First of Four: District 3 Presentation on the Lake Worth 2020 Plan

Commissioner Amoroso walks people through the PowerPoint presentation from last night's gathering at the First Congregational Church. The crowd just about filled the large room that is also familiar to a lot of residents as a voting location. After the presentation, questions were asked by those in attendance and this video includes discussion of sales tax options (not feasible), impact on commercial property taxes and "why us, why now?" There are three other videos that cover the question and answer session between the public, city staff and elected officials.

As an introduction, I thought that I would use my property as an example of what the additional 3.45 millage would mean on an annual and monthly basis for me. Click here and search for your own property information on the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's website.

Multiplying the taxable value in 2013, after the Homestead Exemption, by .00345 mills says that I would pay $336.06 per year in additional taxes to support the debt of this general obligation bond(s).  That is $28 per month. I'm a little bit disappointed in the city's analogies of a cup of coffee, a hamburger, a nice dinner out, etc. It sort of trivializes what this means. And I think they can do a better job of telling people that this is somewhat of a worst case scenario. Their projections assume a 4% annual rise in property values over the length of the bond issue. This year we are likely to have just over an 8% increase, which means the impact of a bond issue would be spread over more value and potentially more properties. As property values rise, our individual shares, in part due to the improvements anticipated in this program, would decrease. The vast majority of homesteaded residential properties in the city would pay nothing until they go above an assessed value of $50,000 and then more when they reach a value of $100,000.

Lots of information in these videos. The people that happen to appear in the foreground of most of these is a pure quirk of fate.