The devil is in the details and with Lake Worth, it's about what is not said--
I am reprinting these facts because they are important. From the very first presentation, the city has said that the roadway and utility plan involve 71 miles. Although the city has changed, crunched or eliminated numbers, there has been no diversion from the number of miles in its plan. We don't know if there will be major repairs or just simply cutting and filling in a pothole as it is not described with any detail. No facts are given as to how much money will be spent on any given road. Here are the facts--the cost and percentages as given to us by the city in their own printed material:
The bulk of the millions will be spent on
25 miles of roads
The city implies that it is 71 miles that will be reconstructed and hands out a red map with most of the streets outlined to show us what they will be doing. Is this is the most deceiving map ever devised?
25 miles -55 pci = $71.01 million
11 miles +56-65 pci = $3.31 million
20 miles +66-75 pci = $3.36 million
15 miles +76-83 pci = $1.54 million
The city manager continues to describe Lake Worth as 7 square miles. At this point, who knows? There are many estimates on the number of overall miles. Wikipedia says that there are 6.46 miles with 5.64 being land. Lake Worth Quick Facts says that there are 5.87 land miles. Don't want to be accused of nit-picking like you know who but the point here is that there is no precise number of miles in this city. So, let's just round up. Land miles are under 6 and that is what will be affected by their road plan. If you don't know this basic fact of the size of the city in which you govern and then you ask property owners to fund a $63.5 million bond, then how in the heck can you tell us that there are 116 miles of paved roads and alleys. It must be from one of those Mock Roos studies sitting on a shelf that cost $150,000 right along with all those Plan B 's.
The city tells us that they had only allocated $448,528 in the budget for the Streets Division. Why? You get the politicos who are always talking about a former commission that "gutted the code department" (it was two people less--we were going through massive budget cuts) but why didn't the city with this commission add more personnel to the streets maintenance department that only has one supervisor and 4 crew members if the roads are so damn bad? This commission has been on the job for nearly three years and all of a sudden they are excited about rebuilding Lake Worth from the ground up...a 100 year old city for gosh sakes. Perhaps it is all about the money that is exciting--they want a money-grab?
The city has no idea what it will spend on each road...NONE...and they would never commit to that because they don't have to do squat on your road. The city can change its mind at will. LW 2020. The ONLY thing that is certain is that the city wants you to approve of an overall debt of $131,000,000.00 for 34 years (the city does not tell you that) and they are counting on the property owners to actually pay these ad-valorem taxes over the lifetime of this bond. But it won't matter if someone can't or won't pay. The rest of the taxpayers will pick up the slack.
No trust; no bond
8 comments:
Good morning, in reading so much about the issuance of the bond in LW I find it curious as to how naive the residents are. I have seen several references to the fact that once the city receives approval of the bond that they are mandated to spend the money as outlined in the bond covenant. Not so. The same was stipulated when the city issued the bond for the electric upgrade and RO plant. The city realized that if they refinanced the bond money that they were no longer under the mandate of the original bond issuance and therefore could spend the monies on pretty much anything. What will preclude the city from doing the same thing in the case...I assume nothing. As you recall the claims of Armageddon for the electric utility and now how much have the monies been applied to the "upgrade." Be very wary of the claims being made.
Lynn, you have contributed greatly to the confusion among people who would benefit from this bond. How in the world can you tell me to vote against when I would share in all these improvements for $18.00 a month. You seem very shallow when I come to find out the bond in no way affects you.
It is all crazy, how can we take this anymore? Our government is so corrupt. I was just watching Bill Moyers on PBS this morning he had Joseph Stiglitz the Nobel prize economist talking about how bad our tax system is and so unfair for middle class, the rich and big business control and run all and have so many advantages, he is brilliant. I am so fed up with government and politicians and big business, the money grab and unfair taxation of us. I am voting NO on this tax referendum, why is it all the rich are for it? Look around the city, all the rich little guys want this tax? So sad!
Your opinion, anonymous at 1:07. And as I have always said, what better person to write the "other side of the story" than someone who it won't hurt financially. It will not affect me, at least in my wallet, but I am looking at other things that affect us all. I have written about it in depth so there is no need to write about the reasons here.
Basically it comes down to--
No trust. And I want to emphasize that--NO TRUST.
What will you be paying over all those years anony above? The roads won't even last that long. The money will be long gone and then what?
To the charmer--I delete smart alek remarks and remarks that are untrue--
POLICY IN A NUTSHELL-As this is a political blog written by a Conservative, there will be blogs that will annoy you from time to time. However, there is no such thing as First Amendment Rights here. You need to follow policy set forth at the bottom of this column. Keep your street fighting tactics in check. If you are coming here to simply cyber attack on issues that I advocate, your comment will not be posted...my call...debate the topic.
Comment Policy is at end of this column.
You, anonymous who was deleted, make assumptions based on NOTHING but the voices in your head.
Like I said, adios. Phony blog. You have a very unappealing way about yourself.
LOL. Yeah, I know. Truth really hurts your phony agenda and money grab.
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