Letters to the Editor

Posted on 20 September 2012 by LeslieM

New requirements: Beach parking stickers

Dear Editor:

Recently, the city commission changed the requirements for a resident being allowed to purchase a beach parking sticker.

They say the changes are necessary, due to limited parking spots. They also say that this is how surrounding towns handle this issue. I remember the phrase, “If all your friends jumped off the bridge, would you?”

The city has taken out of the ordinance that you need to be a property owner to purchase a beach sticker. Instead, a Florida Voter Registration Card is the key. While I haven’t researched for myself how surrounding towns handle this problem, I do know how they handle it where I come from [New York]. ALL property owners and year-round renters are entitled to a FREE parking sticker. “Outsiders” can purchase a beach sticker according to availability.

If we were a year-round community with no second homeowners, what would the city do then? Our second homeowner residents pay more in property tax than we do, because we are homesteaded. They pay three times as much for all the services that we, as homesteaded people, pay, at least where I live.

For instance, while I pay $65.53 to Broward Public Schools by state law; they pay $212. I pay $28.50 to Broward Public Schools by local board; they pay $92 and they have never had a child go to our schools.

I pay $65.75 to Municipal Deerfield Beach, while the second homeowner pays $213 to this line item on our property tax bill, and so on.

When I spoke at the Sept. 4 [commission] meeting on this subject, two organizations came to the podium to thank Deerfield Beach and its residents for supporting their organizations. Our second homeowners footed this support by three times as much as homesteaded property owners!

Now, the commission rewards these residents by taking away their perk of buying a beach sticker? I believe you are treating these property owners as cash cows. These people, while they can’t vote for you, are your constituents, nevertheless.

I believe ostracizing these residents by not allowing them a beach sticker is unfortunate. They never complained about paying full price for a sticker they could only use half the year.

Go to any restaurant owner and ask how they’re doing business-wise. They’ll all tell you they are waiting for the snowbirds to get back. You have offended this segment of residents greatly and I believe you need to rethink this issue.

Caryl Berner

Deerfield Beach

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