Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents

[ensho]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090903/us_time/08599191991600


There are many things public officials probably shouldn't do during a severe recession, but no one seems to have told the leaders in Florida about them. One thing, for instance, would be giving a dozen top aides hefty raises while urging a rise in property taxes, as the mayor of Miami-Dade County recently did. Or jacking up already exorbitant hurricane-insurance premiums, as Florida's government-run property insurer just did. Or sending an army of highly paid lobbyists to push for a steep hike in electricity rates, as South Florida's public utility is doing.

And you wonder why the Sunshine State is experiencing its first net emigration of people since World War II.

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Residents were further outraged last week when the Miami Herald reported that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, one of the few Miami politicians with a reputation for probity, had raised the salaries of his chief of staff and other top lieutenants this year as high as 15% while calling for a 5% pay cut for county workers. Alvarez spokesperson Victoria Mallette says the raises resulted from a 2007 referendum that gave Miami-Dade's mayor, until then a relatively weak post, broad new powers that in turn thrust heavier duties on his staff. She also notes that Alvarez actually cut his office's budget last year by almost 15% and that he helped build an $80 million reserve fund. Still, a Herald editorial called Alvarez's raises "irresponsible." Watchdogs like Valladares complain that Miami-Dade's bureaucracy, like so many local governments in this decade, got too bloated during the economic boom. The County Commission, for example, has a staff of more than 200 serving only 13 commissioners - and yet it still managed to screw up tasks like its oversight of Miami-Dade's scandal-plagued housing agency.

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In a state that worshipped condo-flippers as great entrepreneurs, it was all a house of cards waiting to be blown down when the housing bubble burst. Now that it has happened, those Floridians who haven't left the state had hoped their officials might change the way they do things - or at least not attend a Kentucky Derby party hosted by the same FPL honchos lobbying them for a rate hike, as a Florida Public Service Commission director has admitted to doing a few months ago. But if Miami and Florida officials can't get their acts together, they can probably expect even lower head counts in the years to come.
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however, the alligators, boa constrictors and sugar Barons are doing just fine

[ixion]

1. I'm actually kind of glad that people are moving from the state

it was getting too crowded here anyway. :)

[ensho]

3. it would help if more people move away from those northern Fl.

counties that are neo con, right wing, religious nuts.

[eleny]

2. Hubby got a tax notice for some property on the west coast - it's much lower now

The taxes took several jumps over the course of about 3 years. But now the values have dropped dramatically and the taxes have followed.

But I have to wonder if this is too late for many residents who were clobbered in the past few years when the taxes skyrocketed. We talked to one woman at the tax office who said her family was struggling with her late mother's home property. They couldn't sell it and the taxes were through the roof at that time. Sounds like Miami-Dade isn't following the same current trend as other parts of the state.

In the past 5 years, Florida really lost its mind over housing values and taxes.

[kdmorris]

4. If I could sell my house

I would be out of here faster than you can say "go". When I first bought my house, in 2001, my homeowners insurance was $900 a year, my electric bill was just $200 a month during summer and my property taxes were $998. My monthly mortgage payment (including escrow) was $1027.

Now, here we are, years later and my homeowners insurance is $3780 a year (only Citizens will insure us, so we have to just put up with their rate hikes), my electric bill is $400 a month in the summer (and $200 a month in winter), and my property taxes are $2300 a year. My monthly mortgage payment is now $1307 a month (at least we finally got the overage from even escrow year since 2004 paid back).

Now, most of this wouldn't bother me if it was legitimate. But the extra I'm paying isn't going to schools or public services or any thing else. It's all going to "profit". The actual amount of my property taxes that goes to schools has gone down.

All because a bunch of greedy people played with the state finances like the world's biggest ponzi scheme. There are cities and towns that are literally broke now because they have no more money coming to them.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1138035.html

http://coconutgrovegrapevine.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-wonder-city-is-going-broke-part-2.html

This state went to shit when Jeb Bush was governor and hasn't managed to pull it's head out of it's ... yet.

[RoccoR5955]

5. Gee, and I thought that Florida was "Where Americans go to die." n/t

[morningglory]

6. Buh-by!! Only problem: Alabama is an attractive state to no-taxers.

I work for a health care clinic for indigents in N. Florida. Half our clientele are people who live in Alabama where there are no services for the poor.