Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Upcoming Lake County Impact Fee Decisions Could Result in NEW Taxes for YOU!

Tavares, FL - Lake County, FL - Monday, Nov. 26, 2012

After taking a 3-week period to recover from the election results, we are back at it!

Your taxes could be raised next year if the Lake County Board decides to continue waiving local Impact Fees on new construction.  By waiving the impact fees, the Board is giving up tax revenues that will need to be provided by another source, like property taxes, sales taxes, etc.

The Lake County Board and the Lake County School District Board are in the process of deciding whether to renew suspension of impact fees for County transportation (roads) and Schools on new construction of homes and commercial buildings.

If you read about or see Lake County (not city) roads being overcrowded, or schools not being able to buy new buildings, computers or school buses, one reason is that impact fees for them were waived by the County Board the last 2-3 years.

The resulting County & School Board impact fee decisions in the next 1-2 months could re-enact transportation and school impact fees on new construction waived by the Lake County Board for the last 2 years.  The homebuilders and commercial construction firms don't like impact fees and want them gone.  But, if not reinstated, the waivers could be extended another year.  If they are waived, look for different taxes to be proposed or initiated to cover the missing revenue since all tax revenues are falling.   Thus, rather than homebuilders and owners of new buildings contributing up front via impact fees to the cost of new roads and school facilities needed for the new residents and businesses, ALL taxpayers could be taxed to subsidize the homebuilders and owners of the new construction.

In general, impact fee revenues are dedicated to NEW assets for separate uses like parks, roads, schools, fire services and libraries.   Their use is limited to capital spending, like building new roads or school buildings, or buying "capital" equipment like school buses, new or replacement computers and vehicles. Impact fees can't be used for salaries or normal operating or maintenance uses.   You can see the Lake County list of uses for impact fees, and how much is levied on new construction for each purpose HERE.  You can also read prior Impact Fee committee reports which were ignored by both Boards. 

Cities also have their own impact fees, which we are not discussing here.  This article is only about County level impact fees.  Thus a home built in Leesburg would be subject to any impact fees defined by the city, but not county.  And, a home built in Lake County unincorporated areas would be subject to the impact fees we are writing about here.

Impact fees are collected on all new construction, not on existing homes or buildings.  The theory is that since new construction results in the need for wider roads, new school student stations, school buses, etc. that the owner of the new construction should pay "impact" fees to help pay for new infrastructure (in this case, for roads and schools).

1:  Transportation Impact Fees

These are fees on NEW residential and commercial construction designed to pay for new road and other needed infrastructure generated by the new construction (like road widening, intersections).   The Board received a presentation on the issues at the last Board meeting, but will discuss what to do at an upcoming meeting.  Watch for it, because the general consensus  seems to be they will need SOME impact fees to offset other revenue losses, but it might be linked to unemployment figures.   It might mean the end of completely caving to the home and commercial construction builders and reinstatement of some impact fees to cover new infrastructure costs for growth.  The alternative is alternate taxes, and they have recommendations in earlier reports (at the above website link) which were ignored.

Here is last year's CFAC report on Transportation Impact fees, which once again was ignored by the County Commissioners, because they ignored a previous Impact Fee recommendation report also.   Why does anyone bother working on their committees??

2: School Impact Fees

These fees on new residential and commercial construction are used for School Capital spending (like buildings, some repairs, enhancements and purchases like classroom computers) and were waived by a WEAK School Board (our opinion) who caved to the Homebuilder’s industry instead of maintaining the revenue stream (estimated at $2-4-million per year) for the school system.   I was at the meeting where the Board majority of Debbie Stivender, Kyleen Fisher and Rosanne Brandeburg sold out to the homebuilders and declined to demand continuation of the impact fees. So, by default, the County Board, who had the final vote, continued their support of economic development over education financing and enacted a waiver of the School Impact fees two years ago.   The School Board & the County Board ignored results from an Impact Fee report, AND they did not implement any method to offset the tax waived.   Instead, what the School Board does is force the Administration to defer maintenance and capital spending.  That is one reason (State mandates and budget reductions are others) why you hear staff complaining about bad air conditioners, overcrowding, etc.   

So, if you want to follow the SCHOOL Impact Fee meetings, the next School CFAC meeting is this Thursday at the School District offices.  The County CFAC (Capital Facilities Advisory Committee) will meet this Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:30 A.M.  Location:   Board Room, Lake County School District Office, 201 West Burleigh Boulevard, Tavares, FL.  I don’t know which area will be covered, but there is a possibility the committee will finish more meetings, write a report and it will be ignored by the School Board and County Board who seem to only listen to the homebuilders without creating any revenue alternatives to make up for lost impact fees.   Thus there is a REAL possibility they will try to ask for more taxes to shift the cost of capital spending from new construction to all property owners (or other taxes, like fuel taxes, etc.)   

Let members of BOTH Boards know what YOU think – should they retain impact fees which tax those who create the need for new infrastructure, or should they shift those waived revenue needs to ALL taxpayers a different way.   For instance, if a developer builds a tract with 100 homes, it results in the need for more student seats, road widening, student bus transporation equipment, etc.   Should those new homeowners pay impact fee taxes on the new homes right when they move in, or should ALL taxpayers pay those fees and subsidize the infrastructure costs of the new homes.   Some people might call this income redistribution – you already have property, so the original owner might have paid impact fees on your property, but should you now also pay for the new homeowner infrastructure?    The homebuilders don’t want impact fees because it increases the financing costs of their products vs existing homes, so which will it be?  Equitable re-distribution or a requirement to pay new home and building costs up front?

My prediction is that since both Board Members Debbie Stivender and Rosanne Brandeburg were re-elected, they will join with Kyleen Fischer and side with the homebuilders again and do nothing, thus the County Board may once again waive their impact fees without a immediate plan to offset the reduced revenues.    As Tod Howard, a rational Board member said once (I paraphrase him) “Our job is to ensure properly funded education for students, not subsidize homebuilders by reducing a tax revenue stream…”. 

So if you voted to re-elect Stivender and Brandeburg, you now know the possible effect of that vote.  

The Impact Fee Bottom Line

The bottom line is that if you notice COUNTY roads are out of repair, and schools are running short of funds for capital spending on assets (including replacement equipment like School buses, vehicles, air conditioners and computers), both the County and School District Boards caved to homebuilders and waived the impact fees (which are one of several revenue sources) without implementing an alternate revenue method to offset the reduced impact revenues.  That to me is bad resource management when we all know next year will be fiscally worse. 

Recommendation:

I encourage you to visit the CFAC meetings, and also give public input at the County Board meeting when they discuss impact fees.

 Want to Read More about Lake County Impact Fees?

HERE are all of OUR earlier FiscalRangers.com Reports on local Lake County Impact Fees

The City of Tavares (as of today, Nov. 26, 2012) has a list of all residence fees, including the County Impact Fees HERE.  They show the Schools Impact Fee to still be $9324 per home with NO mention of the fees being waived.

Here is an article about the School Board reviewing an impact fee study last year, but then they refused to make any recommendations to the Lake County Board, thus the County Commissioners moved ahead and suspended the School impact fees for one year.  Then earlier this year, the County Board again suspended the School impact fees because the School Board didn't take a stand.  So, don't blame the County Board for waiving the fees, blame the do nothing School Board majority for not taking a stand.

Here is a 2010 article from Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell also explaining how waived impact fees result in other taxes.

And, HERE is a 2010 column by Lauren Ritchie on the results of waiving impact fees when that was first proposed by Lake County Commissioner Jimmy Conner.

 

 

What is a Florida Millage Tax? A Tax RATE on Private Property like Residences, Commercial Buildings, etc

Here is a great article explaining what a millage tax is, also known as a property tax in Florida.

http://www.floridapoliticalpress.com/2012/10/30/what-is-a-millage-tax/  

What is a Millage Tax - from Florida Political Press - Written for Seminole County (FL) property owners

By Ed Ghiglieri

(TIP: First, Florida residents and home or commercial property owners, get out your house's property tax TRIM Notice from your County Property Appraiser  (estimates of pending millage rates and property values for the coming tax year) OR your most recent actual Property Tax Bill (from the Tax Collector).  Both is better.   Millage rates don't affect renters except that the tax WILL be included in the house or business building rent you pay to the owner.   If the local city, county or government agency increases a millage rate, your rent will probably go up.)

Recently the Seminole County School Board proposed “up to a 1 mill” increase on property taxes in Seminole County to increase the school revenues.  In talking to residents, homeowners, business owners and renters of all types there is some confusion of what a millage tax is.

I have been told from some people that it’s a mileage tax on your cars and it’s used for road work and your auto insurance company reports your annual mileage to the property appraiser.  It’s not that!

As defined by Webster’s, it’s a “a rate (as of taxation) expressed in mills per dollar”.  The mill(s) are basically a percentage, where

Florida Water District Audit finds Complete Mis-Management of Taxpayer Funded Lands

Saturday, Sept., 15, 2012  -  Tavares, FL

An audit by an Inspector General found that the South Florida Water Management District,

"the largest public landowner in Florida — has no detailed inventory of the 1.4 million acres it owns and no formal process to sell or lease land it no longer needs, according to an audit by the district’s inspector general.

The audit was made public at the monthly meeting of the district’s governing board on Thursday. Board members were briefed before the meeting and there was no discussion or comment from the public about the findings.

The audit follows 18 months of questions — from the state, media and the district’s own inspector general — about the practices used to purchase and manage $2.8 billion the district said it needed for restoration, flood control and water storage projects.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/audit-faults-water-district-for-loose-management-o/nSByH/   

The results of the audit point out a constant failure I see with government - the lack of business like programs to track and react to asset management methods used by businesses.   In other words, once they get the land, there is no cost to them, and they horde it and want more, regardless of whether the taxpayers are informed or approve.

In my view, government should be forced to pay property taxes on owned land, just like any other business, and also departments should be charged market level rents on the facilities they use.  The charges and both original purchase prices, market prices should be included in each departmental budget section, not in a separate one.

Lake County is located within the St. John's River Water Management District, which also has similar land purchase programs.  Not long ago, a spokesman told the Lake County Board of Commissioners that they were going through a required review (by Gov. Scott) of THEIR lands to determine which were no longer needed and should be sold.  I have not seen any update on their actions.

Land purchases by government are a big problem - Agenda 21 tells them to buy land and restrict human access to gain favor with environmentalists and force people into transit villages designed by "professional planners" who belong to the American Planner's Association.  That organization received millions of Federal dollars from many Federal agencies to devise state level legislative plans to setup county & city "comprehensive plans" that contain many restrictions on land use.  Additionally, Federal agencies like the EPA also have implemented restrictions on private land use, for instance decreeing that some lands cannot be used due to endangered species, or due to the existence of newly defined "wetlands" that cannot be used or developed.

If you search on Google images for "public lands" you can find all sorts of maps showing how much land, expecially in western states, has been gobbled up by the Federal government, leaving little land to develop for mineral resources, etc.   At what point in time does the government have too much land, paid for with taxpayers funds?

In Utah, they are having a confrontation between the Governor, who wants Utah to take over Federal public lands so they can develop some of the resources, including oil, etc.  He is taking the stance that the Feds have restricted so much of their land that Utah cannot develop a potential energy base.    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/54884661-90/balanced-federal-governor-herbert.html.csp  

Lake County government purchased $34-million in public lands by bonds approved in a referendum in 2004, but did not budget for operating those lands for public access.  Only last year, the County Board allocated minimum funds to provide basic parking and facilities at four of the 11 public parcels.  Staff had not done anything before because they had Caddillac level plans and no budgets to implement them.

Just this last week, county "Parks & Trails" staff admitted they had no budgets to operate or maintain some existing parks but wanted approval to buy more land for a "land bank" for future parks, even though they had no operating or maintenance funds for them.

The key issue in this county, like in the Federal government programs, is the wants of people who want free parks and those who, in this county with many retirees, don't have the discretionary funds to keep paying via taxes for more land.

At what point in time do taxpayers say "you have enough land, sell off any that you cannot operate" and demand government stop buying and holding land, and removing land from tax rolls and human use.

We will follow up the St. John's River Water Management District excess land issue and compare the audit findings from south Florida to our water district.   (Note:  The same applies to the Lake County Water Authority, which also owns a lot of public lands0.

Vance Jochim

 

 

 

 

 

Lake County Board Holds the Line on Millage Rates & Lake Sentinel Cries Wolf

The Orlando Sentinel published an article today about Tuesday’s Board meeting where the Lake County Board decided 4 to 1 to NOT increase most property tax millage rates, thus causing a need to fix funding shortages.  About 20 people provided public input, and all of them but one sixteen year old told the Board to NOT increase millage rates.  The sixteen year old wanted the millage rates to be increased.  The Board agreed with the majority by voting 4 to 1 to NOT increase millage rates, and they decided to take the needed funds from cash reserves.  They also discussed the need to have public discussions early next year to put service cuts on the table for discussion for the FOLLOWING tax year of 2014.

Unfortunately, today’s Orlando Sentinel article made it seem like that decision would reduce bus, library and other services this coming budget year starting Oct. 1, 2012, and in my opinion that was not true.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-09-14/news/os-lk-lake-county-property-tax-20120914_1_taxable-value-tax-rate-rollback-rate#mod-blogs  

You can also watch the actual videos of the meeting here - watch the videos for the Sept. 11th meeting:

http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/board_agendas/board_regular_meetings.aspx

Here is my answer, as posted in their comments section, and I confirmed this today with Board Chair Leslie Campione:

This article needs to be clarified because

Please attend Lake County Board Meeting Tomorrow, Tuesday, to Give Public Input on Plan to RAISE property tax millage rates

Tavares, FL - Mon., Sept 10  - Updates added at 7:30 pm, with link to Ritchie posting.

Please attend tomorrow’s Lake County Board of Commission EVENING meeting at 5:05 pm when they MAY Approve a Property Tax millage rate Increase.  Be there to give public input or just watch government in action. 

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 at 5:05 pm (not the morning meeting) in the Lake County round administrative building , 315 W. Main St., Tavares.

UPDATE:  At 7pm, Monday, Lauren Ritchie, columnist fro the Lake Sentinel paper posted a blog article about tomorrow's meeting.  I have no idea why she has Sean Parks in the web address, since she interviewed Leslie Campione, not Parks:   http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-09-10/news/os-lk-county-budget-taxes-20120910_1_rollback-rate-county-budget-commissioner-sean-parks 

Some people get mad when I say a millage rate is a tax increase, but if the normal method to calculate your property tax is to multiple the property value (on your TRIM Notice) by a standard millage rate, but then government officials decide to increase the millage rate to get more revenues, that to me is an increase, even if valuations are lower.    I don't see sales tax rates being increased due to lower retail sales.  I said that just to make tax and spend folks aggravated.

Unfortunatly, taxpayers do not get to vote on changes in property taxes, as long as specified caps are not exceeded.   But, you can give public input.

The Lake County Board of Commissioners will listen to public input tomorrow at the first of two required public hearings ( Sept 11 and Sept 25^th, both at 5:05 pm in the round County Administration building in Tavares) to decide next year’s property tax millage rates.

On the recent TRIM notice received by Lake County property owners, the County listed a proposed average millage rate increase from 4.7309 mills to 5.0786 mills.

We believe the County Board should stay with the current 4.7309 millage rate,   This is not the time to increase tax rates.

Both the Lake County Republican Party and the Lake County Realtors have sent letters to the Board of Commissioners requesting that millage rates NOT be increased.

I don't favor chopping County Department staff - they have taken many cuts over the last five years  But I have been going to Board meetings since about 2008, and here are some reasons why millage rates should stay the same and not be increased:

1.  The Sheriff has not cut his budget anywhere as much as the County Departments, but he has half the budget:  The County Board has not attempted to get the Sheriff to reduce his spending any where near the levels of reductions by other departments, yet he is HALF of the county budget.  When I sent this out earlier today, a local, well known reporter complained that the Sheriff DID reduce his budget, but I say it was only 5%, and his total reductions over the last five years are much less than the reductions by the County operations budget and staff reductions.  Thus he is getting a bigger and bigger share of the budget pie, but there are no public hearings on his budget, it is not published on the website (a detailed version) and no public accountability explaining the grants and property seizures that should be used to offset budgets.   Many people are happy about the work the Sheriff is doing, but we have no clear analysis from him why he can't reduce his budget at the rates implemented by the County Operations or School District. 

2.  Lake Express Subsidies should be cut:  The County Board is also still subsidizing Lake Express for $1.5-million.

3. The County is subsidizing a vanpool that benefits only one employer in Sumter County.  I am not sure how much that costs, but I think $100,000 to $200,000. 

4.  Sell some Public Lands - The County is making interest payments onf $30-million or so for bonds used to finance public lands.   So far, they have refused to discuss selling off some of the public lands purchased with $30-million in bonds awhile back, even though the County Attorney tells me they CAN sell off some of the land to pay down debt.    Many of the land areas are not accessible to the public because they did not budget for parking, porta potties, etc, so why keep the lands if they won't make them all accessible?

5.  Medicaid Payments Due to the State have dropped from $4-million to under $2-million.  The $4-million was used in earlier budget hearings to justify part of the millage rate hikes.  Now that amount is less than $2-million, thus they saved $2-million which can go towards meeting the claimed budget shortfalls.

6.  The County does have large reserves, due to a higher percentage initiated by Jimmy Conner about 3-years ago.  He got a 15% setaside for reserves implemented instead of 10%, which is prudent.  Now may be the time to use a couple million dollars from that fattened reserves.

7.  County unemployment is 9.9% (not including all the dropouts from unemployment claims), there are 2-3,000 homeless kids in the school system, and housing values have dropped another 5.9% in Lake County, so why tax people at last year's rates vs using rates reflecting the dropping ability of people to pay them.

If you visit this webpage below, you can see links to the 60 page budget book and also prior budget presentations.   If you look at them, you can get an idea where the spending goes, since they have pie charts, etc.

http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/departments/county_manager/budget/fiscal_year_2013.aspx   

Please attend BOTH meetings a provide public input, even if you want them to use the higher millage rate because you aren't worried about the economy.

ALSO, be sure to schedule attendance at the SECOND meeting on Sept 25^th, at 5:05 in the round County Administrative building because that is when the final decision is made.

Meeting Details:

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 at 5:05 pm (not the morning meeting) in the Lake County round administrative building , 315 W. Main St., Tavares.

Tuesday, Sept. 25^th, at 5:05 pm at same location as above.

Vance Jochim

Lake County Fiscal Rangers

Chief Fiscal Watchdog

Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management, Efficiency & Effectiveness

PO Box 1042

Tavares, FL 32778

Mobile:  352-638-3578

FiscalRangers@comcast.net

www.FiscalRangers.com   

TWITTER:  @FiscalRangers 

"FiscalRangers" page on Facebook

YouTube:  NEW 6/2012 - Videos of local political candidate forums and other meetings, like North Lake County Hospital District & Lake County Legislators' Delegation annual forums    -  visit the youtube channel "FiscalRangersFlorida" 

CLICK HERE to see recommended internet links related to Local Lake County government fiscal issues.

 

Lake County FL Republicans Request County Officials to NOT Increase Property Tax Millage Rates

Tavares, FL - Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012

We recently wrote how many Lake County, FL government agencies are planning to increase property tax millage rates even though property values have dropped about 5.9% in Lake County according to the Lake County Property Tax Appraiser (see earlier article about our planned community meeting on Sept. 6th).

Lake County Republicans voted on August 28th to have the Chairman, Mike Levine, write & send a letter to Lake County tax authorities, including the Lake County Board, with the recommendation NOT to increase millage rates as proposed by many entitites. 

However, the Chairman in my opinion added several personal requests not discussed at the meeting, such as tax abatements. 

The original emphasis approved by members was to have the Chair write a straightforward request not to increase property tax millage rates.  Normally the Republican Executive Committee (REC) would process a written resolution and approve a written document, but time was short, so they authorized the Chair to write and send a request. 

So, in my opinion, the purpose of this letter was to only request that millage rates not be increased, thus the government agencies would live within the revenues received from the current, unchanged millage rates. 

I agree with that original objective.

Download 2012.09.04.RECmemo.Property.Taxes

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com 

FiscalRangers Watchdog to Host Sept. 6th Public Meeting to Explain Coming LOCAL Lake County Property Tax Rate Hikes up to 72% & Understanding TRIM Notices

Tavares, FL - Sept. 2, 2012 - News and local government issues for Lake County, FL

by Vance Jochim

Updates Sept 4:  Added section 10 to "homework" section that includes links to FL Dept of Revenue guides that most taxpayers never see.   Added section 11 for email from Lake County Republican Party to Tax Authorities recommending NO increase in millage rates.

This Thursday, Sept. 6, 6-8pm, FiscalRangers.com, a blog on local Lake County Florida Government Fiscal issues, will host a FREE property taxpayer public meeting at the Tavares Civic Center, 100 E. Caroline St., Tavares, FL  to explain how and why your property taxes or rates are going up, and tips if you want to appeal your property valuations, lost exemptions, etc.  You should have recently received your TRIM notice showing new valuations, changes in exemptions, proposed changes in millage rates, etc.

 

Have you heard that many local Lake County tax "authorities" like cities, Lake County and various special districts are RAISING the millage rate used to calculate your property taxes?  Even though your property tax valuation may be dropping, those authorities want to tax you as much or more as last year, so they are increasing your property tax millage rates.  One well known property owner with many parcels told us that his property tax bill, based upon his new TRIM notice, will go up by $10,000 even in a down economy.

Note:  We expect to add revisions and updates to THIS article up until Thursday afternoon, so come back for more details, which will be identified by "UPdate" and highlighted in RED .   The short link to this article is:  http://tinyurl.com/LakeTaxpayer-Forum

HERE is an article in today's Orlando Sentinel about the planned millage property tax rate increases:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-09-02/news/os-lk-lake-cities-property-taxes-20120902_1_property-appraiser-frank-royce-tax-rate-rollback-rate  

The Property taxes you pay depend upon property valuations and exemptions approved by the County Property Appraiser, TIMES

Florida Tea Party Network Members Try, but Fails to get Adam Putnam to Fight $8-billion Energy Bill

Tavares, FL - June 12, 2012

Florida Tea Party Network representatives met with Florida Agricultural Commissioner Adam Putnam to understand why he supported HB-7117, an energy bill that will cost Florida taxpayers over $8-billion to subsidize "alternative" energy sources like wind and solar.  it became law on April 14, 2012 without a requested veto from Gov. Scott.  Thus your energy costs will go up more in the future to subsidize more costly wind & solar energy that is not reliable.

The bill shifts energy surtaxes to selected recipients of residential and commercial property owners who make retrofits desired by GOVERNMENT (not market based).   This is a typical Federal objectives "green" bill that uses tax funds to subsidize gvoernment desired "sustainable development" goals.  The bill should be killed.   Read BOTH of the Tea Party Network reports below and remember that when you are asked to vote for Adam Putnam in the future.

Here is a link to Putnam's Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services webpage:

http://www.myflorida.com/agency/1/

Here is a link to the Florida Senate Info page on HB-7117

http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2012/7117  

Here is the link to two reports from the Tea Party Network representatives, or read the entire text below.

http://theteapartynetwork.org/2012/06/meeting-with-commissioner-putnam-on-energy-bill-hb-7117/ 

===========================================================================

Report on Meeting with Commissioner Putnam on Energy Bill HB7117 – by John Collins

Norman Knighton of CLA, James Taylor of The Heartland Institute and myself of The Gainesville Tea Party met with Commissioner Putnam on May 15. He was to give us information that would tell us how Florida was going to be so much better off because of HB7117. Governor Scott did not

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

 

 

UN's Agenda 21 is Taking over Florida Public Lands in Lake County & Other Actions

Updated July 28 to add section at bottom on Agenda 21 foreign aid projects on DEVEX website.

Tavares, FL - July 25, 2011 - The UN has an initiative called Agenda 21 which is really aimed at reducing property rights and increasing socialism around the world.

Agenda 21 has affected Florida as well as Lake County.  Keep on reading...

But first, if you don't know much about Agenda 21, WATCH this 9-minute "Agenda 21 Video for Dummies" explaining it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM&feature=youtu.be

This article link below clearly explains one part, which is the encouragement of "wildlife" corridors which then prohibit access by humans.   The article says now that 28% of Florida land is now taken up by such programs, and all of it funded with taxpayer money because no one challenged the concept.

Recently, last year, two environmentalists on the Lake County Board (now no longer on the Board) pushed through modifications to the Lake County "comp plan" which laid out land usage plans, so that property rights were taken aways from owners by tactics such as limiting the size of roads in their area, which then controls traffic, which then reduces the value of land that could have been used for housing.

However, at tomorrow's Lake County Board meeting, on the agenda are a number of reversals of those modifications to the comp plan because new Commissioners are more focused on property rights.

Agenda 21 is a way to reduce human footprints on land and increase government control over public lands.  As government controls more land, humans have fewer property rights and are pushed into central living sections.

Another objective, explained in the video above, is to REDUCE math literacy to reduce education levels because better educated people "consume more" which is not acceptable to Agenda 21 folks.

Read this article to understand it, especially about the government land purchases around the Ocala Forest, and then ask yourself why Lake County spent over $30-million to buy "public lands" but did nothing to make it accessible to the public until new Commissioners on the Lake County board pushed through adding parking spaces and trails in four of them.

http://www.floridapoliticalpress.com/2011/07/25/the-un-wildlands-project%E2%80%A6taking-over-america-starting-with-florida/ 

These type of actions  start in "planning departments" in government agencies and I am told several cities are implementing some Agenda 21 concepts as well.  One of the key tactics is to create regional "planning groups" which then take power away from local officials and push through changes with little public knowledge.   For instance, they regional groups push expensive government operated transit systems which are government subsidized (again, the government is the solution, rather than the free market) like trains, buses, etc. which focus on taking away public freedoms like driving cars where they want.

Do you doubt this?  Search on Google images on "agenda 21 logo" and see all the different logos from different countries.  Basically, the socialist countries that control the UN want to bring the US down to their level of government control over freedom.

Here is another article "The Horrors of Agenda 21 and ICLEI in Florida".  Read about ICLEI ( aka The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), which has a commitment to “sustainable development” throughout the world which in essence results in a private property land grab veiled in warm and fuzzy terms. ICLEI comes up with regulations and other ideas that restrict property owners from using their land."

http://polymontana.com/2011/03/23/the-horrors-of-agenda-21-and-iclei-in-florida/ 

HERE is the ICLEI website.  Notice they no longer provide a list of member cities and agencies, because activists have been using it to lobby for their local cities to drop out of ICLEI.  BUT, I found the hidden page listing all 1200+ ICLEi members including the United States, which is HERE.  I SCANNED the list and didn't find Lake County, Clermont, Mount Dora (surprise), Tavares, Leesburg or Eustis in the member list.  But, there is Collier County, Tallahassee, South Miami, South Daytona, Seminole County, Palm Beach County, Ormond Beach, North Miami, and a few others.

HERE is another article about ICLEI and what to do about it.

For Lake County, can anyone say Metropolitan Planning Organization, aka MPO??

vj

More:

THIS blog posting explains that Florida's Sarasota and Pinellas County's have canceled their membership in ICLEI due to all the complaints.

 Update July 28 -

After the Agenda 21 presentation at the REC recently, I went to the website of the largest international “foreign aid” forum and “development professionals” organization, called DEVEX.  It is for finding projects in “developing countries” like the anti-corruption work I did in Iraq and Afghanistan (but I got mine through the State Dept or DoD, not Devex).

DEVEX is used by the World Bank, UN, USAID (the US foreign aid office), DFID (UK foreign aid) to find “development” staff for foreign aid projects.

I searched on the “projects” category and keyword of “Agenda 21” (has to be in quotes or you just get any document with “21” in it).

I got 15 hits at this search page (I hope it opens for you, it is also a dues paid group and I have paid dues):

http://www.devex.com/en/projects/search?keywords=%22AGENDA+21%22&reset_base=1 

Notice the first item is “Developing Agenda 21… for Chad” which is funded by the French foreign aid office.

The next two, funded by the World Bank are in Beijing, and if you open the document, you see that the ADDRESS of the funding organization at the bottom of the document is the “Beijing Agenda 21 Office.”

However, at least only 15 hits existed – I was expecting many more.   But, if I searched on “sustainability” or other Agenda 21 buzzwords, I am sure I would find many more, including ones funded by USAID.

Forward this to anyone who might be interested about the UN Agenda 21's insiduous backdoor method to reduce property rights, liberty, etc in the US or the World.

vj

Other Agenda 21 references:

DELPHI Meeting Technique - Agenda 21 supporters use community "visioning" meetings to gain "consensus" on a direction such as land use plans or even school policies.  The method they use is the "Delphi" meeting facilitation method developed at the Rand Corp. which is a structured method to get people in public meetings to be led to agree with a pre-decided conclusion.  The original use was a process to get EXPERTS together and evolve consensus, but a watered down version is now used to lead public meetings to pre-decided conclusions.    HERE is a GOOD article describing how the Delphi technique is applied to exclude knowledge experts or mute their testimony.   In 2006, I attended some MPO "visioning" sessions in Lake County, FL used to gain consensus on a comprehensive plan for locating population and other centers.  That is exactly the method they used to gain public "consensus" and claim public support when there WAS NO VOTE, only statements that a "consensus was reached".  Some people call it a brainwashing technique.  It seems to have been taught to professional "planners" in government so they can get the SOME of the public to agree with what THEY believe should be done.

HERE is the official United Nations page on Agenda 21

Radio show on A21:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/usatalkradio/2011/06/15/what-is-agenda-21-very-important-for-all-americans 

 Here is a great overview of Agenda 21 published in the Canada Free Press:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/39875  

Here is a YouTube video explaining the Federal Government's plan to take over farm lands flooded near the Missouri River.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffbTBglMLHo&feature=share 

Another great Agenda 21 warning video - regarding a sustainability plot in the San Francisco area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5KYGV8314  

Here is a webpage from the Spruce Creek Patirots in Volusia County about Agenda 21 and Smart Meters.

http://www.sprucecreekpatriots.com/United_Nations_Agenda_21.html 

    The page includes links to two videos on SmartMeters and their privacy & radiation issues

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8JNFr_j6kdI 

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj0ANyjdBnk