Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Lessons for Lake County? Georgia City of 100,000 Outsources EVERYthing and is NOT broke.

Tavares, FL - May 21, 2012

by Vance Jochim

Here is a great video from the Florida Tea party network about Sandy Springs, GA, population 100,000 (bigger than the Villages), which started outsourcing all their programs in 2005 after incorporating as a new city  in Fulton County, GA, and now has NO debt.

Watch the EIGHT minute video first, then return for my comments.  The video was created by Reason.org which is a Libertarian think tank in California.   Then ask your Lake County officials why they are not examining outsourcing services, and why unincorporated Sorrento - Mt. Plymouth is not incorporating as a city and outsourcing services?

http://theteapartynetwork.org/2012/05/a-great-vision-of-municipal-government/   

This city was initially a large unincorporated area in Fulton County, GA, and was taxed by the County for funds spent elsewherein the County.  The County rarely paved or repaired roads.   Democrats controlled the legislature and prevented Sandy Springs from incorporating as a city until 2005 when Republicans took control and allowed the City of Sandy Springs to be established. So, this was all done since 2005.

"Companies are better than managing projects than government, and one contractor provided services for $25-million vs $50-million if run by the county government."

Sandy Springs did not fall into the government "pension trap" and avoided worker defined benefits pension and benefits programs that bankrupt municipalities.

Local Lake County & city officials should have this type of outsourcing on their meeting agenda as part of the budget approval process.  If they don't, aske them why.

References:  Books by Oliver W. Porter

Creating the New City of Sandy Springs

Public/Private Partnerships for Local Governments

Vance Jochim

 

 

 

 

Lake Appraiser and Lake County Tax Collector Improve Transparency over Tax Authorities

Tavares, FL - Oct. 2, 2011 -  FiscalRangers has achieved an improvement in transparency over tax authorities listed on property tax notices. 

We recently heard at a meeting of the North Lake County Hospital District that a taxpayer had a terrible time finding out what that Hospital tax on their property was about.   She looked at her Tax Trim notice from the County Appraiser, Ed Havil, and the Tax Notice from County Tax Collector Bob McKee, and the only information for the Hospital District tax was the location and date of the final hearing to approve next year's taxes.  No phone, no email, no address and no website was provided.   Sure, she could call either office and they could provide a phone number, but no info on what the tax was or phone number listed on the notices or on the two agency websites (we thought).

In contrast, if you look at THIS Wisconsin based website, it focuses on improved transparency over taxes there.  And, if you visit THIS website from Milwaukee County, you find they have provided a "Milwaukee County Accountability Portal" which "allows the publci to view detaild data on SPENDING by Milwaukee County Government.

And, look at THIS 2012 notice of "Truth in Taxation" proposed taxes from Hennepin County, MN

And, here is their list of Taxing Authority Websites - notice ALL of them have websites.

So, we here in the Fiscal Rangers batcave sent emails to both McKee and Havill asking what could be done.   Both elected officials, who are up for re-election next year, jumped at the chance to provide more transparency and contact information for each "tax authority" that levies all those lines of taxes you see on your property tax.

It turns out McKee did have an existing page HERE which does list the phone contact number for each authority.   Havill didn't have anything.

However, both have responded.  

Havill has added a similar page HERE with both phone numbers and websites if available (The Hospital District still doesn't have a website, so it is blank). He also added links to the page on three different places, including the top main webpage.  Notice that a large number of the tax authorities, including the MSTU's, don't have any webpage to describe the statute that authorizes, them, the process for setting taxes, and explanation of uses of funds, etc.

McKee's existing website with Tax authority information is HERE.   He now has a HUGE button on the front page leading to a smilar page showing phone numbers for all the tax authorities that he collects money for (on your tax notice), but hasn't added websites yet.

So, at least now, you can find the phone numbers of the tax authorities so you can call and ask questions.  Our idea is you should be able to contact the tax authority website BEFORE taxes are decided for the future year, know what the taxes are for, know what the process is to set next year's tax rates, and get enough information BEFORE the decision meetings to decide if you want to provide an arbument of lowering or raising the tax rates or find how to appeal YOUR tax for that specific line item. 

We will keep pushing for more transparency.  We want both the Tax Collector and Appraiser to use the same acronyms for the tax authorities on their respective notices to taxpayers.  We want their notices to have a clear, big text notice of how to find the above websites (which they are working on).   We want all the tax authorities to have a website, phone and email listed on the Tax Collector and Appraiser's websites which lead to all the information you need to know about that tax. We want them to include Powerpoints they give to local government Boards and groups also, like the presentations by EMS or Fire Depts, or Library staff give to just about everyone. 

We also want the cities and the County to provide centralized tax explanation website pages.

Although not property tax based, the same should be available for sales taxes, fuel taxes, etc that have been voted locally. 

Florida law should require this kind of transparency over all local taxes in ALL counties, and it should be available in ONE place.   And, the local webpages should have a link to a State page describing ALL State Taxes, including sales taxes, fees, etc (which may exist, I just haven't looked yet).

vj

Transparency References:

http://www.opengovernmentmn.com/NAIOP_Transparency_www.pdf 

HERE is a sample "Truth in Taxation" notice from a Minnesota County government - it shows the tax authority contact info right on the notice of proposed taxes for 2012

 

 

108 Miles of Lake County Roads Belong to the Cities - so who pays for Maintenance?

Tavares, FL - June 25, 2011 - Yup - here is another stupid Lake County government Fiscal Fiasco.  If you are a County resident, would you be mad if you found the County was using YOUR tax funds (mostly sales taxes, not property taxes) to repair and maintain ROADS within city limits, and city resident taxes are not being used for the repairs, even though they LIVE or WORK on the street?

Are you in a city, paying city property taxes, and the nearby road and sidewalks are not repaired because the City tells you "that is up to the County".  The CITY should be doing the repairs using your property taxes or sales tax revenues they get (or other sources).

It seems that a number of cities keep growing by annexing neighborhoods and businesses.  That means the CITY gets the property tax at CITY tax rates (usually higher than the County), and the properties go off the tax rolls of the County Government, reducing their revenues.

That is normal.

Note:  I if you know someone who should read this, please forward this to them, and ask them to LIKE our "FiscalRangers" Facebook page.

But, what came out at recent meetings of the Lake County Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CPAC - formerly the Impact Fee Committee) is that the cities get the benefits of tax revenues from the newly annexed properties and residents, BUT they cleverly did NOT annex the County roads next to or between the properties.  Thus, the County and County taxpyaers have been PAYING for maintenance on about 108 miles of roads that are INSIDE the cities because of this trick.

That means that taxpayers living outside cities are paying taxes to the County and also funding repairs for roads within city annexed areas while the nearby CITY residents are NOT paying for the maintenance costs.   Not all cities are using this trick,