Think twice about special taxing districts

Create: Sun, 01/27/2013 - 23:02
Author: Ed Connor

I've condensed highlights of an article from the Wall Street Journal. These talking points apply directly to our County taxing authorities who have combined to give Volusia County near the highest property tax in the state.

This was originally written by the Texas Comptroller. (This is what Paul Poole was warning us about back in 2008. Apathy costs money and this is a startling reveal of the rise in both property tax and sales tax in Texas due to local government spending since the early 90's.) Property tax in low tax Texas has risen three times as fast as inflation while local government has more than doubled the debt load in the last decade to over $7500 per person. These issues are often voted on by less than 10% voter turnout since the information is opaque and hard to grasp for average voters.

We should first identify all the taxing authorities that have the power to tax us. You can't confront them if you don't know who they are. Second, we should agitate for common sense reforms which worked to a certain degree with our school tax and also with the Halifax millage rate which has been dropping for four years thanks , in part, to our pressure.

We should first identify all the taxing authorities that have the power to tax us. You can't confront them if you don't know who they are. Second, we should agitate for common sense reforms which worked to a certain degree with our school tax and also with the Halifax millage rate which has been dropping for four years thanks , in part, to our pressure.

Debt issues should be transparent and expressed in a way that the public can understand them. We should limit mechanisms that allow local government to get around requirement for disclosure of new debt. Every new proposed bond issue should disclose the current amount of outstanding debt and the annual debt service payments along with an estimate of how the new debt will affect the tally.

Public employee pension systems should be required to report net investment returns for the past ten years along with one, three-, five-, 10- and 30-year rolling rates of return.

Special districts like our Volusia Forever, Echo and Hospital Taxing Authorities along with Soil and Water and SJWMD should be required to perform a self evaluation every few years to ensure it continues to fulfill its mission and further the public interest. Unchecked and invisible debt are putting the country in real jeopardy and too many public officials seem content to keep us in the dark. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Special districts like our Volusia Forever, Echo and Hospital Taxing Authorities along with Soil and Water and SJWMD should be required to perform a self evaluation every few years to ensure it continues to fulfill its mission and further the public interest. Unchecked and invisible debt are putting the country in real jeopardy and too many public officials seem content to keep us in the dark. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.