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| If you're a taxpaying Escambia County property owner---pay attention to the meeting today. Watch it closely....... |
I've never once voted to approve increased year over year property tax rates on existing Escambia County Taxpaying property owners. Not once in my 15 years in elected office. And I'm not about to start now, either.
They truly feel there is no choice and that they need 45 more career, paid firefighters and that the ONLY way to pay for this extra cost is to put it onto the back of Escambia County taxpaying property owners via a massive increase in the MSBU or the addition of an extra MSTU. It's a tax increase they are proposing--make no mistake about it.
But here's why I won't/don't support that.
Property owners are getting crushed right now with historic property insurance rates if not outright policy cancellation. They are dealing with unprecedented, 40 year inflation on materials for maintenance and repairs of their properties. If they are paying for services, they are paying rapidly escalating fees and costs as wage-push inflation is rippling through the economy like a Tsunami and forcing service providing purveyors to raise wages and then by extension, service call fees. Example: a one hour (or less) easy-peasy installation of a dishwasher is now officially over $200. (Was $99 or FREE- included with purchase -just two short years ago). Bleach for cleaning properties has increased a whopping 400% in the last year. Yeah, 400%. Everything is going up for everybody in this crazy inflationary environment (did I mention gas prices doubling, to historic high prices over the last year and a half?)---------so I will not let bureauracrats and staffers make the homeowners shoulder more tax burden as the average homeowner is hurting like never before thanks to fiscal dysfunction coming out of Washington DC.
So no, I don't think struggling families that have purchased a home, or small mom and pop businesses who own property and who are battling this double-edged sword of inflation and employee wage pressure, should be hit over the head with another increase on their property tax bill. (remember, they just got hit with a new tax the electorate approved for the Escambia Children's Trust).
There's another way, and a better way.
We have the ability, under Florida Statutes 212.055(8), to ask the electorate to approve the levy of an additional sales tax .5 percent or up to 1 percent for the specific purpose of providing fire service county-wide. This would also, conveniently, compel us to eliminate the current $125 MSBU from current property owners. Yes, you heard that right. It would cut property taxes for Escambia County taxpaying property owners. That's something I believe we could all support.
Additionally--it will make everyone pay toward the service. Right now---a LOT of citizens do not pay direct MSBU or property taxes that support the fire service. Out of state visitors pay nothing toward Fire Coverage and services---this funding source change would positively alter that paradigm and provide for a hefty percentage (potentially as much as 35-40%) of the total sales tax funding to be burdened by out of state visitors or those traversing the interstate who pay for goods and services while travelling through. Like our LOST penny and like the School Board's half penny sales tax---it generates a consistent revenue stream with much of the revenue coming from non-residents. It also captures revenue from those who make purchases but who currently pay no property taxes or MSBU for fire---like folks who work for Escambia but live in Pace and pay ZERO toward fire protection where they work.
Now, the naysayers will say it is regressive, and that it hurts poor people. I'd simply say that for the poor this will be less burdensome than some espouse---as essential basics like groceries are already exempt from all sales taxes. for other, taxable cash purchases a disadvantaged person might make--the hit of a half-percentage will be de minimus. (if taxable purchases of $1000 are made monthly--the net effect of the levy of a half penny on that would be $5.00--if $2,000 is spent, it would be $10 additional for a month) At this point I'd simply point out that if a "poor" individual is spending $1,0000, $2000, or $3000 monthly on retail or non-tax exempt purchases some (many? most?) might question whether or not such an individual is/was really poor?
Nevertheless--we can and will have those conversations when and if it becomes necessary. And I will ask staff to explore this option and I hope to at least get two additional commissioners' support.
I will not cave in the the reflexive, easiest path of least resistance to simply add more to the MSBU on property owners. Nope, especially if there is another way to do it better. And I believe there is. A tax that everyone pays. Everyone.
10 comments:
Excellent. Thanks for the recap. I used to watch more meetings until I got past the learning curve and really appreciate your blog. I know who to ignore also.
Sales tax is the way to go.
I understand the COW is for discussion and assume you didn't vote.
"But this is exactly what staff will be asking us to do later this morning.
They truly feel there is no choice and that they need 45 more career, paid firefighters and that the ONLY way to pay for this extra cost is to put it onto the back of Escambia County taxpaying property owners via a massive increase in the MSBU or the addition of an extra MSTU. It's a tax increase they are proposing--make no mistake about it."
Why are you trying to pin this on staff? You direct them. You told them to come back with the option to increase the sales tax. You and the other board members own this.
It was a really helpful meeting today, and thank you for coming in with in depth knowledge of all the different options.
One glaring problem is, however, that you won't ever know how the Public Safety budget could be maximized, short of one of the fixes discussed, if the toxic workforce problem in EMS isn't finally addressed once for all, and the commissioners don't finally start getting the real answers on hold times and staffing issues.
EMS had no sooner breathed a sigh of relief over the last abusive management being removed, than they were treated to a second round of it. I chose not to press the ongoing issues, because I can't really see any point, if the dais is just going to continue to believe that the problems are in the rearview mirror, staffing is adequate--although gee, today, all the sudden it isn't!--and that it's a happy workforce working together and in the process of having the morale problems solved.
It's not, and until at the very least the second in command is removed, we will continue to have lack of interest in applying in Escambia, turnover, and morale problems. And it's difficult to continue to have enthusiasm for a Chief who brought that kind of a second in.
Because there continue to be huge hold time problems--regardless of what the commission is being told--and because staffing and morale continues to be a huge issue--regardless of what the commission is being told--you can't know how big a hit the EMS enterprise budget is taking as a result of the dysfunction. How much of the budget shortfall could be closed by running an efficient system without having to call on Santa Rosa or helos, or have the expense of Fire responding and standing around, until the agency is (1) properly staffed (there has been more than enough time) and (2) the people who work for EMS feel that their contributions are worthwhile to their management without playing the same old games with them?
I've known about the troubled past (to say the least) of one of the management for months now, and passed the information along to administration and commissioners. And stated then that it shouldn't be necessary to have any further citizen advocacy on the issue, as this is a well worn path that has never been rectified, and the information is public record in black and white for anyone to look up.
This part of the Public Safety challenge is not a difficult solution: finally, finally put the right people in management in EMS. Until that happens, any fiscal solution that the Board comes up with will be an incomplete fix that plasters over the root and branch issue in EMS, and the correlating problem with too many Fire responses to EMS calls: poor leadership. Nobody seems to want to admit that problem again, and I get it. It's really unfortunate that the right people don't seem to have been put in place to remedy the previous horror show. That doesn't change the fact that some elements of it are still ongoing. :(
I’m curious on your thoughts about the sole sales tax option and how a downturn in the economy could potentially result in a even worse budget shortfall?
You have Underhill on hot mic taking the Lord's name in vain after the pledge. "GD" muttered into the mic on video . I guess he doesn't like that May Barry and Rogers are unaffected by his misguided attempts to assassinate their characters and zre still friendly, positive and happy. They stopped talking and did indeed say the pledge of allegiance to the flag. [Which of course for anyone with any sense of country -- that is not a slide into to fascism.]
Where do these strange people attracted to politics come from? Back to the subject..
I guess putting a tax on a ballot puts it into the voters hand for a decision, I doubt they will pass it though and therefore we retain the $125 MSBU. If it was guaranteed to remove the $125, I would vote for the sales tax, as I am not a big consumer and need to keep expenses level as possible. I take responsibility and hope to not need a firefighter.
That way you all kick the can, pacify the the union temporarily and we stay status quo..and you can say, "I didnt raise taxes"
As far as EMS having drama.. no big deal.. that comes with the territory anywhere. People who are attracted to that career will often be a bit different than boring run of the mill folks.
Anonymous 8:18, I understand that EMS is a self-selecting group of people who are willing to put their lives on the line every day, and that includes a pretty healthy percentage of adrenaline junkies. Adrenaline at a certain point can be a very costly addiction, and yes, brings with it a fair share of drama. Being able to expend it in mass quantities on a dime, however, often on a daily basis, is also a necessary prerequisite of being a first responder.
It is the job of *management* to channel high-adrenaline work into positive outcomes. As you say, drama is a standard in the EMS field. Then why in the heck does Escambia County have such a difficult time letting TO BE EXPECTED highs and lows tumble into the chaos of toxic workforce?
Again: piss poor leadership. Removing one round of bad actors does nothing if they aren't replaced with capable people who have more management skills in their tool boxes than vitriol, bullying, threats, and mind games.
And for cripes sake, does NOBODY at the County check the public record history of people who are being brought in by division leads? Not hiring some people should be a no brainer, but yet it happens time and time again that some Escambia County divisions are the stop of last resort. Why does this BOCC and Administration continue to allow Division leads to usher bad apples in who quickly metastasize?
If the County is ever going to progress and, God forbid, flourish, the nepotism has to stop. And that's a culture problem that won't be fixed until the BOCC sets a strict policy against it.
Being a realist, I very much doubt there's any political will for that. So at the very least, if the BOCC is going to let nepotism run amok underneath them, then at least when a problem born of it raises its head--which is inevitable, and why nepotism is such a potent killer of progress--then once it is clear that a friends and family hire is going ballistic (or, the flip side, sitting on their butts all day), they need to immediately direct administration to *fix* it when they are *first* presented with black and white evidence of it. These things can't continue to be addressed after the jack ass has already left the barn.
Maybe beggars can't be choosers.
As far as EMS, the saying is beggars can't be choosers. Not like we had a large pool to pick from. Well wasted too much time on this.. Entertainment on a break on a hot day. Like an afternoon soap opera in real life.
He had to dump the rats somewhere. Lol.
Honestly though May carries on like he is playing to the camera blabbering about a sale tax. Duh food ain't taxed, esp with a SNAP.
I can't stand listening to democrats nor lunatics that sound like the new ministry of disinformation czar at the white house. Does someone write the script and pass it to operatives?
7:34--There is always the potential that an economic disruption could happen--be it from our ad valorem tax revenues if the tax roll took a nosedive, or from our sales tax revenues if consumer spending pulled back due to a recession or some other calamity. Meanwhile, we still have to budget, operate, and generate tax revenues. If the worst thing happens, you manage the crisis as it unfolds--with scaled-back spending, fiscal austerity, and other measures necessary. I did it as a school board member in 2007-2009 during the great recession when our ECSD budget took a $40 Million dollar plunge. Guess what? We still ran buses, fed students, and educated them. We cut what we had to cut and made it work. If this BCC sales tax is approved and moves forward, one thing for which I will advocate is that a small percentage yearly goes into a reserve fund for just such an economic pullback---so in the event of a recession the first inclination from staff will not simply be the reflexive, inartful, lazy, and easy demand that we raise existing tax rates on current Escambia County Taxpaying property owners. I won't ever vote to do that. Ever.
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