Do you remember this?Our Gov thought he might get a V.P. nod
Do you remember Amendment One in 2007 and the con that we all were going to save on taxes at the tune of about $280 per household? 64% of the voters said YES. As a result, every budget of every city had to look at drastic cuts and innovative ways to save money in order to operate.
Here in Lake Worth, a city with one of the highest millage rates in the County, the 3 to 2 Commission voted to give away our local police department and merge it into the Sheriff’s Department. Why? 1) Because the officers, now deputies, said that they would be making more money…they WANTED IT ALL and 2) the citizens fell for the con that they would be safer. They didn’t care if it was costing us more money like a million dollars more a year and that we were going to have to give over our entire fleet and assets worth millions, etc. to the Sheriff. The City only knew that it was one less thing to deal with...get it off our plate.
Now there is talk about doing the same thing with our fire department. It is strange that no one talks about the pension and retirement payments given to these employees. Is everyone just scared of the Unions? As it was mentioned at one City Commission meeting recently, 47 of the 91 police officers are STILL in Lake Worth’s Pension Plan. They have no intention of moving their plan to the Sheriff’s. We are still paying for these people! Union benefits and wages are killing this city. And our former police officers as well as some citizens, don’t care.
The Social Security system is increasing the retirement age. Civil service employees vest at a much higher figure than 20 years in Social Security. Just compare the two scenarios… a civil service worker at the same wage as a Social Security-invested worker and then compare his contributions and the payouts. In addition, the civil service worker has no additional deduction for medical, pills, dental care, etc., after retirement.
Pretty soon there will be more retirees than workers on Social Security. It could now be the same problem with civil service workers. Also, how many years does it take to be vested in Lake Worth, does anyone know?
We have seen first-hand how the passing of Amendment One has hurt every city throughout the State but especially all of those who voted for it thinking that the City would actually trim the waste. It didn’t work out that way and now we are paying for Storm Water on our tax bill at a higher rate than we paid when it was included in our budget. Now the City wants to do the same thing with fire rescue. The CRA wants to give away our money to people who want us to pay for impact windows and a/c systems because "that's what they do." We have an Employee of the Year who is coming up with higher fees for just about everything and the City believes he is some sort of guru. Once you tax, it never goes away. Once you increase fees, they seldom come down. We know that our budget will continue to grow and so will the millage.
You, the well intentioned citizen who voted for this Amendment is screwed. Did anyone save on their taxes this year? All any city has to do is raise the millage and your $280 savings is wiped out but our City found other ways. It was wiped out the minute that Amendment was passed.
