 letter from Jessica Wexler, a Democrat who worked on the Obama campaign and who also strongly endorses and promotes the FAIRtax. [Editor’s note: contact Ron at ocalafairtax@icloud.com or Florida coordinator, Ed Connor (econnor@cfl.rr.com), for a copy of these documents as well as format of the “rep” letter and the thank-you letter that the Florida FAIRtax Education Association sent.]
Now for the part where you can help. In addition to sending letters to their Washington offices, we are asking that volunteers hand deliver a copy of the letter with attachments to their home offices. We need your help to do this.
If your Rep is not in the office on your visit, talk to their legislative assistant. Be respectful but be persistent. One visit may not be enough.
Use Popvox (https://www.popvox.com/us/federal/bills/116/hr25) to express your support for the FAIRtax. [Editor: We will be running a Grassroots Corner dedicated to Popvox. Please look out for a future Grassroots Corner to learn about this powerful tool.]
Press Release – Florida FAIRtax-er Paul Livingston, [plivingston@flfairtax.org] has found a company that, for a fee, will do the hard work of distributing the press release to hundreds of newspapers and media outlets.
If you see or hear a press release about the FAIRtax, respond to it with your support. Even if you don’t see or hear it, register your support for the FAIRtax by writing letters to the editor. Most newspapers have a website in which you can follow up on your letter once it is published. On the website, you are not limited to 250 or 300 words so you can respond in detail should anyone be foolish enough to criticize your letter.
You can also call your local radio talk show and encourage others to contact their Representative about the FAIRtax.
In short, we need a Boots On The Ground [Editor: See a prior Grassroots Corner written by Virginia FAIRtax-er, Donald Koop, on this subject.], media blitz and we truly need your participation. Please do what you can to help get the word out about the only REAL tax reform proposal in Congress.
The battle for the attention of citizens is underway. Please do what you can to help.
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Ron Maiellaro
Ron Maiellaro is a retired high school science teacher and school administrator.
Ron became interested in the FAIRtax by listening to Neal Boortz on the radio. After moving to Florida, Ron and his wife, Elaine, bought a commercial truck and drove over the road for 5 years. Then the Maiellaro’s bought additional trucks and leased them out. When the couple closed that business, they started volunteering for the FAIRtax locally. Ron and Elaine are very committed to this effort. In 2017 Ron became the President of the Florida FairTax Educational Association and Elaine became the Secretary.
About 4 years ago, Bob Paxton invited Ron to join him in a weekly FAIRtax Power Radio internet broadcast/podcast. In 2018 the owners of Big Daddy Studios in Gainesville, FL invited Bob & Ron to do a weekly digital TV broadcast. Bob and Ron currently broadcast to facebook.com/fairtax and www.xcluded.com. Xcluded is a subscription site.
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CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need MORE of you to send in pictures and news. If you have anything to share, please send your material to me at jim.bennett@fairtax.org, or text me at (908) 578-4975, or fax me at (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members and Senators and, yes, even the President start to listen.