Off Topic: 24% Tax Increase for Ft. Lauderdale!

YachtForums · Sep 15, 2004

Fort Lauderdale City Commission votes to boost taxes, fees

By Brittany Wallman
Staff Writer
Posted September 14 2004

FORT LAUDERDALE · Property owners have seen their city services dwindle in the past year, but the price they pay is about to leap.

City commissioners supported a 24 percent tax increase Monday night, saying it would contribute toward the stability the teetering city desperately needs.

Commissioners didn't stop at supporting higher property taxes. After final commission votes are cast, residents likely will find they are paying more for a host of general services, including water-sewer affecting customers in six other cities, stormwater, fire assessment and responses to home alarms that go off unnecessarily.

Commissioners voted 3-2 on the increased tax rate, with Mayor Jim Naugle and Commissioner Christine Teel dissenting and asking for more cuts. A final vote is required next Tuesday.

The taxes would amount to $5.77 for every $1,000 of taxable value. That's 11 percent higher than last year's tax rate, and when increased values are factored in, it's 24.22 percent higher than last year.

New City Manager George Gretsas called it a "building year," as he offered a compromise to the originally proposed 33 percent tax increase and $426.7 million budget.

The budget would provide money to hire 13 police officers and fill officer vacancies, though that still would leave the department far short of its staffing level last year. Gretsas' budget also extends the time the city takes to shore up some of its problems.

"It's more about evolution vs. revolution," Gretsas said.

He told commissioners and the public that he's taking the city on a new path, toward a more efficient government that one day will meet the public's needs and desires. For now, he conceded, no one is going to be completely happy.

Commissioners said they didn't want to raise taxes -- it's never a popular proposition for elected officials -- but they thought the city's bare reserves, heavily reduced police force, downgraded bond rating and continued multimillion-dollar problems demanded it.

The changes in individual tax bills will vary depending on how much the assessed value of the property went up, whether it was recently purchased, and whether it's a person's homestead and thus limited this year to a 1.9 percent increase in taxable value.

Those who stand to be hurt the most are owners of rental, investment, commercial or other non-homesteaded properties.

Owners told commissioners Monday that they had poured their money and lives into city property, but with the soaring assessments and double-digit tax rate increases, their hopes were sinking.

Lake Ridge resident Martin Nebojsic told commissioners his tax bill in the multi-unit investment property he owns was $1,949 last year, but this year would have leapt to $4,050 under the originally proposed tax increase.

He didn't expect to receive twice the service next year, he said. He suggested deep budget cuts were necessary.

"I'm a CPA. I make a pretty decent living. I can afford that," Nebojsic said, "but I can tell you a lot of my clients are going to have to go into their line of credit to pay that."

Alan Stotsky said the apartment owners' group he represents hated to see the proposed increase because the working class can't afford the rents that will come, and living in Fort Lauderdale will no longer be an option.

Rental property "is where waiters, waitresses, hostesses, the people who serve us in our homes, live. These increases, the ones I know about, will probably increase the rental rate $40, $45 a month," he said. " ... Please reduce the spending and do not increase the taxes."

County Commissioner John Rodstrom said he was speaking as a private citizen, something he had never done before at a city budget hearing. That changed, he said, when he saw his tentative tax bill and found that his $12,429 tax bill on Nurmi Drive in Fort Lauderdale would be going up 25 percent.

brian eiland · Sep 16, 2004

Bush-economics

But everything is going along fine according to this administration...the average American is better off. The cities and states aren't, so everyone's tax bills are going up...even beyond the incresed taxes on the inflated property values.

Lets see, how much and when is the next installment on Iraq.

And I wonder who is going to pay all those Jewish settelers the 300K each to move out of trailer parks built illegally....the US taxpayer who is presently paying to build that wall!!

oldyachtie · Sep 17, 2004

VOTE THE BOAT

I hate doing this but if I must I must. Our country has perhaps outgrown it's Republic status and might be ready to move on to a true democracy. This would be a good thing for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that our current President would not be in office, we might still have a budget surplus, and we might not be embroiled in a war that we cannot win.

Senator John Kerry offers intelligence (refreshing), experience (many years in government both at the state and national level), and, dare I say it? time served in COMBAT, UNDER FIRE, even though he didn't agree with our country's policies that sent him there. That takes balls.

Kerry is a little like Gore, he doesn't speak as well as he writes, but Bush doesn't even speak his own words and still can't get them straight. Kerry has nothing to lose, if he is not elected he will continue serving the public somehow and of course he has his own and wife's fortune to support himself. He need never do a book tour, and he has no axe to grind over a family dynasty to avenge. Teresa Heinz Kerry says what she thinks, and she is a brilliant woman with a true international perspective. She also never ran through a stop sign that killed a classmate as a teenager, as our current First Lady did. If that particular infraction had occured today (vehicular homicide rings a bell) I doubt that she would have been out of the pokey in time to attract the attention of Georgie Snort S'More.

It blows my mind (no pun intended) that Clinton was raked over the coals for admitting to smoking pot ('Didn't inhale," okay shure), and our current President has virtually admitted to being an out of control alcoholic and from many other reports a coke head. Sooooooooo. Who would you rather have in charge of the big red button?

But of course, how could I forget the real guy in charge is Cheney. The guy who ridicules gays while his own daughter has been shacking up with her girlfriend for years. I guess they are all hypocrites in that family though, daughter works on Dad's campaign. Maybe she figures that she won't get pregnant and so at least she doesn't have to worry about the Rs infringing upon rights she won't need to exercise.

That's just the start of it all. For all of you in Florida who care about our country please register to vote, learn, really learn about the issues, behind the fog. The Republicans don't care about your parents and their needs, they don't care about you. They care about the upper 5% of America. This is not good and it violates the foundation that our country was built upon.

Our country is the most successful (on paper) in the world, and yet our citizens suffer more than many other countries far below us in the rankings. We do not live as long, nor is our quality of life as high as many other countries ranked "lower" than us. Our children are barely in the top ten of industrialized nations educationally (our infant mortality rates are disturbingly high), our statistics on domestic violence are no better. And your chances of being murdered or the victim of a violent crime are much higher here than in other "first world" nations. We are fatter and generally unhappier than any of the other first world countries used in comparison to us, we are allowed two weeks per year for vacation on average, as compared similarly to other countries with a minimum of six to eight weeks. Who wins here?

Irag is a disaster that gets worse every day. We have made a mess and now we have to clean it up, for the next 20 years or so... and they'll still hate us, no matter how much good we do, because we have occupied their country. People are much more nationalistic than we think. Globalism may mean that HPs customer service is handled by a woman in India and a man in Kuala Lampur, but ask either one of them who they are and they will identify themselves by their country of birth. Just as my high lteacher said in the 70s, the biggest ism we'll have to deal with in our adulthood is NATIONALISM.

Remember, we have never been occupied by an invading country.

During World War II the countries that we invaded and occupied were with the support of other countries and we were right to do what we did, and I think the countries in question would agree with me. Germany and Japan emerged from the wreckage of their defeat to become two of the most vital success stories of the second half of the twentieth century.

It was after WWII that we began to make mistakes. And it seems we keep making. We invade and impose our culture upon these people and are suprised when it doesn't work.

Korea? No
Vietnam? No
Iraq? No
Afghanistan? Maybe, but we never really took over there and things are already sliding backwards.

In the meantime things at home are not looking so good either. If we are to be a shining example to the rest of the world our citizens, all of them, not just the wealthy must have free and easy access to the health care that is, by all accounts, the best in the world. Too bad so many of our citizens are deprived of it's benefits. Our current President also sees fit to cripple our most brilliant scientific minds and stop them from vital stem cell research that could lead to cures and treatments to so many devastating diseases.

So lets see some National Health Care, and a more equivical tax plan, perhaps a VAT instead of the IRS?

Or am I just dreaming?

Regardless, Floridians, I implore you to vote, ideally by absentee ballot where there will be a record of how you voted. Remember who the Governator (it's ALL in the Family). Last time the Jewish voters in Boca voted for Pat Robertson, according to the official results, this of course would have been about as likely as supporting Dr. Mengele for Surgeon General. Even Robertson had a laugh over this!

Take Care Everyone.

William lll · Sep 18, 2004

You Know What They Say Are Unavoidable...

Death And Taxes! William lll

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Off Topic: 24% Tax Increase for Ft. Lauderdale!

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