Taxpayers to Picket Children’s Services Council Over Planned Parenthood Funding

Follow

What: 100 Taxpayers to Picket Childrens Services Council Over Planned Parenthood Funding
When: Thursday morning, 4/14
Time: 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Why:  The public remains uninformed about St. Lucie County tax waste, lack of accountability and morally objectionable use of funds by the St. Lucie Children’s Service Council. The purpose of the planned protest is to bring attention to their objectionable practices.
Contact: Peggy Steffel, 772-579-9091
Website: http://sohltc.com/2011/04/13/taxpayers-to-picket-childrens-services-council-over-planned-parenthood-funding/

One hundred protesters with signs will line St Lucie West Blvd, Peacock Boulevard, and University Avenue, in St. Lucie West, as members of the St. Lucie Children’s Service Council arrive for the regularly scheduled April 14 meeting.  Individuals from throughout the county are protesting the $500,000 tax money the Council is giving Planned Parenthood each year for programs that can be provided by other county organizations.

Only 9 of 67 counties in Florida have Children’s Service Councils. It is troublesome to many of us that this council is a separate taxing entity – which we look at as taxation without representation. None of the members of the CSC are elected – all appointed. So we have little recourse as to the makeup of the council and they can pretty much do as they please, without accountability.

STOP Funding Planned Parenthood!

Photo from March protest – we will have new photos for the April protest as many more people  have committed to coming.

Following the protest, citizen taxpayers will speak at the council meeting, stressing fiscal responsibility during this time of budget deficits. There is also a concern about duplication of services, since these programs can be provided by other local public and private agencies which do not promote exploitation of minors, sex trafficking, and abortion.

The matter has heated up locally, as undercover videos of Planned Parenthood were made public on national television, which showed Planned Parenthood’s willingness to aid and abet the sexual exploitation of minors. During a four-year investigation in ten different states Planned Parenthood was found to intentionally misrepresent and ignore reporting laws for sexual abuse. Planned Parenthood is supposedly a non-profit organization, yet in their last annual report they showed $63 million in profits.

For several years local citizens have appeared at the September St. Lucie Children’s Service Council budget meeting to protest the huge allocation of tax money to Planned Parenthood, but have had no success, as each year Planned Parenthood receives $500,000. The citizen group plans to thoroughly check all history, facts and statistics from both Planned Parenthood and the Children’s Service Council, as the battle is taken directly to the streets and to the tax payers.

The movement is gaining momentum. We have protested at the St. Lucie school board meeting two weeks ago and nine of us spoke at the School Board meeting last week. Both Kathryn Hensley (school board) and Paula Lewis (County Commissioner) have voted to give  Planned Parenthood over $3 million the past few years. Both are up for reelection in 2012.

Taxpayers to Picket Children’s Services Council Over Planned Parenthood Funding