JustPaste.it

Liberal Gainesville Commission Votes Higher Taxes

by Gary Gordon

What we're dealing with in Gainesville: a supposedly liberal, progressive City Commission, after hearing numerous citizens speak out against the proposed utility rate, fire assessment fee and property tax increases, voted 4-2 to raise those rates, roughly 10%, 35% and 15% respectively. Citizens speaking against the increases underlined the harm it would do to low income people, the working poor, the non-working poor, and fixed income people, all of whom this liberal, progressive Commission supposedly care about. Deaf ears was the result. One woman even got on her knees and begged the Commission not to raise these rates, fees and taxes, to no avail. (She spoke just before I did, and had gotten all dressed up to come speak; she was in tears-- and I bet you're picturing a Black woman: wrong.) One self-aggrandizing, petulant Commissioner continued her now historic attacks on people attending, scolding them for saying what they said and scolding some for leaving as she spoke, as if her words meant any more than crap. Meanwhile, the 4-2 vote wasn't really 4-2 as one Commissioner who voted against it is running for re-election and acknowledged (see below) he didn't really have a problem with it. Absent from the evening was any intellectual or visceral feeling that Commissioners had actually worked hard to cut the budgets in order not to raise rates, fees, and taxes, despite protestations that they had done so. This may be because there's no evidence they worked to cut anything because they didn't cut anything. And while one Commissioner (see below) insists this is what Gainesville wants, when he recently ran for re-election he did not run on a platform of raising taxes, rates or fees. (He ran against styrophoam.) There was also no evidence, except for Commissioner Simmons, of empathy among the other Commissioners, that their action will do damage to people's lives. People like to, with reason, castigate President Trump for his lack of empathy, but the lack of empathy displayed by the majority of the Commission, coupled with their imperial attitude (they condescend, they scold), is within the Trumpian zeitgeist. There is a second reading of this on Sept. 26: as of now there's no evidence the Commission will roll up their sleeves, dig into the budgets and do what they can do: not raise these rates, fees and taxes. (Part of this problem, and the difference from when I served '83-'86 is these Commissioners did not go into this from day one with a philosophy or mantra or goal or mindset: We're not going to raise these rates, fees and taxes. I was fortunately surrounded by a majority of Commissioners [Goldstein, Collier, Mac McEachern] who had that mindset, and I had run on keeping utility rates down, so our response, when the City Manager proposed a budget with a substantial tax increase was to say a resounding NO and to back up that No with our votes; after finding items to cut I actually found money to add four police positions and some other items on my list, This Commission has yet to replace the last city manager who never should've been hired in the first place-- nor do they have a city auditor because they fired the one who told them truths they didn't want to hear--but that's another story.) Here's the WCJB story below, quite revealing in my opinion:

Gainesville commissioners take on proposed budget meeting
By Landon Harrar |
Posted: Fri 5:35 PM, Sep 13, 2019 |
Updated: Fri 6:46 PM, Sep 13, 2019
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB)- City of Gainesville tax rates are going up in the next fiscal year, at least they will if city commissioners again pass the proposed budget at its second reading later this month.

We met with two commissioners, one who voted yes and one who voted no to the budget to get their take on why they voted how they did.

The budget passed its first reading on a 4-2 vote with city commissioner David Arreola not being in attendance. This means if it passes again, Gainesville residents will pay more for utilities, fire protection, and property taxes.

Commissioners who voted yes to the budget say it's to cover the large list of achievements residents have told them they want to tackle this coming year.

City Commissioner for District 4 Adrian Hayes-Santos explained, "our residents have been asking us to do more not less. They want us to deal with equity issues in our community, the transportation issues in our community, housing issues make sure we're protecting our environment. That's not free it does have a cost."

Commissioner for District 2 Harvey Ward says he voted against the budget as it sits now because he believes there were important conversations which were never had. "I thought that we should have approached it differently, more closely considered the general fund transfer and had more conversations about lowering that perhaps, this year."

Many residents asked commissioners to not raise taxes at Thursday's meeting, and although he understands raising taxes doesn't make people happy, Commissioner Hayes-Santos says it was necessary. "Like anyone, I don't like paying more taxes, I don't think anyone likes paying more taxes,.wW're trying to look at all the different levers what can we make more efficient and do here and there and trying to make our community a better place does cost money."

As for Commissioner Ward, even though he voted no to the rate increases he thinks the budget as it sits right now isn't unreasonable enough to cause him to worry. "I'm bullish on Gainesville I like it here and yeah I think it's going to be a good year whether we pass this budget or whether we have to make some changes to it. Yeah, it's going to be fine we're going to be okay."

The final reading of the budget will be September 26th.