Lake Worth is now attempting to be transparent (it appears to be the same information) on the Lake Worth 2020 general obligation bond issue and what they believe needs to be done and why they need your cash--Please note that their public meeting on this will be held AFTER the election in March. They don't want sticky issues such as taxes to take away from this election. It would be politically disadvantageous for any candidate to run on more taxes.
The release:
The community’s interest in learning more about the City’s Lake Worth 2020 Improvement Plan continues to grow. You are receiving this email and attached documents because of your active role in contacting us in 2014 about this Plan or you attended the recently held public meeting at the Compass Center on January 26, 2015, to hear or submit ideas on financing the Plan. Below is a response we recently sent regarding a request about the 2014 bond issue.
Attached are documents that were contained in last year’s failed bond referendum. The City completed its first Plan (“Plan”) in early 2013 which categorized every street in the City based on its condition. From this Plan, the City was able to create a maintenance and capital improvement program for our roadway network (excluding State and County roads in the City ie: Federal Highway, Dixie Highway, Lake and Lucerne). It was determined that 27miles of roads are in such bad shape that they need to be completely rebuilt or had never actually been constructed the first time. The Plan was then combined with the pre-existing Water and Sewer Master Plan and Drainage Plan to create projects where the City would do all the work on a street at the same time-both utilities and road construction- instead of doing it piecemeal. The result was a program that addressed worn out roads, drainage, water, sewer, fire hydrants, sidewalks and curbing.
Since this program did not adequately address the miles of roadway that just needed repair without any pre-existing utility plan as part of the work, the City Commission added an additional 46 miles of roadway work by itself. That brought the total to 73 miles of City streets that would have been replaced, repaired, built and improved. It is important to understand that most of the utility work has funding available within the Electric, Water and Sewer and Drainage budgets; however, funding for the roadway construction does not exist, which is the reason the LW2020 ballot for bond money was considered.
The Park of Commerce project was included in the LW2020 program since it is a public roadway important to the City as part of the roadway network. Additionally, this is the one project that has a major economic impact which could potentially help create 4,800 new jobs and a significant tax base that would help subsidize what residential property owners’ pay for government services.
The documents attached are:
- Lake Worth 2020 Roadway improvement map showing what roads would be affected
- Road repave list for milling and resurfacing
- Proposed fund usage showing combined and each year’s funding chart (including consultant’s costs)
- Proposed Source of Funds including multiple bonds, with the millage and dollar totals
Should you have any further questions after reviewing this information, please email me at LW2020@lakeworth.org and/or join us at our next workshop scheduled to be held on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 1:00 P.M. in the Commission Chamber at City Hall.
5 comments:
Correct me if I am wrong Lynn but was not the first meeting held at Compass not two weeks ago. Before the election.
That meeting was for the public to weigh in and give them ideas on how to tax themselves so the city could get a feeling as to what might be acceptable. 50 people were there. It has nothing to do with what they are going to push on us after the election. We don't know what they will do but from the sounds of it, they still want the total enchilada.
The city still refuses to tell us specifics about how much, for how long, exactly where our money will be spent. Can the Commission or FUTURE Commissions change where the money will go ? What if we get hit by a hurricane? Is there going to be a cap on how much debt they can obligate our homes for?
We pay taxes. Why is there not enough money to maintain our streets? That is a basic need. Again ,I say that the problem is mismanagement of the money that we already give them. Again, there is a muzzle being put on any Commissioners talking about the bond issue. The idea that the idiots thought that they were breaking the sunshine law at a public neighborhood candidate forum shows to what length Bornstein will go to keep the issue from being honestly discussed. Bornstein and Torcivia knew that Szerdi could not defend the cities position in this outrageous cash grab so they had to trump up some way to keep him silent.When will the next round of canceled city commission meetings begin? Katie Mcgiveron
the above was an e-mail to Pam Lopez. Pam Lopez is calling someone a "little nuts?" This is not appropriate for a city clerk or anyone on staff.
"We pay taxes". And why isn't it enough? The problem us most properties, 2/3 in fact do not pay taxes to the city and therefore we are running in the red. The bond was proposed to address this problem, but the bond would be funded by the same properties that pay taxes and again, most properties would not be on the hook for bond repayment (and the city couldn't tell us how much it would cost and further it wouldn't be capped).
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