Professional football players won a big settlement yesterday. As a group, they were paid $765M to compensate them for the consequences of head injuries sustained while playing football. It's unclear what that will do for the live ones. It may provide some comfort for the families of the dead ones. I heard the wife of the late Tom McHale on the radio today. McHale, an offensive lineman, died in 2008, and gave his brain to science for study of football injuries. Ms McHale said players back in her husband's day (1987-1995) "didn't know" football could cause brain damage and other serious injuries. Boy, talk about being out of the loop, or out to lunch. What did McHale think was the reason his schoolmates' parents didn't want them playing Pop Warner football? But now, ex-players and families of ex-players have found someone to blame for the injuries. And it appears clearly not to be themselves.
It's the same phenomenon as the smokers who got lung and heart disease, then decided it was the fault of tobacco companies, which fooled everyone into thinking there was nothing unhealthy about smoking. Unless you listened to your parents tell you smoking would stunt your growth, or watched any of many movies of the '30s, '40s, and '50s, in which there were lots of passing references to the damage caused by smoking. It was common knowledge. There were practically jokes about it. But no, claim the "victims." They had no idea, and these innocents were duped by the tobacco industry.
Biscayne Park has a serious fiscal problem. A growing number of us recognize this problem, and we're talking about it. The Village does not have the revenue necessary to keep itself going in a reasonable condition. We're cautioning that steps should be taken to prevent a serious complication, like collapse of the neighborhood. The two most obvious and easiest to implement interventions are increasing taxes significantly, or annexing a revenue-producing territory nearby. We have exhausted, or made as good use as we can of, other alternatives.
If those with the power to make appropriate decisions don't do anything about this problem, if they say the cautions are just hype, or scare tactics, if they say they don't believe that smoking causes health problems, or it won't in them, or football doesn't really cause head injuries, or there really isn't global warming, or an eventual end to fossil fuels, then they will have sentenced this neighborhood to a failure from which it cannot emerge.
We need to do something, and we need to do it now. We should have an open and formal discussion of annexation. There are pros and cons to it. But it is a solution to our problem. If we decide not to go this route, after sober consideration, there is a plan B. We will have to increase taxes. We can prefer that. But we can't prefer nothing. Unless we don't really care, or we want to surrender. No decision is a decision.
And if Commissioners don't act, whom will they blame for the consequences? Me? You? Ana Garcia? Past Commissions? The County? Maybe the NFL and the tobacco companies.
From someone who is looking at this from the proverbial 35,000 feet, and who deals with corporate executives who ONLY look at things that way, here's my $.02.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love BP, I have thought about where else I might like to live in the Miami area, and the names that tend to pop into my head (Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Miami Shores)all have at least one thing in common: they are not strictly residential.
Look, I'd love to have every median be well maintained and manicured, I'd love to have lights on the field for night time activities. I'd love to be able to host our own events without having to lean on the Knight of Columbus, Totalbank, etc. I'd love to have better lighting, so that I don't feel the need to arm myself if my wife and I are walking after dark. But we already have one of the highest millage rates in the county, so unless we want to start cutting staff, having bake sales, or cooking meth for additional funds, we have to consider keeping up with changing times, and taking advantage of a golden opportunity to increase our tax base, lower individual property taxes, and diversify our village.
Again, my $.02 from 35,000 feet. I welcome anyone with a conflicting point of view to post here and state your reasons, which I will gladly consider, since despite having intentions to leave the park at some point, it's my hope to still own here, and possibly retire here someday. And if I do, I don't want to be paying an absurd property tax rate on a house I already own.
Cheers,
John Holland
John,
DeleteThe municipalities that occurred to you and Elena have something else in common, too. They tend to be somewhat more "upscale." Part of the result is higher property values, and higher property taxes, than we have in BP. They do keep well-maintained medians and other public spaces. They do have adequate lighting.
The reason we have high millage rates is that residential property taxes is our main source of income. No commercial, as you point out. No deeper pockets to pick. And with properties here being somewhat undervalued, compared to the municipalities you cite, you actually pay a lower tax on your house in BP than you would pay for the same house if it was a few blocks down the road, in MSV.
In any event, we can't function on our current tax base. We don't have the resources to prevent decay, and we can't improve what is marginal or inadequate. What we need is money. And elected officials with the vision and wherewithal to get it.
So thanks very much for your "two cents." They look like a million dollars to me. And I hope you get the discussion you requested. You and the topic deserve it.
Fred