property tax hikes may be in the works (Miami, St. Petersburg: sales, foreclosures)

[Wild Style]

link (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1082372.html - broken link)

[lukeb321]

This will lead even more foreclosures - bunch of idiots.

[JSnFla]

Florida stands to lose $1 billion because of Lehman Brothers' collapse - St. Petersburg Times

taxes and fees will have to go through the roof or the state better find some other way to generate massive revenues or this state is truly down the tubes in the next decade. add a few cat 3,4 or 5 hurricanes and we could see armegeddon, marshall law, etc

[Wild Style]

luke

I agree this isn't good but I also understand that they need money. They should find a better way to come up with it though.

[lukeb321]

The problem is we lived in this bubble for a couple years which was just a fantasy. The money that came in was great for salary raises, new parks and services - BUT it wasn't real. Now were back to a 2002 budget and have no way of paying for 2009 services. I say get rid of these extras or charge to use them. We did fine without them before the bubble, why can't we now? Instead were going to raise taxes and force more out of the state or into foreclosure. Everybody has a breaking point, as we have seen some walk away from there houses already. This will push a few more over the edge.

[SierraDog]

From what the article indicated, the millage increase should not result in much higher payments. If it is needed to maintain police levels of services, I am for it. That is critical to me and worth the cost. I agree that some services should be cut back - we can't afford the same parks and recreation amenities as were the norm back in 2007.

I am more worried about my Citizens Insurance bill at this point.

[Rock Newman]

Originally Posted by lukeb321

The problem is we lived in this bubble for a couple years which was just a fantasy. The money that came in was great for salary raises, new parks and services - BUT it wasn't real. Now were back to a 2002 budget and have no way of paying for 2009 services. I say get rid of these extras or charge to use them. We did fine without them before the bubble, why can't we now? Instead were going to raise taxes and force more out of the state or into foreclosure. Everybody has a breaking point, as we have seen some walk away from there houses already. This will push a few more over the edge.

Good post and the only way I see getting out of this is raising sales taxes , and tourist taxes as well as cutting back on non essential services and keeping school and police budgets intact ... perhaps we can finally allow full blown casino gambling in Miami Beach for instance and strive to become Las Vegas in the South East .

[tallrick]

It is amazing how many people use children or police as an excuse to spend more money. I would cut education, police and all expenses through the board. My goal would be a 50% reduction in expenses, adjusted for inflation. Also push an exclusion to liability for all public parks, buildings etc and eliminate frivolous lawsuits if someone injures themselves on public property with no direct action of a government employee. Let the people clean up their own parks and let them clean their own streets if it comes to that. We need to keep employees who actually help the government produce income and let go those who are simply a drain.