The Real Poop

Tavernier, like Stock Island, is one of those sub-areas that has special issues when it comes to Comm. Heather Carruthers’s Emergency Services Surtax (ESS) proposal.  Local residents in Stock Island will be especially hard hit by the ESS because of its high proportion of renters and comparatively low median household income.

Local residents of unincorporated Tavernier won’t be impacted in the same way.  But Tavernier citizens have a decision to make, and the ESS proposal complicates that decision.  In fact, I suspect this is a major factor in bringing the ESS proposal about. Continue reading →

Beware, Stock Island.

The Emergency Services Surtax (ESS) proposal is supposedly “in the freezer“.  But I don’t expect it to stay there for long.  County staff’s misleading analysis claims that this new tax will shift the cost of emergency services from locals to tourists.  Those claims immediately fall apart under scrutiny.  To make matters worse, the county commissioner who proposed the “tax shift” stands to benefit from it and so do her campaign donors.

As it stands now, locals pay less than half of property taxes.  The county’s “white paper” claims they pay 100%.  Obviously, hotels and tourist attractions derive most of their income from tourists.  The county’s “white paper” claims that tourists pay about 60% of sales taxes.  To my amazement, county staff was actually able to produce documentation that substantiates this claim.  For that reason, I assumed that businesses other than those that cater almost exclusively to tourists, derive 60% of their income from tourists and the rest from locals.   Continue reading →

I saw this headline on KeysNet.com:  Dedicated property tax for emergency services is dead for now.

Hmmm…dead for now?  As in, it’s going to come back to life at some later point in time?  Like a zombie?  Well, somebody please put it out of its misery because it needs to be dead forever.  When Comm. Carruthers proposed the Emergency Services Surtax (ESS), she tried to pass it off as something that benefits locals.  It might benefit a few, but in most cases locals actually pay more.  Especially locals with low-moderate incomes.  And especially locals who are renters (ie. the majority of locals in Key West).  Carruthers herself would benefit and so would her campaign donors.  Your typical Keys working family?  Nope.  Quite the opposite. Continue reading →

It doesn’t look like the Emergency Services Surtax (ESS) is going away any time soon.  It popped up again in the state of the county presentation.  County staff has supported the proposal with some questionable assertions.

The ESS is being sold to the public as a tax “shift” that will benefit locals.  It is certainly a “shift” but it definitely will not benefit most locals.  In reality, it benefits the owners of properties with high taxable values.  How high depends on how much they currently pay for fire service.  There’s an overview of the ESS here.  It also includes a discussion of “break-even” values. Continue reading →