Facing Facts

With another budget about to be crafted, it is time for taxing authorities to come clean about the state of finances in the county and municipalities.

The jig is up on the kind of business witnessed in recent weeks as commissioners see the ugly math and turn that ugliness outward.

On the county's part, public verbal assaults as the one witnessed recently between Commissioner Billy Traylor and Port St. Joe Mayor Mel Magidson have no place until Mr. Traylor and his fellow "fiscal conservatives" put cards on table about the upcoming budget.

There is no small amount of hypocrisy in knocking around the mayor about the time and money spent on an infrastructure project that benefits the commissioner's district when all county taxpayers will bear the brunt of a commission with its collective head in the sand.

Unless commissioners make significant inroads in how money is spent, and to what level the public's money is spent, this year's budget will provide no relief to beleaguered small businesses and working folks.

In fact, while property owners will be buffeted by falling values, likely between 20-25 percent under current estimates, those with homestead exemptions, many seniors or individuals on fixed incomes or low to moderate incomes, will also see their taxes increase.

That according to the county commission's own budget committee's report, which shows that if commissioners make no additional cuts in spending beyond those recommended by the committee, the millage rate will go up by one mill and taxpayers will continue to see a disconnect between their property values and property taxes.

A homeowner with a property valued this year at $575,769 will see their property drop 25 percent in value - under current estimates - while their taxes will fall by just 9 percent.

A property valued at $50,000 this year and not having a homestead exemption; the value will fall 25 percent, taxes by just under 10 percent.

 But for those with a homestead exemption, meaning those on fixed incomes, those who have put down roots, who are living in their primary household, seniors, working stiffs, the vast majority of folks living in the county, the price tag increases.

A property valued at $932,979 and the owner having a homestead exemption, will see their property value drop 25 percent and taxes go up by more than 20 percent, by $332 from $1,385 this year.

And owners of property with a homestead exemption and valued at $139,664 this year - which would encompass much of the working folks of the county - would see their property values fall by 25 percent. Their taxes? Those would increase $49.41, or more than 20 percent.

County commissioners are also at least in position to approve an additional gas tax and sale tax, which fall progressively on those in the lower income brackets, just to maintain their suction on the public teat.

As for the city, the recent kerfuffle can be boiled to a statement made by Ralph Roberson who is assisting the city in an audit of its books - nobody really knows what the numbers are.

And that is a bit unsettling, those feelings compounded by an emergency meeting in which the topic is fixing a sewer main break and the contractor is deeply concerned, and by all appearances rightly so, about being paid.

That is a problem.

What needs to happen before the city's budget is crafted, and before any action moves forward concerning the city manager, is for those numbers to be understood.

By all taxpayers in the city; by any individual who wants to understand the numbers.

Hold the meeting in the Centennial Building to accommodate a crowd if need be.

But the auditors, Mr. Roberson leading the presentation as his has recently seemed among the most sensible voices in the room, should provide commissioners with a detailed explanation of the state of the city's finances.

Does the city still have the nearly $10 million in the bank it had four years ago? If not, why? Why the need for two recent short-term loans, one to meet payroll? What is the status of the revenue to pay for the infrastructure projects that were part of the Devil's deal with the county in the tax grab over WindMark Beach?

Why aren't contractors being paid on a timely basis?

Those are just a few of the questions that must be answered, that only those with the financial and accounting backgrounds can provide.

And commissioners should see this presentation for the first time right along with the public.

In that way, maybe there can be an end to the finger-pointing about who was in office when, an end to the silly charges and counter-charges, allegations about shenanigans that drift into the air due to lack of foundation and the city can face up and move forward.

Hard times dictate sober, deliberate discussions, examining the short-term and the long-term benefits and detriments to the public - remember, the employers in this equation.

The kind of grandstanding and snarky verbal shots we have seen in recent weeks is counter-productive and further penalizing taxpayers by delaying the day of reckoning taxing authorities have looming.