"Funny Little City(sic)."

I was talking this morning with my brother.  The topic was politics, and new regimes.  We talked about the big new regime, and the small one.

My brother was under the impression that we in BP "can't pay [our] bills" on our revenue.  I told him that we do pay our bills; it's only that we're selective about what we agree is a bill.  We won't agree that street repair is a bill, because we choose not to try to repair our streets.  (Because we couldn't afford to repair them.)  The same is true of median development.  We built a new building, and renovated the log cabin, but only because more than half the money was donated to us by the State, and we groused about paying the rest.  Not only do we not agree to improve drainage, and therefore that improving drainage is even a bill, but some of us want to claim that we don't need to improve drainage, because we don't have a drainage problem.  That's what some of us assert.  So we won't have a bill.  And we won't then fail to be able to pay the bill.

My brother of course fully understood our little "situation."  We have extremely limited ability to have revenue, because we don't have the diversification of revenue sources available to almost all municipalities.  He knows all about Golden Beach and Indian Creek Village.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He also knows all about the municipalities like CNM, and CMB (where he lives).  They have revenue sources, and they're not one bit shy about tapping them.  They know what they need, and they know what they want, and they're going to take proper care of themselves.  Among other things, they have pride.  Or call it self-respect.

My brother thought we charged ourselves as much as we could: 10 mills.  No, I told him, we can't quite get ourselves to pull that particular trigger.  We stall ourselves out at 9.7, a number that has no meaning, except it's been the same number for a few years now.  It's not the same revenue for the Village, nor is it the same tax from property owners.  It's just a millage number we choose not to change.  Even though it doesn't mean anything.  My brother asked me how much the difference between 9.7 mills and 10 mills was worth to the Village.  I told him I didn't know, because property values are a moving target, and there are new sales, but I estimated that since it was recently about $50K, and values have improved and been bolstered by some recent and substantial sales, it was probably somewhere around $75K or so now.  It's the difference between trying to decide whether to redo the Codes, or instead resurfacing the tot lot, but being unable to decide which to do, so not doing either...and doing both.  That's what we could do with $75K: both.

And I pointed out, being back on my soapbox and all, that what that $75K would cost the average BP property owner used to be about $45 per year, but is now probably about $60 per year.

My brother thought we were limited to 10 mills ad valorem property tax, but I told him that the 10 mill limit is only for the easy part.  It's what an elected body can impose on property owners, on it's own initiative.  But a municipality is not limited at all to 10 mills.  I don't know if there is a limit to what residents of a municipality can choose to charge themselves for ad valorem property tax.  It's just a matter of how motivated they are to address municipal issues and responsibilities, and how much pride they have.

The fact is, we could charge ourselves twice as much millage as we do, if we agreed by referendum to do it.  The Village portion of the ad valorem tax bill could be 19.4 mills, instead of 9.7.  And that wouldn't double the overall ad valorem bill (the one you just paid, or are just getting ready to pay).  It would only double about a third of the bill.  The two other major portions are for the County and the School Board, and we have nothing to do with how much they charge County property-owners.

I realize I get very little support for an idea like this.  I get none from the Commissions.  Some years back, Steve Bernard suggested we tax ourselves at 10 mills.  He was on the Commission then.  Nowadays, Dan Keys is known to agree we should increase our millage.  I don't know what he thought many years ago, when he was on the Commission.

Very interestingly, Mac Kennedy advocated for increased millage, so we can get our work done.  What's interesting about that is that Mac, and Dan Schneiger, are new Village residents.  People like them do the heavy fiscal lifting in the Village, because they established a property value recently.  They homestead, of course, but in the meantime, they're the big dogs, ad valorem tax-wise.  And they're willing to go higher, and suggest the rest of us do, too.  People like Max Deitermann, who owns very expensive property here, don't urge low taxes.

People like Max, and Mac and Dan, not only have the most to "lose" by our having higher millage, but coincidentally (?), people like them are also strong advocates for an improved, "Best We Can Be," Village.  And they have the experience with property ownership, municipal development, and design sense, to know what it takes.

But too many of the rest of us can't see that far, or that wide.  We fuss over the silliest, most insignificant, things and amounts of money.  We resist ponying up a few dollars to improve ourselves.  We complain about a very substantial Village Hall project, because we have to pay for part of it.  Some of us form whole campaigns over not wanting to have to construct driveways on our properties, which we have to do anyway, and which will improve our own properties(!), as well as the Village overall.

My brother and I talked about all of this, which is what led him twice to describe us as a "funny little city(sic)."