Katie McGiveron
Chair of Citizens Against Unfair Taxation
"The length of the bond will last longer than the roads."
The bond financing meeting was held last night at Compass and the turn-out was fair considering that very few voters among the 15,000 ever turn out for anything. Then again, it was not advertised well and should have been included in the electric bill where it would have reached everyone in the city. The only reporter there was Margaret Menge of the Lake Worth Tribune along with two local bloggers. It has to make me wonder if this too was planned by the city.
Lake Worth finally admitted that they could ask the voters to approve smaller bond increments, something they would not do the first time around as they knew it would be much more difficult asking for the cash for subsequent bond approvals. They tried to tell us that they can't be specific as to where this money will be allocated.
Ginny Powell said that there are grants that will take care of road repairs and that Lake Worth should apply. Another resident, Michael Fox, suggested a Citizens Review board to give oversight. Sounds good in theory but it would end up political like everything else. Peter Timm was still sticking to his point of assessing everyone the same within the city. Bill Hoffman asked how the city could equitably apply the debt. Businessman John Rinaldi asked, "What do you really need and how badly do you need it?" Elise Latorre stated that the city should get its house in order--"cleanup your own house first before you ask me for more money."
One of the ideas that was presented by resident Marcas Kelly was to sell off our golf course. People have been suggesting this for years (developer oriented interests) but thank God that the course is deed restricted. All money in the capital improvement that was allocated for new greens was stopped in 2011. The course was in an Enterprise Fund and there were so many charges against the golf course that there was no way it could climb out of the hole. They love to always say that our golf course is not making money. Back in 2011, Staff took the golf course out of the Enterprise Fund and moved it to a Revenue Fund giving it a chance to survive. This was a great decision made by our former Finance Director, Steve Carr. At one of our commission meetings it was reported by Juan Ruiz that the golf course is just about breaking even.
As resident Tammy Panza said, "We are in agreement--we need to fix the roads." But I ask, why then did the city reduce the roads maintenance line item by cutting it in half. The Public Works Director recently stated the budget is around $500,000 with $200,00 a year going to roads maintenance and $300,000 to lighting.
So, the conclusion of the night was:
City still wants to grab the cash
The cash grab could be in smaller increments
Everyone wants the city to fix the potholes
People are not willing to turn over any amount of cash to this commission until they have assurances how and where the money will be spent. There was a half-hearted acceptance of a smaller bond that could/might be approved by the voters.
12 comments:
Great summary of the meeting, Lynn! The question is, will this Commission LISTEN to what the people told them last night?The big take away from last night was -We don't trust this Commission. We will not give this Commission even one penny if they are not prepared to tell us, in DETAIL, how the money will be spent.And why was the Mayor acting dumb about what needs to be fixed? After a supposed two years,or more, of studying this-SHE SHOULD KNOW What is the most pressing repair need in the city. I sure as hell am not mortgaging my kids inheritance for a dumb-ass Commission that apparently doesn't even know how much we get from the county roads tax that Mr. Addair asked about.
Imagine the scenario- You find out you have a hole in your roof.You need to fix your roof.So the next morning you go in to your boss at work and say"Boss, I need to fix my roof,so you will have to give me enough money to fix it in addition to what you already pay me".And what would YOUR boss say to you ? And yet our Commission has no problem in treating us like walking wallets who need to open for whatever they want to spend. Anybody else think it's time to send the bums packing? Katie Mcgiveron
I think still one big thing came out of the meeting, but will the CRA and city do anything about it. The biggest problem we have in this city is blight and crime. Some said this needs to be fixed first, then we can work on roads, we need to start attracting more single family home-ownership in this city and reduce the rental percentage, but we need to improve codes and address blight and crime first. The man that spoke from College Park is right on, let the slumlords pay more and pay for this, not us that live here and keep our properties nice. Until the blight and crime are addressed, none of this road fixing will matter anyway.
Channel 12 was aware of this meeting. I wonder why they did not consider it very important to attend and report on. Instead we got the bully blogger.
Was there any mention of separating the Park of Commerce from the bond?
It was a suggestion given to the commission as well as eliminating the $3.2 million to the district commissioners to use in their neighborhoods.
NO NEW TAXES, WE ALREADY PAY ENOUGH. It is too hard to trust this commission and what they have put together thus far.
The people need to trust them, we deserve better.
Each commissioner is elected or retained in office because they have a vision. An agenda. Things they'd like to see get done, and once elected, do what they can to make it happen. The current commission, save one, have been in office to move the city in a different direction. The pendulum swung back to the right and has stayed there for a couple of years. The initiatives of progress they have promoted have been fought contentiously.
It seems that their efforts are showing results with recognition of our community attracting prestigious organizations like the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, the Armory Arts Center and Benzaiten. Publix moving into our downtown made a big improvement as well.
This commissions next vision is for large scale improvements in our crumbling infrastructure. I personally was against the plan they put forth last time and I think they got the hint that it may have been too ambitious so I will most likely support a scaled back edition.
Or maybe the electorate will cause the pendulum to swing back to the left and elect some with a different vision. One with chickens in every yard, no new taxes to fix the roads and making sure Lake Worth is the most affordable place to live in Palm Beach County.
this commission takes credit for lots of stuff--
Residents spoke out on 11-09-09 For and ignored a Publix already located in Lake Worth as if it did not exist. The residents didn't want any Commissioner to ask any questions...just give them the deal...give them the money. Same mentality prevailed as when we went with PBSO. Publix was given one-half of a million dollars to locate there. What a crock.
The CRA even gave $700,000 back in 2009 to bring in the Palm Beach Cultural Council to Lake Avenue that is housed in a building that was given to them.
The city is great at giving away city owned buildings for a buck a year and picking up the tab at many locations for electricity, water and garbage.
The shuffleboard court building (Armory Arts Center) is one big fat joke on the public. Get a grip. And get some taste. graffiti doesn't cut it. Attracting starving artists and giving them the farm, for free, is not how we will survive and prosper in this city.
I am a conservative through and through and I don't have your vision of taxing everyone to death. I also don't want chickens in our city and yes, I want Lake Worth to be affordable. You say that like it is some sort of crime anonymous at 8:46. Your vision, if that's what it is, is NOT agreed to by half the voters.
Let's live within our means, not by taxing more.
Crime is way more important and city leadership is simply silent.
The problem with our city taxes is two fold, those that pay (only a third of properties) pay a lot and our mill rate us already just about as high as it can go. The lw2020 bond would have hit, at some unknown amount, no one at city could tell you, those same properties that already okay all the city faxes.
So then you have commercial properties, snow birds, a segment of rental properties (non homesteaded) and higher value homesteaded properties (composing only a third of the properties in lw) paying for both all city tax funded services, I.e PBSO, code, rec, etc. being also asked to page for the bond.
What we need is an assessment on all properties (can be tied to value so lower value okay less).
Deed restriction means nothing, the chapel by the sea in wpb was deed restricted as open space and now it will be a ginormous condo.
Deed restrictions mean nothing to people who want to grab the cash and develop on our valuable property. Just look what they tried to do to John Prince Park. Roads will last 15 years and then you will have to start all over again. Then, what will you have? You will still be paying on the bond as this commission continues to chop away at all of our assets because they can't manage their way out of a wet paper bag.
We went through some hard financial times. Hopefully, things will get better. Property values are rising. Live within your means, Lake Worth. Stop taxing folks and dreaming up ways to outsource ALL OF OUR ASSETS. Pretty soon, we WON'T need A CITY MANAGER. Policing sucks. All you do is worry about events and event coordinators instead of concentrating on what you need to do--get rid of the slum, blight, crime. Get rid of that, and values will rise and you will begin to see people moving here again and investing their money.
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