I wrote here about Monroe County’s lack of back-up for their budget meetings.  It turns out you can find some of it over here.  I found it because of this news story on KeysNews.com.

As usual, the county is making some technically accurate but misleading statements.

The rate is the the lowest proposed rate in the state, according to County Administrator Roman Gastesi. Okaloosa County regularly has the lowest rate in the state, but this year that county’s rate is higher than Monroe, Gastesi said. Okaloosa County plans to levy a tax rate that would cost taxpayers $550 per $100,000 of assessed value, Gastesi said.

Astonishingly, KeysNews.com caught on.

However, the rate does not mean Monroe County citizens pay the lowest taxes in the state, just the lowest rate.

Correct.

According to Sperlings, the median home price in Monroe County is $402,700.  The median home price in Okaloosa County is $166,200.  So yeah, the low millage rate really isn’t all that meaningful.

Besides, Okaloosa County does not levy local sales taxes.  Monroe County levies the highest allowed by law, and recently tried to push it even higher.

So not an apt comparison.  I guess they’ll grab on to whatever they can to make themselves look good.

I would love to see Monroe County get spending under control, especially capital spending.  I would love to see accurate analysis and reality-based decision making.  I would love to see basic fairness.

But that won’t happen anytime soon.