The salesman
When buying a car, there are a lot of car shoppers that aren't too car savvy...and car salesmen have that reputation of cheating poor families out of a lot of money by selling them terrible cars with terrible financing "deals." And when you go to finance that car, that salesman is always letting you know what your monthly payment will be, with little emphasis on the principal and interest and the total cost. This is what your commissioners are counting on and doing to you.
The devil is always in the details and last night's "sales" job was no exception.
The $63.2 million bond issue that the "salesmen" are rushing you to vote on has a tremendous price tag. All of those details are uncertain at this time but many of them are known but have not been revealed to you, the guy who will be paying for it all.
The true amount
at this time is
$131,013,442.
at this time is
$131,013,442.
One Hundred Thirty One million dollars! The finance department is using an estimate of 5.50% at this time to determine the overall cost of the 2020 program. "We are using a cost of issuance for the total amount of the issue of $63,200,000 to be $900,000," says our finance director, Mr. Wood. He further stated that "no detail costs can be established until there is an authorization to move this program forward."
15 comments:
mAxwell, get out of town.
I believe that Scott's home has a taxable value of $34,000 so that this will cost him very little. The business community that we are trying to help and attract to our city will get slammed. Scott didn't talk about that at any of the meetings.
Lynn, you are correct, the devil is in the details. The city is trying, via misrepresentation (in my opinion) to sell this is a cup of coffee a month cost. When they really have no idea how much it will cost each taxpayer (who pays taxes, which is a very small number at present) since its dependent on a variety of factors that no one has control over. But once we are on the hook for this debt there will be no cap (like regular taxes) so it may cost way much more than they are advertising, say the cost of a Dunkin Donuts franchise not the cost of a cup of coffee.
Triolo's taxable value is the highest of all the commissioners with Maxwell's on the low end. Amoroso rents and he is pushing this as hard as anyone.
Honestly, the most egregious act of all is 1) the timing and 2) the lack of transparency on the true costs. When the finance director states that this bond will be more than double what they are telling us, lot's of people will get rich off of this: attorneys, bond writers, bond advisers, not to mention contractors, designers, planners, etc. It's no wonder people are running to get their real estate license.
One thing that we do know, inflation is up every year but our economy is unstable. We can't predict when another recession will occur as J. Rinaldi alluded to last night but we do know that it will happen. It all goes in cycles just like the stock market.
We can't afford to have so much debt and this bond will just be a part of the tremendous debt we already have.
Dennis Dorsey showed Maxwell how we could save 11 MILLION DOLLARS right now. Lake Worth pays 11 MILLION dollars MORE than some cities in PALM BEACH COUNTY FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF SHERIFFS DEPUTIES. Why is that ?????? When confronted with FACTS , Maxwell didn't know what to do. Maxwell tried to IGNORE the fact they we could save 11 MILLION DOLLARS !!!! RIGHT NOW !This tells me that this whole ridiculous "plan" is nothing more than a CORRUPT MONEY GRAB for employees and Commissioners(and a couple of favored citizens, also ).The sky is the limit on what the citizens will be paying.That is what was finally pulled out of Maxwell and Bornstein.THE SKY IS THE LIMIT !!!! This commission is stupid/arrogant enough to push this as "It's THIS PLAN, or NOTHING "! Really? Several good suggestions were brought up last night. Such as , we'll give you part of the money now and if you perform well and do what you say you are going to do with the money , we'll give you more later.
I hope that we can still scrape together enough brain cells in this city to say NO to this ridiculous money grab.
While I agree the amount we pay to PBSO is ridiculous, isn't the extra that we pay vs. other cities relate to the pension shortfall that we have to pay in addition to the amount paid for actual police?
How about beginning the project with the $16.4 million in reserves we have now.
If they are able to supervise in such a way that 20% of the work gets done when that money is spent, then consider a bond for a next installment.
An open checkbook putting the citizens on the hook for $60-$120 million is an outrageous demand in "Corruption County"
Does anybody else thinks that this is nuts?!? They can't tell us who is going to get paid what. From 62 million to 131 million before we even vote???? What happens then? NO ONE was allowed to even speak at the workshop meetings,other than the last one where we got a big two minutes to speak, on the biggest debt this city will ever see. This is crazy .
How did this insanity even come together? WHO put this plan together ? City staff? Maxwell and his campaign contributors ?? WHO ????
Just watched the videos from last night. Looks like a FEW people got a little testy. Peggy, the woman with a big crush on Maxwell, went after Dorsey, the former commissioner and mayor of this city and the one who raises all sorts of money for students saying "you don't even live here" suggesting he had no right to make a comment. His daughter does live here.
Lynn, you never come down on people who post anonymously if they support your agendas. You have a lot to say for someone with "no skin in the game" Besides not paying any tax to support this project your roads are maintained by the county and your condo streets are private. The big disservice you are behind is dissing the project to people who would benefit but not have to pay for.
Full Disclosure
1. CRA Profit/Loss & Mission Statement & MAP of AREA.
a. What is the Debt, the % Rate
and Due Date?
b. Tax INCREASE (how much) created in (Business & Residential) and taken by them (TIF) since beginning MINUS Salaries, Benefits Etc.
c. Name Employee's & Show Salary & Benefits for each since beginning.
d. Status of Homes & Projects. Maintenance Schedule & Cost if any.
e. Mission & Goals Achieved, Y or N?
2. Electric Profit/Loss & Mission Statement
a. What is the Debt, the % Rate
and Due Date?
b. Blue Bill Tax (Total TAKEN) from Business & Residential customers
c. Separate Line Item for Blue Bill Tax on EVERY BILL sent to the customer.
d. Who gets Free or Reduced Electric
Prices? Golf Course? Shuffleboard Center?
3. Boards (16 or 17?)
a. Rules of Procedure Last CHANGE.
Explain Restructuring that was done.
b. Mission Statements & Goals
c. Names and Contact info (including
application) on website PLUS Bring Back Public vs. Private Interviews.
d. Put their appointment on the Regular Agenda that ALLOWS PUBLIC COMMENT.
e. Name the Rep that appointed them
f. Keep a Tally of the # of Board Members each Rep has appointed.
g. Post all their agendas online
according to the EXACT SAME Rules and Procedures the city follows.
h. Video Every Meeting and put up on city website.
I. Post an Action Agenda like the city does so we all can keep up!
4. Wall of Shame on Facebook
Contacted a Rep and got NO RESPONSE?
Post it on the wall of shame till they answer?
5. Take down the Traffic Cameras that
are NOT on the LICENSE PLATE but YOUR FACE (got a new Real ID Drivers License) and Your Sunpass. Reinstall them in every Elected Rep's & employee's office that makes over 100K a year so we can see what they are doing for the money!
If monitoring is good enough for US how much better for them!
Then let's vote on a bond when we see the transparency!
I only "come down" on people who are into personal attacks and do not contribute anything to the discussion. Now,
I have "skin in the game" by just being a long-term resident here. Who in the hell knows how property values will go in the next few years or even 30 years? I never expected mine to go down the tubes nor did anyone else. Can you predict how values will go? You all keep saying with roads that values will go up.
Don't give me your BS about no skin and then put me down through no fault of my own. I say what better person to bring forth the facts of this with nothing to gain but what I truly believe to be just a bad and rushed plan?
This is NOT about me. Nothing I write about is about me and there is nothing self-serving about my opinion here.
way to go, Lynn,,,it is evident that this commission, especially mAxwell, is not being open and honest with the people who will be footing this bond. Now we learn that the cost is over double? How come no one has mentioned this? They are not trustworthy. Who is getting all of this money? hamburger my azz.
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