I say, find another Plan. Develop a Plan B. No one should have to pay taxes on roads infrastructure for 34 years, a bond that begins in 2015 and ends in 2049 with the burden of the tax falling on those with higher property values.
Lake Worth is a dirt poor city. Back in 2011 and after the 2010 Census was taken, it was reported that poverty in the U.S. had spread to 46 million people and that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest continues to grow. Even retirees who used to come to Florida in droves are going to other places because their money has been devalued thanks to the Feds. They are looking for an affordable place to retire...they must be comfortable knowing that they will be able to live out their lives with the money they have saved. They sell their home in the north worth $500,000 and find that taxes and utilities are so high here that it is unaffordable for most to settle here as they have done in the past.
Instead, we have been getting a large immigrant population that has brought down the income average and property values have deteriorated beyond repair. We became a Sanctuary city, another thing you can blame on the federal government. Absentee landlords have not kept their properties up which further exacerbates the problem. Fines are imposed and it takes forever to collect even pennies on the dollar and properties still look like hell. Our government continues to keep its head in the sand and it never discusses the real problems here in our city--slum, blight and crime.
Our budget has always had a line item for street improvements. A few years ago it was reduced by one-half to $500,000 a year but this commission likes to play the blame game and they tell us it is 50 years of neglect and blame it all on past commissions--the present commission tells us that they are our saviors.. No, it hasn't been that at all. If they want to blame anyone, blame the federal government for not enforcing our immigration laws. Blame the government and then blame Wall Street. The great recession/crisis was the result of high risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself, Wall Street was not reined in--no one was looking out for us, the American citizen. And as a consequence to all this greed, our country was affected beyond imagination. Lake Worth was wounded severely with people foreclosed upon and their investments going down the tubes.
As a consequence, all of our property owners and all those who rent (close to 60% of our housing stock is rental) are being courted to pick up the tab for infrastructure because the city says it no longer wants to patch and maintain the roads. But the problem is, the city NEVER maintains anything it owns. It can't tax its way out of debt. People will sell; businesses won't come unless the Commission gives huge tax breaks like it gave The Lucerne. The Park of Commerce investment will never pay for itself. I always get a kick out of Scott Maxwell worrying that we delayed paying ourselves back the $500,000 towards our casino but he has no problem taxing the people for $9.6 million for the Park of Commerce infrastructure, an investment that will never be paid back for 100 years on land that we don't even own and voting to tax you $63.5 million. Your tax money is a means to some unexplainable end. Notice that this group doesn't talk about the Park of Commerce these days.
It’s a fantasy to imagine that raising taxes on every property owner that detrimentally affects those who own non-homesteaded or high-end property will solve our problem, a city with little money to operate. Most of our revenues goes to salaries and pensions. Progressives want to take more money from those who have it. They throw offensive epithets or names as a way of abusing or insulting all those who disagree and who are against this tax calling us anarchists which is really ridiculous as most of them are communists and socialists who want the wealthy to pay for everything. They say we want to keep our city from all its potential. All I say is live within your means. It's the spending, stupid.
I am still looking for Plan B.
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