Dade City leaders drop proposals for assessments when citizens complain they are just another form of taxation.
By CHASE SQUIRES
Published May 28, 2003
DADE CITY - A stream of residents blasted controversial new tax proposals Tuesday night, pushing city commissioners to dump the fees but warn that lean times are ahead.
"We have tested the waters, and you have spoken," Commissioner Lowell Harris told about 70 property and business owners gathered at the American Legion Hall/Charles McIntosh Center for the public hearing.
Commissioners heard from 21 speakers. None was for the assessments, which would have charged all property owners new fees to help pay for fire protection and streetlights.
"Every year you're going to come back to us taxpayers and say, "Oh, we need more money," resident George Barthle predicted.
"What you're doing with fees is a tax," businessman Otto Weitzenkorn said. "The public isn't fooled."
Under proposals developed by consultants Government Services Group, fees would have been charged to all property owners - including traditionally tax-exempt groups such as churches, schools, governments, charities and those who live in homes valued less than the $25,000 homestead exemption.
Fees were suggested for fire protection, streetlights and stormwater runoff.
The stormwater proposal never made it to a public hearing. The streetlight proposal died Tuesday when no one seconded Commissioner Eunice Penix's motion to open it for discussion. And the fire protection plan was beaten into the ground by public outcry.
What's left is a bill from the consultants and other costs Commissioner Hutch Brock estimated at about $60,000. City officials didn't have the exact amount paid to GSG at the meeting Tuesday, and GSG consultant Camille Tharpe said she didn't have those figures with her, either.
When the fees were introduced, commissioners said they were supposed to spread the cost of providing expensive city services to those who had a free ride in the past.
But the Pasco County School Board threatened to sue if the fees passed. Pasco County government officials pondered just not paying, leaving the city to figure out how it would collect from another government.
School Board attorney Dennis Alfonso said Tuesday that the city would be left piling the fees solely on the same people already paying property tax.
"We paid $60,000 for this?" downtown businessman Bob Case asked.
One theme that emerged from Tuesday's discussion is that residents recognize the city is going through hard financial times. Some suggested raising property taxes, others talked of eliminating the city's police and fire departments in favor of contracting the services from Pasco County.
Dade City is expecting to spend $1.7-million this year for its fire department and $1.3-million for police in its $9.8-million budget.
And the city tax rate of $7.40 per $1,000 of assessed value is the highest of the county's six municipalities. Mayor Scott Black pointed out the city hasn't raised the tax rate in 13 years.
Closing the books on the assessment plan, commissioners warned there still is no solution to the funding woes.
As they develop the budget this summer for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, commissioners agreed they would have to look at everything, including the fire and police departments and the tax rate.
"The fact is, we have a funding problem," Brock said.
