You will remember (LOL, like you actually would) my July 27th post asking why County Commissioner Katy Sorenson joined the Vile Natacha Seijas led Unreformable Majority in a vote on adjourning the meeting without setting a tax rate. Sorenson defends her vote to the Miami Herald Editorial Board in a letter to the Editor today: (Damn, I can't find it online...I have to type it?? nah, it is Saturday, I will scan).
17 comments:
Letter to the Eye on Miami Editor:
Why would Commission Sorenson be so proud of setting the tax rate as the rollback rate? That is too high.
She says for every dollar of increase someone feels, someone else gets a dollar decrease. The one who sees the increase is the HOMEOWNERS...Not fair to us. The 40% of voters not owning homes get a free pass and they put these Commissioners (and keep them) in office
You make an interesting observation reader. I read that in the Miami Herald the other day...that the voters are not necessarily tax payers and in some districts it is at a higher percentage than others. So, maybe this is why we have such an unresponsive County Commission, they don't have to answer to taxpayers. We don't really hold the power - voters do. And the voters never get socked directly in their pocketbook, where it hurts the most for most people. I have to think about this..., you are right, it is unfair.
Katy is pushing for a tax increase. Property owners have seen their assets decline 25% to 80% and she wants to tax them more?
I read her letter and I don't get the " proud " part - she was just trying to clear up what the Herald clearly fouled up.
The millage rate is the tip of the iceberg. There has to be meaningful change in spending and budgets and discretionary funds and pension plans, after which, setting the millage rate would be a no brainer.
Sorenson didn't get the point. She might have gotten what she wanted but it was letting the other remove themselves from blame that she should not have allowed. In other words, the end didn't justify the means in voters' eyes.
At a MDPD Kendall district CAC meeting Wednesday night Commissioner Katy Sorenson gave a preview of a power point presentation she will be giving around her district explaining the tax issues. I assume that the meetings she plans will be “noticed”, plan to go if interested. Her presentation gave an overview of property taxes and how homestead exemption, non-homestead and commercial property would be affected by the rollback millage rate. She also did some “selling” of how such a little increase can help the areas that would need to be cut if taxes were not increased. Overall it looks like she supports the rollback millage rate. Katy is also chair of the commission budget committee.
Go to her meetings, ask questions, let her know how you feel about cutting service vs. increasing taxes. In her presentation she said the budget has gone up about %7 per year over the last 3 years. One wonders when the current CPI is flat and over the last 3 years has been under %3, how this can continue? The rate of Salary increases for residents is currently not keeping up with the CPI much less than the %7 per year past average. The trend will outpace the ability of people to pay with a larger and larger percentage of salary going to taxes. Wonder what the percentage of median property tax to median income is for Miami-Dade county vs. other areas?
This is an increase in the tax RATE to compensate for the decrease in assessed value. This is set to generate the same revenue as last year so unless there are fewer homeowners (doubtful with all the people who have moved in to downtown Miami and Miami Beach alone) the average homeowner will pay the same or more likely less than last year.
The wrinkle in this is that if you are a homestead taxpayer and your assessment is still below the fair market assessment even though that fair market assessment has come down this year. In that case, you are likely to see a tax increase because your legal assessment will still be going up by 3% this year. This is part of the homestead exemption law that allows for "catch up" in the tax base assessment.
re: property taxes and owners v. renters. first off, the renters pay the taxes via the rent. second, renters enjoy no federal tax benefits. third, if you really want more fairness, let's switch to an income tax.
how about it?
"if you really want more fairness, let's switch to an income tax"
I know that Spanky was being facetious but the irony is that every tax is "unfair" in one way or another to some constituency because some group can always concoct a reason why they should pay less and someone else should pay more whether is it the usual sales tax vs. real estate tax debate or the FL constitutionally prohibited state income tax idea that Spanky jokes about.
People who own instead of rent, do so full well knowing that they will have a different tax profile that renters do as well as taking benefits that renters don't enjoy. As a further point to "Not Much of A Defense" renters generally vote in much lower numbers than home owners. (flip to page 7):
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/downloads/pub_housing_2.pdf
For years the County, state and Federal budgets have outpaced inflation and population growth. Now the shits hit the fan and folks have woken up to the fact that they can't affor their government. This is a real problem since its not like your able to choose a generic brand government or shop for a less expensive government (without uprooting your family)or choose which government services you want to pay for and which you can live without.
Government salaries, benefits and pensions (with very few exceptions)BY FAR outstrip comparable jobs in the private sector.
Government produces nothing (at least nothing of consequence) what will happen when the government sucks up most of the private sector? comments please.....
As much as I support Ms. Sorenson generally, she's basically lying about the proposition that some owners will pay more and others less. Had she been honest, she would have noted that since there has been a net aggregate decline in the value of properties, all property taxes will of necessity go up to produce the same overall revenue. Especially since the tax appraisor's office is effectively making up valuations rather than pegging the assessment to actual property sales. The really big snake that is squeezing the citizens is alive and well.
Another phony, remember if she voted "NO" to adjourn they would have had to set the cap.
SHE WAS THE SWING VOTE!!!
The last anon obviously didn't watch the meeting.
Otherwise, the readers of this blog are largely why I pay attention to what gets posted. This is the ONLY place on the web that seems capable of having a lively, civilized, and thoughtful debate on taxation and services.
Thanks.
Steve is right - the millage cap sets the rate. Rollback is essentially a flat budget. The County will take in as much as it did last year. Remember that last year the County was forced to cut $200 million from the year before while also having to pay more for what has been traditionally been State responsibility.
The anon that went to Sorensons budget talk noted that the local government budget has grown 7% a year. Hopefully there was some explanation of that figure since a good piece of that is the result of the State government passing the buck and local governments (cities too) pick up the slack.
The State did not pass back to local government the asburd, unrealistic pay scale and pension plan that country employees receive. The State did not pass back to local government the absurd and illogical "discretionary funds" given to each county commissioner.
I was “The anon that went to Sorensons budge talk” poster. I would agree that some of the increases were, as you say, the result of the State government passing the buck and local governments picking up the slack. But I don’t think that is all of it. I would like to see the facts, break down the budgets from, let’s say, 2005 to the current proposed budget. The numbers I have show the 2005/05 budget to be $ 3,766,621,000. The proposed rollback budget is $ 4,729,304,000. That a 25.56 % increase, a BILLION DOLLAR increase! How many residents have had a 25% increase in their wages from 2005 to 2009? Taxes cannot outpace the people’s ability to pay them!
One case that I am aware of where the county added services that I question the need for; MDFD added a fireboat Navy. The last time I looked at the budget for this it was for over 5 million for capital (boats, facilities and such). What gets me is the expense will be an expensive O&M cost that will keep on growing. Maintaining the Navy will be a gift that keeps on costing. Maintenance on the boats, facilities and staffing crews will be a cost that keeps growing year after year. Did you notice that one of the cost cuts proposed by the mayor was to not implement one of the fire boats and it facilities? Does MDFD really need a Navy? How did we get along so long without one? Who decided that this ongoing very expensive service with high ongoing costs was to be added to our tax base?
My feeling is that as the real state bubble grew so did our county government. Now that the bubble burst we are stuck with supporting the county government bubble that did not deflate with the real estate bubble. If the county bubble does not deflate some we will continue to pay more and more as the years go by.
The county could have done a better job years ago of eliminating non-essential jobs as they came vacant. They didn't...they held those positions in abeyance rather than making them disappear when no one would have to be fired. That is irresponsible management.
I am not as bothered by the discretionary funds because with some monitoring we can see where the funds went. I am bothered by the issues of OCED funds going to agency's that produced nothing in exchange for thousand's of dollars. Well, they produced a handful of paychecks, instead of services or buildings. Sigh.
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