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I own a common-looking, two-bedroom bungalow on Clearwater Beach. Since 2000, my Pinellas County property taxes have gone up from $1,700 to $9,500. I don't know how the money has been used, but I can tell you that I have not seen any increase in municipal services.
My grandfather purchased the house in 1943. Like both our neighbors, we are now third-generation owners. We have a great and close relationship with our neighbors, looking after each others' houses and land. They are all retirees like me, looking to enjoy the warmer climate here and maybe slow down our aging process.
Instead, the rate at which the taxes are raised is giving me ulcers. And now my neighbors have shown me that their nicer, closer to the beach, renovated homes have property taxes that are less than a third of mine.
Property taxes are a way for the community to pay for basic municipal services and infrastructure. The amount each pays has always been based on the value of the property. But not anymore.
Now, and for the last few years, you pay more if you are not a permanent resident. Since I live up north during the summers, I am a second-class owner now. After 60-plus years living here! And if anything, I use fewer municipal services than someone who lives here all the time. What's going on?
We have always been honest, law-abiding and charitable seasonal neighbors. We believe in America as a land of equal opportunity, diversity, freedom and special international responsibility. My home in Clearwater has been our family's dream for a long time, but now, year after tax-hiking year, it has become a nightmare.
This situation is deeply unfair. It goes against all principles of sharing an equal relative burden of municipal expenses between private owners. It is completely unAmerican. This is, basically, a holdup. It is no way to treat a friend. If this is the kind of justice you are comfortable with managing, I am sorry for all of us.
I am calling for the Pinellas taxing authorities to eliminate the discriminating, unfair and cynical practice of charging higher taxes to non-voting owners. I want to build a future for my family among you in Clearwater Beach, in a community whose taxes are administered by people who are as fair, helpful, responsible and classy as my dear neighbors. Only by your and your readers' pressure and influence will our present administrators choose to level the playing field.
I cannot believe that Ken Burke beat our esteemed Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst so soundly (in the primary election for clerk of circuit court). The city of Clearwater should conduct a survey to see why 58 percent of the voters are mistaken.
I would like to thank Tom Walden for his kindness and patriotism.
I am a senior citizen living across from the Clearwater Airpark. I have a large flag pole in my front yard. My husband was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 in World War II. I was a Navy WAVE in radio operation, stationed outside of Washington, D.C.
Tom knocked on my door the other day and asked if he could put up a new flag for me. Mine was all faded and beginning to tear. I had been trying to figure out how to buy a new one. Being a senior and on a fixed income has its disadvantages.
Tom changed all that. There is now a beautiful new American flag flying proudly on my pole. He walks his little black and white dog, named Winston, every morning and night across the street in the park. He told me he was an Air Force veteran.
I fly the flag every day from dawn to 5 p.m., weather permitting. Mr. Tom is my citizen of the year.