To the commission RE: Utility tax
Dear Editor:
At last year’s budget hearings, this commission raised the millage rate by 17 percent and increased the fire assessment fee. You said these increases were necessary to balance the budget. We learned to live with these increases because we were led to believe that was the end of your adding to our tax burden. Now you want to add a 10 percent levy on electric, water and metered gas. It’s only $10 or $12 a month. That’s easy to say if you’re earning $169,000 or $126,000 or $30,000 for a part-time job. But for a lot of people, $12 to $15 a month means putting food on the table or gas in your car.
My newspaper carrier just quit his job because he could not afford the gas for his car to make deliveries. What is the carrot you are using to encourage support for this tax increase? It is the promise of lowering the tax rate by 1 mill. But you’re not reducing the tax rate. We are. Once again you plan to use our money.
Right now, the city has $11 million in its undesignated reserve. Take $3 million from that. Don’t panic. We know that to maintain our bond rating, we must have 5 to 15 percent of our General Fund in reserve. Last year, our General Fund totaled $74 million, so $8 million in reserve meets the 10 percent criteria. The city plans to gain $2,970,000 from the 5 percent pay back by everyone employed by the city. That money plus $2 million from the undesignated reserve equals $4,970,000, which gives you a 1 mill deduction in the millage rate. You still have a million from the reserve to help balance the budget, and if it takes an increase in the fire assessment fee to make it work, then so be it. At least we will be dealing with something we have a year to budget for and it is deductible, while a utility tax is not.
I am sure you are aware that the forecast is for a double dip recession in the economy. Obviously, this is not the time to be spending money we don’t have on recreational improvements – we will have to do without for the time being. If such improvements are a dire necessity, then put it to the voters in the future, but not now.
Jean M. Robb
Deerfield Beach
Editor’s note: During commission comments, Commissioner Bill Ganz said he’d like to clear up some of the numbers that have been floating around. Specifically, he challenged the 17 percent. About half of residents, including him, did experience an increase in property taxes last year. About half, including his neighbor, did not, he said.
Total millage rate for FY 2010-11 was 6.7688, up from 5.7900 for FY 2009-10.
Dear Editor:
As I mentioned to [City Manager] Burgess Hanson on Monday, we now have the votes to stop this Utility tax, and further, I think we should also go to the people about the Fire Department. There are many reasons behind this, but I would hope that you all consider pulling these as it will only cost the city more money, nearly $102,000.
It is time that the people in Deerfield, all the people of Deerfield, have a voice and are presented with all the facts and answers in decisions that will affect them in the years to come. Further, I think it is time that you also move these up to the front of the agenda, to save us all a lot of time and aggravation. We are sick and tired of these childish moves. We have a lot to do [rather than] sit there throughout the meeting waiting for what we are all there for. This form of a meeting needs to change and the ethics behind it. We are sick of it.
This is not your city, it is ours.
John Grassi
Deerfield Beach
*Letter sent in Tuesday, prior to commission meeting.
Jacksonville Mayor Election a Harbinger to 2012?
Dear Editor:
Last week, a Democrat was elected Mayor in Jacksonville. This is a huge upset. Republicans control northeast Florida, and Jacksonville has ALWAYS been a GOP stronghold. Duvall County Republican Chairman Lenny Curry said, “The liberal organizers who want to keep the American people enslaved by wasteful spending and hideous deficits need to know that they have jumped the gun on 2012 and have awakened a sleeping giant.”
Republicans better hope Curry is wrong about the race being a harbinger to the 2012 elections. A Democrat was elected mayor to Florida’s largest county. President Eisenhower stated, “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.” Not that I am a fan of Ike but today the Republicans would denounce the former GOP President for this remark. Maybe the Jacksonville mayor election is a harbinger of the 2012 elections.
Brad Burtner
Deerfield Beach
