South Walton Fire District Races

[seagrovegirl]

Don't feel bad. About now is when the elected official starts telling me either I do not understand or I am practicing voodoo math.

I have argued with the BCC for years about raising taxes, even when they cut the millage. If you bring in 50 million tax dollars one year, and 52 million tax dollars the next year, that to me is a tax increase. And until elected most people agree, but after getting elected, they get edumacated in a new type of math.

The SWFD budget is open to the public to review and I encourage it. If you can find a way to responsibly make cuts, I am willing to listen. I have reveiwed the budget and do not see where anything could be cut without jeopardizing public safety.

As a community grows, and ours has very quickly, the SWFD has to keep up with the growth. SWFD has grown, responsibly. There are plans for futue fire houses to make response time faster is some areas and a building fund for that. We also have reserves that will be at hand in case of a catastrophic emergency, such as a major hurricane or God forbid a terrorist attack. We have to plan for the future as well as run the day to day business in the budget. Next year, it is likely that property values will be lower, therefore less money in the budget. We have to prepare for that. And I will say again, we have the lowest millage rate of anyone with a similar district as well as a lower millage rate than any of our neighboring counties.

You may want to look at your trim notice from the county and see just what you are paying for the SWFD......it is a bargain!

 

[Interested Girl]

OK - then you agree that SWFD did not lower the millage. My taxes went up something you seem to have no problem with even in this economic crisis period.

It seems you believe that you could not find a way to reduce the budget without public safety. I accept the challenge. I will obtain a copy of your budget and pass it along to my CPA.

This may take afew days but I will get back to you.

 

[seagrovegirl]

OK - then you agree that SWFD did not lower the millage. My taxes went up something you seem to have no problem with even in this economic crisis period.

It seems you believe that you could not find a way to reduce the budget without public safety. I accept the challenge. I will obtain a copy of your budget and pass it along to my CPA.

This may take afew days but I will get back to you.

We did lower the millage...however, when the state/county tallies, it is what they give us based on the revenue received from property values.

Out of curiosity, what do you pay for SWFD this year verses last year?

 

[seagrovegirl]

OK - then you agree that SWFD did not lower the millage. My taxes went up something you seem to have no problem with even in this economic crisis period.

It seems you believe that you could not find a way to reduce the budget without public safety. I accept the challenge. I will obtain a copy of your budget and pass it along to my CPA.

This may take afew days but I will get back to you.

Great! I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[Bob Wells]

"I do not have a place in south Walton but your comment on impact fees is interesting to me. Impact fees are for the purpose of offsetting additional costs incurred by growth. If there is no growth then there are no additional costs to offset. You are indicating that this is a budget cut, but you should have had an expense cut to go along with it. The impact fees were to build more stations, more trucks, things of that nature, if no more development is occurring why do you need those things?"

"Also did the budget of SWFD this year cut or increase the amount that you are holding in reserves? Just curious."

Robert
Based on the above quote and some other post, I would like to reply.
Although impact fees do assist with offsetting growth related issues, when that growth is no longer there it is still incumbent upon the government entity to provide for the service. As the cost of doing business rises, fuel cost, maintenance, cost of personel, normal equipment replacement it is with the tax base that this is done with. SWFD has not opened another station and just recently purchased an Fire Truck and within the last year added another ambulance to its service to its citizens.

You also admited that you can not understand how a millage decrease with 2 million dollar increase could be considered a tax cut, well I tend to look at my tax bill. Many times a millage decrease and increased revenue occur by growth. If my tax bill is reduced and the county recieves more money overall then did I recieve a cut or not? Next, Interested Girl advised a tax increased by SWFD. This is how it appears. The question is was her assessment reduced on her home so as to reduce or at least maintain what she was paying over last year even with the increase in her millage? I am not attempting to be patronizing, just trying to understand, I do realize that that my taxes are going to increase, I just want it to be used responsibly and to recognize the current economy.

 

[seagrovegirl]

"I do not have a place in south Walton but your comment on impact fees is interesting to me. Impact fees are for the purpose of offsetting additional costs incurred by growth. If there is no growth then there are no additional costs to offset. You are indicating that this is a budget cut, but you should have had an expense cut to go along with it. The impact fees were to build more stations, more trucks, things of that nature, if no more development is occurring why do you need those things?"

"Also did the budget of SWFD this year cut or increase the amount that you are holding in reserves? Just curious."

Robert
Based on the above quote and some other post, I would like to reply.
Although impact fees do assist with offsetting growth related issues, when that growth is no longer there it is still incumbent upon the government entity to provide for the service. As the cost of doing business rises, fuel cost, maintenance, cost of personel, normal equipment replacement it is with the tax base that this is done with. SWFD has not opened another station and just recently purchased an Fire Truck and within the last year added another ambulance to its service to its citizens.

You also admited that you can not understand how a millage decrease with 2 million dollar increase could be considered a tax cut, well I tend to look at my tax bill. Many times a millage decrease and increased revenue occur by growth. If my tax bill is reduced and the county recieves more money overall then did I recieve a cut or not? Next, Interested Girl advised a tax increased by SWFD. This is how it appears. The question is was her assessment reduced on her home so as to reduce or at least maintain what she was paying over last year even with the increase in her millage? I am not attempting to be patronizing, just trying to understand, I do realize that that my taxes are going to increase, I just want it to be used responsibly and to recognize the current economy.

The impact fee does offset growth but it does not cover all the expenses such as buildings and fire equipment. Our new fire truck was over $600,000 and the cost of building a fire station would be in the 100's of thousands as well.
The new fire truck replaces and older fire truck and the expense was in the long range budget. Older and out of commission vehicles were sold or donated to reduce the fleet.

 

[wrobert]

The SWFD budget is open to the public to review and I encourage it. If you can find a way to responsibly make cuts, I am willing to listen. I have reveiwed the budget and do not see where anything could be cut without jeopardizing public safety.

As a community grows, and ours has very quickly, the SWFD has to keep up with the growth. SWFD has grown, responsibly. There are plans for futue fire houses to make response time faster is some areas and a building fund for that. We also have reserves that will be at hand in case of a catastrophic emergency, such as a major hurricane or God forbid a terrorist attack. We have to plan for the future as well as run the day to day business in the budget. Next year, it is likely that property values will be lower, therefore less money in the budget. We have to prepare for that. And I will say again, we have the lowest millage rate of anyone with a similar district as well as a lower millage rate than any of our neighboring counties.

You may want to look at your trim notice from the county and see just what you are paying for the SWFD......it is a bargain!

Elected officials try to make the argument for tax cuts on a case by case basis. But that just does not fly. Valuations go up and down. And I am not saying that tax cuts or increases or a bad thing. I just feel that people need to admit it for what it is.

My trim notice does not have anything to do with SWFD, I do not own land in that area. Millage rates are one way to compare things, but not always the best. Walton County has the third lowest millage rate last time I heard a commissioner speak. Yet we use to have the second highest tax rate per capita of any place in Florida.

 

[Interested Girl]

Well it seems that you are either unwilling to admit you raised the millage rate from .70 mills to .76 mills or you really have a math problem. How you can try to keep spinning this mumbo jumbo and expect a citizen to have any confidence in the SWFD board is amazing.

Once again I challenge you to explain how you figure .76 is less than .70. I am beginning to believe that one of us is math challenged and according to my trusty calcultor it is not me.

PS - I have a homestead on my unit and my the value is unchanged from last year.
What I pay is my business and it is higher than last year. I do not consider it a bargain - I consider it for what it is Higher than it could be or should be.

I will prove my point after I obtain a copy of your budget and have it reviewed.

 

[Interested Girl]

Blonde ?

 

[grumpyfish]

Well it seems that you are either unwilling to admit you raised the millage rate from .70 mills to .76 mills or you really have a math problem. How you can try to keep spinning this mumbo jumbo and expect a citizen to have any confidence in the SWFD board is amazing.

Once again I challenge you to explain how you figure .76 is less than .70. I am beginning to believe that one of us is math challenged and according to my trusty calcultor it is not me.

PS - I have a homestead on my unit and my the value is unchanged from last year.
What I pay is my business and it is higher than last year. I do not consider it a bargain - I consider it for what it is Higher than it could be or should be.

I will prove my point after I obtain a copy of your budget and have it reviewed.

You may find this interesting. I've already met Jack Abbit and Ed Wright. However, I spoke with Scott Thurston and Jon Kazek (Abbit & Wright's opponents) and they have quite a bit in info on "cutting the fat," even "more" than the two in office have. I guess they have done their homework. Both have seemingly great ideas to maintain financial responsibility on the Fire Commission. Thurston said he had a plan to establish accountiblity on the board with regards to attendance. I don't know if that was "political rethoric" or not, but what would they to gain by "bs-ing" anyone? It's not like Fire Commissioners get paid a ton of money. From what I hear, it's almost a volunteer job. They seemed pretty sharp though.