Lake Worth's Taxes

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I can't gripe about this enough. It's what I do. I even have a quote on the right side of this blog that attests to "driving in the point." To tax everyone the same amount is Socialism to the extreme. The people it affects the most, the middle working class and the poor, don't have two extra nickels to rub together and if they do, they want to spend it on feeding their families.

In capitalism, everyone works for his own wealth. We live in a style that we can afford whether it is a house on the golfcourse worth $300,000 on up to over a million or a condo in the western community occupied by retirees with small incomes or only struggling by on social security. With Socialism everyone works for wealth which is distributed equally to everyone. In this case, all of us are being taxed the same amount, wealthy and poor alike for a special assessment. The difference--I don't have that house on the golfcourse AND I don't have the same income.

Now, according to the City Manager's Report, she is reducing the millage by 1.3 mils to make it even more "fair" for the wealthy. How did this decision come about? Who made it? It was brought up in a statement by Commissioner Maxwell but no one on the Commission said "that's a wonderful idea."

If you own an expensive house, then you know that you will be paying more in taxes. That is a given. If you know that you live in a little modest property because the wealthy banks committed all sorts of atrocities and drove down property values, your taxes will be much lower...that has always been a given. You know when you buy, you buy what you can afford. People are taxed per their ability to pay and the value of their property, the American way.

The City believes that those who have worked all of their lives and now retired on fixed incomes as well as working class families should now subsidize the wealthy and those still working and earning good incomes. Those living in properties worth under $50,000 or properties that are valued low should subsidize those living in homes worth much, much more? What is this City coming to? Progressive, my azz. This is the Commission's fault, the very commission that was to protect all of us residents with modest incomes. The Commission is the fuel allowing this train wreck.

The two nickels on the $60 bucks are my last, unless, of course, we have a $30 dollar street lighting assessment this year that the Commission also thought a wonderful idea. At that point, I will have to find a few more nickels.

The City has a direct line to the Palm Beach Post for PR. They agree with Stanton. Marra must live in that expensive house. Read about it here. It tells part of the story. Our City Manager says it is not about the rich and the poor. That is exactly what it is about and this Commission agrees with the City Manager. Right now this is class warfare and our Commission has forgotten about all those who helped them get elected.

Ed Fry said that we don't have to special assess--we can take this money out of the CIP. Why don't you do that, Commissioners? We should go back to the roll-back rate which will allow the city to make the same amount of revenue as last year. No special assessments. Do not allow the City Manager, the conductor who is driving this engine, to grab the cash. No new taxes.