What you pay vs. what you get

Higher taxes often mean more government services. But different people may evaluate quality of life differently.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 20, 2002

What value can be put on a local library? A cultural festival? A police department of your own?

How about an unobstructed view of the gulf? What's that worth?

When evaluating quality of life in their hometowns, south Pinellas residents say the analysis must balance the taxes they pay against the services they receive in return.

"Yes, we do get more bang for our buck," said Debbie Anspaugh, a Pinellas Park resident.

Residents in the Park, as natives call it, pay an average of $96 a year in property taxes to the city -- near the bottom of the scale for south Pinellas cities, roughly $180 less than the average for property owners in St. Petersburg.

Consider what the typical Pinellas Park resident gets for the money: parks; recreational opportunities such as horse trails, a swimming pool, soccer and Little League baseball complexes; police and fire departments; road and sewer maintenance; festivals and musical events; sidewalk construction; neighborhood revitalization; and a newly renovated library with a bank of computers.

Pinellas Park is a full-service city, with higher taxes and more things available.

"For the dollar that you spend in taxes in the city, you get more than the dollar you spend," Pinellas Park resident Bill DeLong said. "You get more back than the dollar you spend, provided you avail yourself of what's available.

"They make it available. If you don't utilize it, that's your problem."

Pinellas Park sells quality of life as an encouragement to annex into the city.

When people figure the total cost vs. the services the city offers, they find that Pinellas Park provides more at a lower cost than almost anywhere else, said Bud Wortendyke, the city's annexation guru.

"This is a plus. For a community of under 50,000 population, we're providing as much as humanly possible," Wortendyke said.

Kenneth City has a stripped-down version of municipal government, often called "city light."

Homeowners there pay an average of $34 a year in town property taxes -- the lowest amount in south Pinellas.

For services, the town's 4,400 residents have a newly renovated tot park; a baseball field and a basketball court; a small, town-sponsored library stocked with mostly used and donated books; and a police department.

Most other services are contracted out.

If a Kenneth City resident calls for emergency medical service or has a fire, the Lealman Fire/Rescue Department answers the call.

Go to Town Hall and ask for a building official. He's there but a few hours a day. And he wears a Pinellas Park polo shirt.

Storm drainage was handled through a "piggyback" arrangement on a Gulfport contract.

And because the town does not subscribe to the library consortium, Kenneth City residents must pay a fee to use the county library system. The town partially reimburses the fee.

Given the stark contrast between Pinellas Park and Kenneth City, it would be easy to conclude that the more you pay in taxes, the more you get. That's true up to a point.

St. Petersburg residents, whose average city property tax bill is $274 a year, get pretty much what Pinellas Park residents get -- minus the horse trails and plus the waterfront.

South Pasadena residents on average pay $81 a year in property taxes. For that low amount, the community predominated by retirees also receives less in return. They have their own fire department. Their policing services are handled by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Then there is Belleair Shore, where the 52 property owners pay an average of $1,863 annually in real estate taxes.

Belleair Shore has no town hall, no community buildings to maintain, no public works machinery to buy. Police service is provided by next-door neighbor Belleair Beach. Residents pay separately for a fire district to protect them from fire.

But each home backs up to the Gulf of Mexico and has what is essentially a private beach. Belleair Shore residents also have no sewage or garbage bill -- the town pays both for them.

And Mayor John Robertson points out that if Belleair Shore were to join either of the neighboring towns -- Belleair Beach or Indian Rocks Beach -- its residents would pay even more in taxes. Both towns charge a higher tax rate.

Elin Fontana measures the quality of her hometown by its people.

Over the years, she has lived all over south Pinellas. St. Petersburg. Kenneth City. Pinellas Park. Seminole. And recently, she moved back to Pinellas Park.

She said the city has a convenient location. The library is superb. The city government is responsive.

But mostly, it's the people, she said.

"Kenneth City is too old. Everything is run by the old people, gauged to the old people," Fontana said. Elected officials resisted her participation in the government.

"I hated Seminole," Fontana said of her three years there. It was "very unfriendly. I couldn't wait to get out of there. . . Everybody is isolated. It was just not a friendly town."

But Pinellas Park, she said, is like Baby Bear's porridge -- just right.

"There's a good mixture of everything," Fontana said. "There's all races. All colors. All incomes. . . . I like a little bit of everything. I like variety."

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