Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Thursday, July 27, 2017

Taxpayers Win! No Millage Rate Increase this Year

The BCC agreed today to not raise property tax millage rates for 2017-2018 


The Board of County Commissioners officially set the millage rate for 2017-2018 today at a special meeting.

The great news for taxpayers is two-fold.

1.  There will be no millage tax rate increase this year for Escambia County Property Owners.  The board voted to keep this rate static--the same as last year.

2.  The board agreed informally to re-address the process of how LET Funds are disbursed to add a greater degree of oversight (as required by statute) for this process that has recently come under fire.


This process review will take place via staff from the BCC meeting with officials from the Sheriff's department after we get through the budget process in September.  I preferred that we do this right away, however upon hearing from my counterparts--I agree that the perception could be that this is retaliatory given the current impasse we appear to be in with the sheriff with respect to his budget request.

As I stated in the workshop--"no problem--I've waited 6 months-I can wait a few more to have this process looked at.

The process definitely needs to be fixed--in my opinion.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about a full audit of the Sheriffs budget? Yet also a full audit of outside agency spending in the county budget as well prior to adopting the budget in September

A full accounting of projected costs of OLF, the 100 million price tag is outrageous and also the Beach management plan. Why doesn't the BOCC may that very clear.

What is wrong with out right public discourse from the dais? It's our money you are committing and we are watching.

We notice how things are slipped in and passed when other discussion and such is going on. You can fool some of the people some of the time but not ALL the people ALL the time.

I think you have a more informed public then ever before. This old tax watch article suggestion has some of these ideas.It is old but the idea of a citizen advisory committee did not come to fruition. Why not? http://www.floridataxwatch.org/resources/pdf/07232009EscambiaII.pdf

Perhaps if you will explain the jail bond and the 9 mil bond service, and total line of the debt to the taxpayer rather than them know this and wonder if the board will be forthcoming to the public.

Remember we elect you as a part of one us to work for us, all of you. The public servant serves the public. Yes some are ignorant, some are not. I think you are learning every day yourself.

We look forward to more info and appreciate your blog.

Anonymous said...

make the sheriffs budget public. All of it. Period