 |
Daniel Moeller for County Commissioner"That Government Is Best Which Governs Least" Thomas Paine Get part of the story right here. |
|
PROPERTY TAXES Below is a copy of the speech that I gave at the public budget hearing in the Kepler Theater on May 9, 2006. I was the only candidate for County Commissioner who spoke at that public hearing. BUDGET HEARING-- MAY 9, 2006 1. Your last goal for 2006 on Page 4 is: “Evaluate options regarding taxation of real property.” That should be your FIRST GOAL RIGHT NOW. 2. The real estate tax revenue, account number 400000 on the second Page 6, increases by 14.09% or almost $11 M from the original budget for this year. Most of this increase will come from your proposal to maintain the current tax rate of $.948 per $100 of assessment. This tax rate will take away an additional $6.7 M from the pockets of homeowners next year. 3. The county homeowners tax credit, account number 400320 on the second Page 6, sets aside $1 M for a homeowners tax credit program to supplement the State program. Commissioners Kercheval, Nipps, and Snook voted for this $1 M give away on April 25th, the same day they voted to give away $150 to each residential property owner, a total of about $5 M. So on April 25th, the commissioners voted to give away about $6 M to residential property owners. 4. You look FOOLISH by first voting to give away about $6 M on April 25th and then holding this public hearing to take away an additional $6.7 M from the pockets of homeowners next year. 5. A quarter-page notice in the April 28th newspaper proposes a real property tax increase. The notice explains that: “In order to fully offset the effect of increasing assessments, the real property tax rate should be reduced to $.873 (per $100 of assessment) 6. If I make the remarkable assumption that the county government was perfectly managed in 2006, I would still want the real property tax rate to increase a little bit to adjust for estimated inflation in 2007. Inflation is anticipated to be less than 3% in 2007. Therefore, I could support a real property tax rate increase from $.873 to $.899 per $100 of assessment which is a 3% increase in real property tax revenues from this year. 8. The debt service, cost center 12700 on Page 10, of $12.6 M, although far behind the BOE expenditure, is the second largest itemized expenditure in the general fund. This indicates that the county’s $162.6M debt is too high and that the county government is not serious about paying down the county’s debt. 9. The communications system replacement, 6th line on Page 13, of $4.5 M will only be a down payment on the very costly system you have decided that the county can’t live without which may never work if it is ever completed. The debt the county incurs for this system, however, will never go away. 10. I have not mentioned the $115 M plus you plan to give to the BOE for our “world-class” schools because that is a lost cause. The BOE tells you how much they want and you give it to them with as much grace and dignity as you can muster. 11. I appreciate that the Summary Budget Packet was placed on the county’s website just before this hearing but I wish it had been placed on the website at least 10 work days before the hearing |
