Here we go with the local politics again. This could be dangerous ground I’m going to but I will anyway. Ken Wilkinson has been our Tax Assessor for many years. He is partly responsible for the save our homes bill. He is partly responsible for the portability. My question is when is he going to be responsible for all the rest. (Non voters). Old time residents like me pay very little tax on our homestead property. Some say not my fair share. Again my taxes went down. Of course I love that my taxes are so low but that is short sited in the big picture.
Let me try to explain. With many tax payers paying very low taxes the budget for the city and county must be made up of the non homestead properties. (These people are typically not voters) There is a clue there. They are our second home residents, vacant land holders, and business. The governments looked at the past couple of years as a windfall for projects. I personally spoke with Ken Wilkinson just after the trim notices came out Sept 2004. I expressed my concern of the property taxes almost doubling for many homeowners. I pointed out one that had jumped from $7000 to $14000 in one year. He disagreed and said it would be fine. “What?”!!! If you were the owner of that property would you not be concerned? People freaked out and tried to sell. Now look at the mess we are in. Government; council and county people refused to look at the problem about to change the perception of Florida. (Can’t retire there, too expensive. Taxes are huge) I heard that time after time.
Now these non voters have been hurt drastically by the huge taxes imposed on them due to the amazing increase in assessed value. Word has spread far and wide about our high taxes. Two things happened. One, the people who owned property with those huge taxes tried to sell (1000’s couldn’t afford doubling of taxes) at the same time folks looking to buy would ask; “How much are the taxes?”. Upon learning the amount would gasp and go to S Carolina, Georgia, Tenn.. This happened over and over. Now we have more people leaving than coming. Ask any moving company. They don’t like to send empty trucks to SW Florida to pick people up and move them North. They want full trucks coming and going each way.
Now with the investor debacle, hurricanes, high insurance and high taxes why is it a surprise to local government that the local economy is in such disarray? Yes it will heal and yes we will grow again, but this property tax issue must be worked out in order to do that. Any time you favor one segment of the population another will suffer. We have got to find a more equality based tax structure. This one isn’t working.
There is a meeting Wend night to have open suggestions for cutting the budget. I plan on being there.