Hmm, it seems a few old-timers were saying, "Don't marry the city revenues to cruise ship fees. Sooner or later somethin' is gonna happen(the cruise lines decide Cuba is a more popular port of call, we have a recession, or fuel prices go up), and then what are you gonna do? Raise everybody's property taxes?Well, the inevitable has happened. Cruise ship revenues are down. And yes, they're already talking about raising the taxes. And a few other newer revenue raising schemes as well. It wasn't too long ago that someone ran the idea of another "penny sales tax" up the flagpole. We don't recall a massive exodus of people running out to salute it. Just the opposite, in fact.
It's a shame, because we're going to need more money, for infrastructure on the soon-to-be-developed former Navy property. And the question of the city's taking over the County Beach will be on the ballot, an idea long overdue, but it's going to cost a little money to keep it up.
Add all this to the fact that our dwindling middle class is already strapped, the fact that we seem to be headed into a recession, hopefully minor, and the fact that it always takes government four times as long and costs four times as much to do anything, and it's obvious that there are some storm clouds on the horizon.
On top of all this, real estate values (read tax base) are actually starting to decline.
It looks like we are in for some major readjustments, and not a little belt tightening. It's something that has to be worked out, especially if we are going to be able to keep our community an attractive place to live and to visit.
1 comment:
Aren't there 70 some ocunty employees making for than $100K a year? It used to be if you worked for government, that you didn't make a much in exchange for the "security." This place is so crooked it's unbelievable to most people. And now they want to tax us more???
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