Mike Simmons is a FAIRtax-er who does not draw as much national recognition as he should. To say that Mike is active in the Florida FAIRtax Educational Association (FFTEA) would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Florida has one of the largest and most active state chapters in the country, perhaps rivaled only by Georgia. Mike serves on the Board of Directors of the FFTEA and carries the additional official title of Website Coordinator. In practice, he does much more.
Recently, Mike was thinking of some “out of the box” ways to raise some much-needed funds, both in Florida and nationally. He proposed compiling a listing of businesses that either contribute to FAIRtax or whose owners are on one of the FAIRtax boards. As a business owner himself, Mike said that he would gladly donate 10% of what he earns from a referral back to FAIRtax. He offered to put together a separate directory page on the FFTEA web site that would list all the FAIRtax-supporting businesses, what they offer and any discounts available
Mike sees a move back toward "mom and pop" businesses and away from the corporate behemoths. This development is possibly the one of the biggest positive changes to come from the current pandemic. Mike says he would prefer to do business with a company that supports the FAIRtax and believes many other FAIRtax supporters would too, if they just knew who those businesses were. The more we can support each other, the better it is for both us and the FAIRtax.
In addition to becoming a wellspring of ideas and running the website, Mike has poured a good bit of time and effort into revamping the FAIRtax Store---a move necessitated by the semi-retirement of the couple who was running it before. In addition to helping move the store from Deland to Jacksonville, Mike is working on ways to improve management of promotional items and payment processing.
We thank Mike for the role he is playing to make the FAIRtax happen.
A few words about Mike. He spent over thirty years in the family food business, mostly in the ingredient sales and distribution side of the business. Most of this was working with spices and spice blends for food processors. His company imported, blended and distributed blends for many of the food products seen regularly on grocery shelves.
During that time, businesses of all kinds and sizes were beginning to see the value of having an online presence. Mike recognized the opportunity early and became involved in developing a web presence for his company.
In 2005 he made a complete career change and went into full time web development, which included website design, Google work with clients and video production. It is here that he continues today.
Mike started working with the FAIRtax after listening to Neal Boortz on the radio and reading his books. He liked the idea of a consumption tax over an income tax, and definitely liked the simplicity of the plan. He volunteered with the Florida FAIRtax Educational Association, and began working on web related activities. This included the FFTEA web site (flfairtax.org) and the newly re-designed FAIRtax store site (fairtaxstore.org).
Yours In the FAIRtax Movement!
Jim Bennett
AFFT Grassroots Coordinator & Secretary
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