Wo all received the Solid waste & Stormwater fee "Love letter" ? (Jacksonville: mortgage, credit card)

[mawipafl]

Although I don't live in Jacksonville/Duval, I feel your pain. And the cynical person I am, it's only a matter of time before Clay and other counties impose the same kind of fee.

On the positive side, at least commercial is also feeling your pain (rather than the burden being placed solely on residential owners) -- not that this makes it justified of course.

On the negative side, commerical properties must be getting hard-hit since most commerical land is impervious (building itself, parking lot, etc). I can't help but think this kind of impact fee would make a company or developer think twice about staying in or moving to Jacksonville/Duval.

I can say this -- the way its purpose is worded on the COJ website, it is a temporary fee because it'll be used to cover "[the] costs for improving Jacksonville's drainage system and satisfying federal and state requirements ... Jacksonville created a stormwater fee to generate the revenue needed to meet new and existing stormwater requirements and to improve Jacksonville's system..." They don't call it "temporary", but if you all stay on it and watch over it carefully, once its purpose is met, it should be forced to end. Just like the Federal Excise Tax on Long Distance - its purpose ended long ago, but just recently was pushed out of existence and is no longer charged.

Goodness, I didn't even get a bill - yet, I'm as ticked off as the rest of you!

[riveree]

Some of these points were brought up already, but I'm annoyed enough to repeat them .....


Rant on.....

Okay, so I knew this was coming, but they mailed me a bill?! With the cost of snail mail these days, does this make sense?! I thought it would get slapped on my property taxes and since I escrow, the cost would be spread over the year and that would be that. But now I have to write a check and mail it in? Should I write it with my feather quill pen and deliver it by horse and buggy? Or maybe I should tuck it into a bottle and send it upriver....the river does flow north .

Most of us were charged "medium rate" at $60 (okay, Ryde obviously owns a mansion ), but I own more than one house and I can tell you they are not equal by any means yet were lumped in the same category of "medium". One, for example, does not even have a driveway - just 2 concrete runners - obviously not as much of a stormwater diverter as a full blown 2 car concrete driveway. Not to mention the size difference, the house without the driveway is tiny, it's not a "medium" anything....so where's the fairness in that?

And the dates of coverage? Could it be any more confusing? Thanks for pointing out that I'll be paying this twice a year Karla, because I certainly could not surmise that from the bill.....so it's not $60 per house, it's $120....great .

I don't mind the fee itself, but a little more thought into how this was going to be done might have been in order.

.....rant off.

[bugnbyke]

I agree the fee was unexpected, however how much will the fee really hurt us financially. With tax cuts comes sacrafices. I have noticed that we all want tax cuts, yet we want better infrastructure, better education, cleaner streets, lower crime, more jobs, higher pay for govt. employees.......
none of this will happen without taxes.
The govt. may not spend our money as wisely as we would like, however, the system is what it is.
Nothing is free.

[apanda]

That is why I voted No on 1. I agree 100%, it takes money to run a city. But I really feel like we should have been more informed about this coming up and I can't help to feel screwed by people that don't pay enough attention and just vote on something because they don't bother to know more. People just heard "Property Tax Cuts" and ran out to vote. I knew something was wrong when our public service people were putting up signs. Example, the polling place for my area is right around the corner from my home and I saw Firemen putting up "Vote No" signs, I don't want a longer response time and have my home burn down. I guess I mostly just feel like I got shafted since I did my part. Oh well... they could always be asking for even more money.

[agreatlife]

Originally Posted by bugnbyke

we want better infrastructure, better education, cleaner streets, lower crime, more jobs, higher pay for govt. employees.......

Ummm, no not here. My partner just took a pay cut, I never got raises in my job. Until gov't wants to become less wasteful, this tax payer doesn't see why they should get more.

[apanda]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

Ummm, no not here. My partner just took a pay cut, I never got raises in my job. Until gov't wants to become less wasteful, this tax payer doesn't see why they should get more.

They do need to cut some fat and take some action towards lower spending, but it is a catch 22. We want our city to be great and have nice things, at the same time we all know that some people in the local government are over paid and don't think twice about over paying for services.

[dolphin3]

How about taking a good look at prioritys and spending all the money they get on things that need to be done instead of ripping up a perfectly goog road (mayport Rd.) and planting more Palm Trees! Whens the next election anyway? We need some new faces downtown that know how to manage money. I got the bill and I allways figured I was safe since this house has been on high ground in a nice nieghborhood since 1969. The city isn't going to be ripping up anything around here I hope. What are we going to do! I like the idea about a Tea Party.

[Karla with a K]

Did you really think that if they "cut" property taxes that homeowners would see the savings ?
The city is going to find a way to make up the "loss"
Not only did many worthwhile projects received cuts but fees increased.
I "ran" the numbers and I think after the new "fees" it ends up being a saving of 23 cents per household.

Lets see less police or fire personnel ?
Less funding for programs that feed the hungry ?
Less money for schools ?

But WOW hey we homeowners are saving 23 cents a day !!!

I guess I am a little hot over this since many volunteer projects I am involved in were on the "sorry we have to cut your funding" end of the stick

[travelingfood]

meanwhile, local businesses reported record number sales of pitchforks.

[HIF]

I think these fees were passed last year, before the property tax ballot initiative. It's like the city has gone from one extreme to the other. We should have been paying the solid waste fee all along- who gets free garbage pickup?

But then, they go the other extreme and send this bill right before school gets out, giving a month to pay. What about parents who will be paying hundreds more in childcare costs for the summer? What about seniors on a fixed income? And non-profits and churches were exempt.

The most stupid thing of all- why wasn't it just added to the JEA bill? Instead they send them out at $.31 postage, God knows how much to print and have the fee going to the tax collector...who will need staff to process the payments. If it had only been added as a line item on our JEA bill, how much money would have been saved?

What if we all refused to pay or just divided it into seven payments? What would they do? I do think these fees should be paid, but to exempt non-profits and churches- most of which have little to no green space, and to reinvent the wheel in the collection of these fees- it's just not right. It sounds like a city employee relief measure- I'd like to see who is hired to process these invoices.

I hope that Folio does a story on this.