Gloomy assessment now official

Florida Keys News

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Gloomy assessment now official

By TIMOTHY O'HARA, ROBERT BUSWEILER AND ROBERT SILK Citizen Staff

The bad news for taxpayers and local governments became official Wednesday -- confirmation of the county's sagging property values.

That official word is a checkered flag for governments and taxing agencies, who now have a starting line for developing their annual budgets. For taxpayers, it's more like a red flag for all-but-certain increases in their property tax rates.

Property values in Monroe County have dropped for a second straight year, tanking in 2009 by $3.7 billion from 2008 -- from $26.2 billion in 2008 to $22.5 billion in 2009. Depending on the type of property, declining values have ranged from 9 percent to nearly 24 percent, according to the Monroe County Property Appraiser's Office.

County officials planned for the decline, but are facing increases in spending. If the county approves a plan to make the city of Layton Fire Department a paid department, rather than volunteer as it currently is, it would add $450,000 to the county budget. And a recent increase in county firefighter pay added $320,000 to the budget.

County officials say they will try to keep property taxes at rollback -- the rate that raises same amount of revenue as the previous year -- but even that translates to a higher tax rate.

Property values in Key West have not fallen as steeply as in other areas, with a $6.6 billion assessment in 2008 declining to a $5.8 billion assessment in 2009, records show. The city of Marathon dropped from $2.8 billion in 2008 to $2.2 billion in 2009. Marathon City Manager Clyde Burnett said he was confident he and City Finance Director Peter Rosasco could bring in that city's budget at the rollback level.

"I'm telling everybody they are going to have to be lean and mean," Burnett said. He planned on meeting with department heads next week to discuss the city's budget.

Gross property values in Islamorada dropped from $3.5 billion in 2008 to $3 billion in 2009.

Islamorada is going to try to meet rollback, or something close to that, Village Manager Ken Fields said. The first village budget will be out Friday.

"We anticipated it," Fields said. "All the departments were told you have to come in with lower requests for next year based on the fact that revenues are down. Everything is on the block.

"Our goal is to come in with a no-personnel-cut budget that has basically the same revenue as last year."

Islamorada's neighbor to the south, Layton, saw its gross property value drop from $77.8 million to $59.2 million. Key Colony Beach dropped from almost $796 million to $636 million, according to the Property Appraiser's Office.

tohara@keysnews.com

County Assessment

Submitted on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 9:02am

While I can not deny that there may be a few positions and services at the county that need to be rethunk, one of the biggest waste the county has is trying to serve our mercenary part-time residents. They come here from nowhere USA and demand to be treated like royalty. Then, by chance they meet the mayor or a commissioner, and play that card any time they want a free service from the county and any of its vendors. If you come to Monroe County because this is paradise, well, guess what? Paradise has a price and you better start paying it if you don't want it turned into a parking lot for tourists.

New Commissioner is part of old problem

Submitted on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 6:59am

It is obvious to the public that the level of corruption, ignorance, arrogance and waste in the County can’t be allowed to continue. Last year Kim Wigington went up and down the County with her little charts and graphs spouting on about this waste and arrogance. Here she is just a few short months after the election, as much a part of that culture and problem as any that came before her. Commissioner Wigington has shown us her true colors long before most do, the end of her term can’t get here soon enough.

Between 5:30 and 5:45 pm

Submitted on Fri, 07/03/2009 - 6:42am

During this 15 minute window of time a person posted several derogatory comments to the posts of those who would oppose tax increases, and to those who called for forensic accounting of the past and upcoming County budget. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this particular poster is either a County employee, or a member of the Commission.

This has been coming for a long time

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:26pm

For several years, the county commissioners (and yes, the city governments in the Keys as well) have merrily been ratcheting up their spending, assuming that every year everything in the Keys would continue to be worth more, that we'd all be making tons more money every year, and that the bubble would never burst. Two or three of us have known for years that our economy (global, national, state, and local) was based on fairy tales. When can we say "I told you so!!!"?

All you Randy supporters

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:27pm

All you Randy supporters don't care that the crooks in the school district stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, all you care about are county employees who actually do work and don't steal. Get your priorities straight

All the county employees are good for......

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:50pm

are playing with their answer machines. I'm away from my desk and at the donut stand,home or sleeping, leave a message and I might get back to you. County workers are all bums.

Tax Rate

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:24pm

Just because the tax rate might go up doesn't mean your overall taxes are going to up. If you don't like it, why don't you sell and get out of here. See how you'd like paying real taxes like they do in other states, rather than these petty Florida taxes.

Time for taxpayers revolt

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:43pm

It is time for a taxpayer revolt in Key West. This county spends money like a drunk sailor, others steal the money and we also have to pay to defend them. Time to tell Higgs and gang where to stuff it. Just stop paying the taxes and they will have to pay for some lawyer to defend you. Monroe County morons love to hire lawyers to support their habits and lifestyle. This again is government perpetuating government which is their key role. We need to wake up to this greed.

What does Higgs have to do

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:29pm

What does Higgs have to do with anything. He has nothing to do with the amount of taxes. It's time you learn a little something before you talk because you sound icredibly ignorant

Randy supporter too

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:49pm

Suppose you are a Randy supporter too. Teach us wise one as opposed to using this forum to call names. Just look at the innovations other county PA's in florida have taken to collect taxes.

Comparative Employee Ratio

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:32pm

Mr Key West Citizen: What is the ratio of Monroe County employees to population, compared to other Florida counties during this deep recession ???

Employee Ratio

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:04pm

Also, find out about the number of Employees at the Village of Islamorada, you want to talk employees per capita we have them all beat!

What is the ratio between

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:31pm

What is the ratio between the number of your brain cells and your IQ?

Waht does

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:52pm

What does that have to do with the amount of taxes you pay if you pay any, or are you a county employee?

Lotsa whining

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 12:32pm

During the boom years you couldn't have a conversation with any Keys property owner without them telling you how much money they made and how smart they were. The Keys fad is over; face it. And MOnroe County residents have always relied on government handouts, they just like to admit it. Every place else in the world has to fund their on sewers, water, etc. Not the Keys, ask for a handout then complain about the government.

No Everywhere Else they would have charged an impact fee to ....

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 2:08pm

... the developer and banked the funds until they had enough to break ground on the project

Here in Moron County the bubba developers never had to pay and the problem was just kicked down the road

County should tighten it's belt like everyone else.

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:32am

Monroe County needs to be forced to manage like everyone else. Start by getting rid of waste and perks at the top .. get rid of Higgs' personal county paid car and prime parking. Urge county officials to talk to residents as opposed to having to continually pay for lawyers. This pompous group needs to understand reality and DEAL WITH IT. All wishful thinking though!!

You're Right! Why didn't I

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:33pm

You're Right! Why didn't I think of that? Higgs' parking spot is costing the taxpayers dearly. It's a good thing we have you here to point out the blatent abuse by county employees

Save on Sewers Before Taxation

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:32am

The County must still sewer the Lower Keys and has been presented with options that could save us over $ 100 Million dollars. The time has come to ask why the Mayor and Ms Wigington fight the County Administrator's efforts to consider other firms and save us all truly signficant money. The suggestion that only the FKAA can build a sewer solution borders on commical as does the suggestion that taxes should be increased due to reduced property values. Before one cent of additional taxes are discussed by this BOCC they must make the decission to consider all possible quality waste water firms other than the FKAA. FKAA's inflated prices are simply criminal and allowing them to continue to build the MOST costly sewers would be stupid. Wasting our money will not be tolerated and whether you are a long time member of the BOCC (George and Sylvia) or a newly minted Commissioner (Heather and Kim), all eyes are on your performance. Back room 'bubba' deals can not be tolerated when it comes to waste water prices or friendly over-employment in the Lower Keys nor on our taxes. Considering that Key Largo is proposing grinder pump sewer solutions at an estimated cost of $ 10,000 to $ 12,000 per home (a range that Marathon is also installing sewer solutions for) and that the County, with its ALL too comfy "partner", as Mayor George and Ms Wigington like to call the FKAA, spent $ 50,000 per home to sewer the 38 luxury estate homes on Shark Key the time has come to stop the madness before it starts. Although it must be nice to be wealthy and connected to both the County and FKAA leaders(consider that Shark Key was not even scheduled to be sewered until our esteemed BOCC made it magically, and quickly happen). Speak up Citizens! Do not allow the BOCC to continue to spend our money as if we are fools and certainly do not allow them to increase our taxes. Saving $ 100 Million on sewers is an intelligent start to stopping the madness.

You elect these idiots on their promises of CUTTING TAXES

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:13am

Just when the market settles down values go down these elected theives want to create new projects. Then they want to raise taxes so we can pay more! Can't these morons see we are in a DEPRESSION! And now his highness komrad berry Stalin Obama is about to tax the he'll out of us with cap and trade! Where will this . . . end! We will all be in the soup lines soon enough. That new fire station may have to wait a while! Hey I know let's sell the Vandenburg to Ed swift he market it as a new tour stop for the Conch Train! hey it may Work we were dumb enough to buy it in the first place!

Mac

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:11am

The Citizen could perform a great service for the residents by doing a story on the total number of government employees in Monroe County at all city, county levels and the numerous state and federal agencies -- and the total number and cost of vehicles driven by government employees and finally -- calculate the total square footage of government office space in Monroe. Compare some of these numbers to similar household size city and counties. The redundancy of law enforcement agencies on land and on the water is not defendable. The military should not be part of this analysis -- that hopefully will be undertaken by the county's only daily newspaper. I believe the results will be an eye opener.

We need busness men and women in Government

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:28am

Too many Wigingtons , Saunders, Murphys,etc. These folks have been living off the government tit for decades

I am still waiting...

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:22am

Yep, still waiting for somebody to explain to me why it takes 500 plus people to support approx. 60 deputies. I would love to know what all these people do 8 hours a day. Most county government is like that, too many chiefs and too many people added to the payroll during boom years when nobody was asking questions.

While your at that.....

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:48pm

a thorough accounting(forensic,maybe?) of "overtime" pay would curl your toes.Key Largo's EMS Chief Frankie is not alone...(From what I understand he is one that actually did put in the time).The bigger problem,on a much wider scale, is that it grossly inflates income that is used to figure pensions,which last decades,creating a bankrupcy situation in the future for the county/state. Read about what Dade/Broward's Pension debt future is looking like,if you disbelieve me.(frighteningly impossible).Read about the whole state of California,and it's just the beginning...It's a reason to be glad I'm older,and will probably be too senile to care in 20yrs. The math is far worse than Social Security. "End of the world financing",once again.Our gov.,at every level has lost the ability,(or integrity) to do basic math.This is going to be the most brutal culture war our country has ever experienced.Our adversaries will be your children and grandchildren....not pretty. I will hope,along with you, that I am wrong.But I'm pretty damn good at math....

Show us the money... trail that is.

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:18am

Before you ask the County taxpayers for one thin dime, you, Monroe County, need to post the County's Budget on the web for all to see. We want to see not only the big picture, but the line items down to each and every last dollar spent. You show us what you've done with our money before you have the audacity to ask us for more. This is supposed to be an open and honest government so go ahead, show us where our money went, and then justify those expenditures. If you can't do that, then don't you dare ask us for one more dime.

Even if they did that, you

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:35pm

Even if they did that, you would still be too dumb to understand what it said

This is Moron County

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:00am

Who told you we were supposed to have an open and honest government?

Did you just move here yesterday?

This is bubba county, the bubbas eat alone and you're in the trough

Reduce the Size of Government - NOT the Time To Raise Taxes

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:47am

As property values began to rise over the past decade Government just spent every penny of the increased revenues (our taxes) and continued to hire

Our population here in the Keys didn't increase (it has actually decreased) but the size and spending of City and County govenment certainly increased

This is NOT the time to raise taxes

We have to make do with less but govenment never does

Keysean economics is a proven failure and govenment cannot spend us out of the deficits into which they have spent us

Taxes would not be raised if

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:41pm

Taxes would not be raised if you all paid your fair share. You all think that everything should be given to you for free. The libraries should be open 24 hrs a day, but all employees should work for free. The roads should be paved, but the workers should work for free. The trash collectors should work for free to. Everyone but you, I think you deserve a raise!

County Government

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:40am

Rather than just raising tax rates, it's time for the County to do the same thing business has been doing for the past 20 years. Cut! Cut staff, cut benefits, cut wages. The drunken party is over boys and it's time to clean up the mess.

You're right! Everybody

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 4:43pm

You're right! Everybody deserves a pay cut except for you. You deserve a raise because... well just because I suppose

Get Rid of the Cars & Trucks

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:28am

We need a complete and public audit of all vehicles owned and leased by both the City and County governments. We need to know where they are garaged (government property, peoples homes), how they are used, how often they are used, how they are fueled, if they are dedicated to a single individual or shared, how are they maintained, what it costs to maintain them, what government office(s) manage their procurement and distribution, how many government employees are on payroll that support the transportation needs, blah, blah, blah. In short, THE TAXPAYERS NEED TO KNOW BOTH THE TOTAL AND SPECIFIC COSTS OF TRANSPORTATION REQUIRED TO PROVIDE GOVERNMENT SERVICES.

Just take a look around ... these vehicles are parked in shopping centers, at homes, off the side of the roads, and going up and down the Keys all day and night, and there's typically only one person in each vehicle, that is, if it's actually moving! Questions need to be asked, such as, why does a parking meter employee who is looking for violations need a car to do that job? Can't they walk the streets? How many landscaping and tree trucks do we need?

Here's an idea ... let's have an across the board cut in the number of vehicles that local government can own and lease by 30%. Then they can figure out how best to use what's let over. I'll venture a guess that they cannot even begin tell us how much they spend on total transportation costs, but they can easily tell us how many more tax dollars they need to doing business as usual.

NOW you're knockin' on a really scary door....

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:14pm

You will be like Fred Sanford "having the big one", if you EVER are allowed that figure. I seriously doubt anything near an honest figure will ever see the light of day. Let's see if someone in Monroe County transportation want's to deny RAMPANT corruption here. Just piss me off, enough....This doesn't need any degree in forensic accounting,either.

and take away the bubba syphons

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 9:11am

the cars and pick-ups go home morning noon and night and the gas tanks of the rest of the family are topped off - it's constant

Fat Jeff of city code enforcement was selling gas when the prices were up last year

The city and county will always be a cookie jar for these bubbas

How would the key west car dealers stay in business if we didn't replace the fleet every few years - what a joke

Siphons are so old school.And slooow.

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:26pm

With the right fittings you can 'supply' fuel as fast as you can repurchase it..It's just a little side business. And,you know, we've always done it that way...it's really no big deal...we work hard...

don't forget the boats

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 2:14pm

Just across the street, I watch gas go from the city Ford F150 to the bubba's boat several times a week

Then he takes the boat out on the weekend and the process begins anew on Monday

It's just a perk of the job

Here's something you may find interesting.

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:50pm

And it doesn't require any forensic accountant.(though it might require someone outside 'administration'. Since it's a bit harder(and a felony,by the way)to alter odometer readings on newer vehicles(and god knows,we've got new ones),comparing (total)odometer readings to (total)fuel purchases might surprise you. Hint: F150's get better than 10mpg...

City and County Tax increase and drunken spending

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:16am

Just because you're in the Keys, don't feel you are the only ones that notice increase spending by county, city and state. When home prices continue to drop, unemployment contines to grow, our city continues to plant expensive palms along the roads, pay for outragious "city art", pay higher wages than small business, take trips to "increase people moving to the city" and on and on. When will it STOP? Let the business owners go item by item in the budget and cut the crap out of it. A would guess that middle management, whatever they call it in the county or city, would be cut and make the high rollers do more of the grunt work.

The problem

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 7:15am

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money

I hope...

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 6:42pm

someone tells that to obama.

Maggie we miss you

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:16am

Where is Margaret Thacher when you need her?

When I run out of money

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 8:45am

When my checkbook is empty I can't spend.What numbnut in budget doesn't get it! I know that is a simplistic statement however a budget revolves around expected income.There are so many excesses in the county that if we really were lean and mean we would be fine.Eat chicken instead of filet mignon.By the way was walking on Smathers beach saw to workers hired by the rec dept .They could barely speak english had 2 pickups running One was leaning on a shovel the other was using a hand clipper to trim by a stair.i walked by 2 time in an hour they were in the same place doing nothing.Wonder if I would find the same thing in the county.MY GUESS IS YES !!!!!

Lazy Public Employees

Submitted on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 5:38pm

Who are those fat people always hanging around outside the Harvey Government Center smoking and horsing around? Are they part of the Tax Assessor's office? They're out there almost every day. I see them when I go in to pay taxes and it really chaps my behind.