Thoughts on Elimination of Property Taxes 

  Part I of V

Going through the Florida House currently are versions of a bill to somehow achieve property tax relief.  Contacts in Tallahassee tell the MCTA that the Governor will probably end up calling a special session to get what he wants which is total elimination.  As you can imagine, MCTA is getting a lot of questions as to where we stand on this issue.  It’s not so easy. Let’s break it down so you can make up your mind. 

How and why is this being considered?  While we cannot speak for our Governor, we can see what the state’s CFO is up to.  Blaise Ingolia has been perusing the budgets of many counties and cities throughout the state and coming up with what he calls “wasteful spending”.  Wasteful spending is subjective.  His findings include $150,000 a year to a management company that brings drag shows to the city’s theater and $300,000 for an equity-focused strategic plan and residential “equity survey” by Pensacola.  Orlando has spent $460,000 since 2020 to count trees.  St. Petersburg has paid $258,000 to support Pride events and on and on.  Political, no doubt.  But it suggests a question.

What is a want and what is a need and who decides? 
Here in the County we are concerned with, those decisions are largely determined by our elected board of County Commissioners.  Five people WE, the people, chose to wield common sense and rationality in their choices on our behalf.  And yet they are susceptible to and because they are accountable to WE, the people, their choices may puzzle us.  Former County Commissioner Doug Smith was famous for saying that ‘There’s a constituent for everything’.  He was absolutely right.  Are you a baseball fan?  Do you love to walk?  Do you have kids?  Most of us would lobby for any number of things.  So the Commissioners do the best that they can to please as many as they can while attempting to keep their positions.  We trust them.  They live here after all.  It’s a small county, so many of us even know them.  What becomes apparent though is that they may listen to a disproportionate number of us.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease after all and it is difficult to ignore a commission room full of US.  So, we get things like Sailfish Splash Waterpark which you can read an assessment of their first 5 years here: https://mctaxpayers.org/sailfish-splash-waterpark/,  a gorgeous albeit completely frivolous walkway through the mangroves at what expense we are still trying to pin down.  We end up with more conservation land. And that sounds really warm and fuzzy until you find out that about half of the County is owned by some form of government already (South Florida Water Management District alone owns thousands of Martin acres).  Or, until you find out that what the County REALLY needs is a $70 million public works complex.  So, ask yourself a question.  If those 2 items were put on a ballot as an either-or choice, which would you vote for?  MCTA would love to hear your answers.  You see how we can end up with things that we might realize down the road were really only wants. 
We, the people, are offered wants and needs as though they are interchangeable and piecemeal.  The County Commissioners could do a better job of keeping us informed by explaining the County from a 10,000 foot view.  They are really the only ones who know what the left hand is doing. 

Watch for PART II of this article in a couple of weeks.  You may email MCTA at mctaxpayers1950@gmail.com