Tax Bill Outrageous

Dear Editor,

Having been away from Gulf County a good bit recently, I have not been in close touch with County Commissioner and School Board deliberations on developing spending and taxing plans for the coming year. Our Tax Statements were waiting in the mail yesterday and I was shocked to see what these two groups, who are elected to work on our behalf, have done to us and I assume to every other property tax payer in the County.

The first item on the tax statement is the County Commission contribution - up 18 percent versus 2008 – how could any group in their right mind justify this kind of increase in these economic times?

While still reeling from the Commission’s fine work, I looked at the next two lines on the statement, the school portion of the property taxes. Total school taxes up 36 percent versus 2008 and the County School Board portion of the school tax is up an astounding 74 percent. All this is after the Superintendent of Schools and the School Board conjured us into a sales tax increase and received unexpected State stimulus money.

Maybe these people need to go back to school for a refresher course on how to calculate percentages so they can make responsible impact judgments on what they are doing to the taxpayers they represent.

We own property in Lafayette County, Florida. For reference I checked tax statements for this property – school taxes are up 4.3 percent and total property taxes up only 1 percent versus 2008. I have to conclude that elected officials in Lafayette County are doing a pretty good job. As a second reference, we have a daughter in Orlando (Orange County) – the school portion of their property tax is up 7.4 percent - sure is a lot better than our 36 percent.

Our County is clearly out of control. We need elected officials to sharpen their pencils, get their erasers out and use them to reverse directions, eliminate the unnecessary and bring our property taxes back down to a responsible control position.

Jim Lloyd,

Indian Pass