On The Mark: Time for government to do the right thing

As expected, the value of property in Collier County took a huge leap in 2005, which now translates into a whopping potential increase in tax revenue available for our local government and taxing districts to spend.

Funny how government works, if the money becomes available, there always seems to be a sudden emergency that needs fixing and the excess revenues are demanded by bureaucrats for pet projects while the taxpayers just keep on paying.

Government does not need to take this windfall of money. Instead they could decide to do the honorable thing and stick to their previously allocated budget which would allow a reduction in the taxes that have pushed higher and higher each year due to inflated assessed values.

Commissioner Tom Henning, a staunch advocate of tax reduction, has already suggested a reduction in the tax rate to off-set the higher assessments, but in order for that to become a reality he will need the cooperation of some of his elected peers.

Normally in an election year, politicians would jump at the chance to look good to their constituents by providing a well-deserved tax cut, but then you can never count on anything being really normal in Collier County.

Already some elected officials have been salivating over the potential uses of this phenomenal windfall. Claiming that we need more of this and more of that is nothing more than an excuse to simply not do the right thing. This money is coming from ad valorem taxes, which are our property taxes. While we must be taxed to keep government growing with the needs of the time, we certainly do not need to be heaping our property tax dollars on growth related problems caused by developers and landowners who refuse to carry their fair share of costs.

As an example, adding more property tax dollars to our road building black hole will only become a norm for continuation of this silly practice on and on into the future. If we allow a percentage increase in the amount of property taxes used for roads this year, you can bet it will never be reduced in the future and will guarantee that developers will not be paying their fair share.

That might work if we can rely on 25 percent increases in tax revenues year after year after year, but the bubble in Southwest Florida will surely burst one of these days, if it hasn't already, and when it does, to keep forking over more and more property taxes for things like roads is ludicrous.

Growth needs to pay for growth, not be paid for by taxpayers who have already endured high prices just to get into this market place and now must cope with overly inflated tax increases that coincide with overly inflated assessment increases. You can forget living here on anything even close to a typical fixed income.

There has also been noise from other agencies, like fire departments, which have been looking to increase their rate of taxation. Give me a break, all of these types of departments are now going to see their revenues substantially increase from this assessment windfall and they still want more? Imagine if this was the mindset prevalent in private business, they would not last a day, let alone year after year of taking more and more.

Not only should county government reduce it's rate of taxation as a result of this windfall in assessment increases, but we should demand that every local agency that relies on ad valorem tax revenues do the same thing.

This might be a good way to gauge candidates in any upcoming elections. We should take a poll for comparison — how many citizens have seen their income increase 25 percent this past year? Nuff said.