Ad Nauseum? You Bet. It's Enough to Make You Sick.

No one likes to pay taxes.  In fact, in that secret, selfish, reflex way, no one really likes to pay for anything.  And most people think the cost of whatever it is is too high.  Sometimes, like at a car dealership, an art or antique gallery, a flea market, a bazaar, or some other places, you get to bargain to pay something closer to the price you imagine you'd like to pay.  But there's always that sense that maybe you could have paid less.  And if you could have, then you should have.  It's not even about anything.  It's just that sense of wanting something and not having to give much (of yourself) for it.  If you reduced the dynamic to its most primitive, it would be as if you felt you were just owed whatever you want, for free.  Infantile, yes, but common.  Most of us outgrow it.

Here in Biscayne Park, we are known, among other things, for our property tax rate.  It's comparatively high.  Some of our neighbors complain about it, Erik Bojnansky and Jim Mullin of the Biscayne Times made fun of us for it a couple of months ago, and Stephanie Kienzle recently noted it in her CNMB blog.

Yes, we do have a high ad valorem tax rate here.  But there's a reason for that.  Two reasons, actually.  One is that our only property tax comes from homeowners.  There is no business, and no inflated business tax, in Biscayne Park.  So all the ad valorem money we get comes from taxes on our homes.  The other reason is that for whatever reasons, home prices in BP are comparatively modest.  To get the ad valorem revenue it needs, the Village has to charge a higher millage on an inexpensive property than it would if the property had cost more.  The number of dollars the Village needs is the same.  It's the percentage of the assessed value that varies, depending on what that value is.  If the Village needs $1000 from you, that $1000 is a lower percentage of a home that's worth $500K, which it might be in Miami Shores, than if the same exact home is worth $300K, which it might be here.

But we have expenses, we need the revenue to meet those expenses, and taxing ourselves is how we get the money.  The process of figuring out how much we should tax ourselves is supposed to be a cooperative effort of the Village Commission and the Village Manager.  The Commission is supposed to decide what's important, and the Manager is supposed to tell us what it will cost (in ad valorem taxes), and make it happen.

Unfortunately, at the present time we are having a failure of leadership on the Commission.  Actually, we don't have any leadership.  We have a majority (Jacobs, Cooper, and Watts) who either don't know what's important, or they don't want anything for the Village.  They are unable to make a clear statement to the Village administration, since they have no clear statement to make.  And they ignore input from their other two colleagues, Ross and Anderson, as well as from the general residents of the Park.  They also ignore the advice of the Manager.

We are barely able to make ends meet by the end of the fiscal year.  We run out of money on the last day.  And that's only to pay the bills to keep us going.  We have no reserve that builds from year to year, and we are unable to plan for future expenses.  We have already talked ad nauseum about the log cabin that needs repairs, but which we can't afford to repair, vehicles that absolutely will break down and need service or replacement, the medians which we cannot afford to improve or even maintain adequately, possible lighting in the Village, a security system for the recreation center, a useable recording system for meetings, and a barrier between the train and the Village.  Ad nauseum.

So in this setting, our fearless (because mindless) Commission majority fusses over completely meaningless numbers, representing the ad valorem tax rate.  The most the Commission could have charged us was 10 mills.  But it chose to start the conversation at 9.9 mills, shying away from the 10 mills for no articulated or rational reason.  The difference between the two, the amount the majority considered saving the average BP homeowner, was about $13 for the year.  Ultimately, however, our majority got even more adventurous than that, and it settled on a rate of 9.7 mills*, saving the average BP homeowner not only the first $13, but an additional $26, for a total of almost $40.  That's what the Commission majority saved the average homeowner, in exchange for crippling the Village.

The real question is the (hypothetical: there isn't any actual) reasoning behind this reduction.  Did the majority figure out what the expenses should be, and charge a tax to cover them?  No.  They made no effort to consider what proper expenses should be, and they did not provide for a reserve or any improvements anyway.  Did they somehow calculate the ability to pay on the part of Village residents, and charge as much as they could to try to confront expenses?  No.  And if they thought they were somehow protecting homeowners' ability to pay taxes, which they made no effort to assess, what do they imagine will happen when taxes on homesteaded properties go up 3% a year anyway?

All the majority did was play with meaningless numbers, as children play with play money.  The majority saved homeowners money they did not need to be saved, and they did it at the expense of the Village they are supposed to be protecting.  And when these chickens come home to roost, taxes will have to be raised anyway, and/or we will change the character of the Village by annexing nearby territory.  This is the price we will pay for having elected a Commission majority that has no vision, no sense, and no courage.  And no dedication at all to the Village of Biscayne Park.


*The agreement to tax at 9.7 mills was a compromise.  Ross and Anderson wanted to tax at 9.9 mills, Jacobs somehow chose 9.5 mills out of whatever air he breathes, and Cooper didn't bother to show up. Watts agreed to 9.7 mills, which is more than her delicate constitution can typically stand, and Ross and Anderson took for the Village what they could get.  This still leaves us handicapped and unable to meet real and long range responsibilities.  There are elections for Commission this December, so perhaps we will get new Commissioners with the vision, sense, courage, and awareness of their real role to allow us to preserve the Village and make it the valued and successful neighborhood it should be.