Installment 5
I have been reading and writing about the fictional “information” provided by the “Protect your right to vote” PAC. Their attempts at scare tactics using false statements about our upcoming election are clumsy and amateurish at best. I have found that most people understand the inaccuracies instantly and the few that didn’t at first do see and understand the truth when they are shown the Comprehensive Plan language. Perhaps something “Protect your right to vote” PAC should actually read.
This fifth installment I am going to look a few of the problems with the other PAC that is providing falsehoods and fabrication in an attempt to mislead our voters. The” St. Pete Beach Chronicle”.
1) They say that our Comp Plan “permits doubling the existing population and congestion on SPB”.
I say Bull Hockey.
The plan YOU approved in 2008 does NOT increase density and, by State Law, it CANNOT allow our infrastructure, including transportation, to be loaded beyond its capacity. This is called concurrency. Florida Statutes 163.3180, look it up for yourself.
2) They say our Comp Plan “will result in huge tax increases because it all but exempts developers from having to pay the enormous costs required to upgrade roads, sewer, water, police services and other infrastructure……”
I say Hogwash.
State Law REQUIRES concurrency to exist with our infrastructure BEFORE any redevelopment can be realized. They also show their ignorance of the situation by lumping Police into infrastructure in the Comprehensive Planning sense. Again, refer to 163.3180. Police are NOT part of infrastructure. In my judgment, the encouragement of redevelopment will clean up our city and increase our property tax based on those commercial properties that do redevelop, increasing tax revenues which we may, if necessary, focus on additional police protection. An equally important concept, however, is that redeveloped properties, areas and districts result in environments that are cleaner, newer, brighter, and much less prone to undesirable activities.
It is painful to know that the lawsuits may be preventing the West Corey Area from cleaning up and becoming safe once again.
3) They say “85.5% of the taxes are paid by the residents and only 6.7% are paid by the large hotels.” Then they jump to “the SOLV plan makes the Beach Front Hotels the major beneficiaries of this plan at the expense of the rest of the city”.
I say there is so much wrong with these statements that only Bulls**t will suffice to describe them. I won’t argue with their numbers but the way to change this is either reduce the value of the residents property (which is being done via the years of lawsuits fighting YOUR VOTE, inhibiting any development that might have occurred) OR increase the relative value of the commercial properties; i.e. Thoughtful Redevelopment (which they have been stopping).
If the “large hotels” trebled their property values they would treble their taxes. If they treble their taxes the resident’s percentage of the necessary taxes could, with responsible government, go down.
“SOLV” Plan? There is NO SUCH THING. Our Comp Plan is our Comp Plan. You voted it into place. Pyle and Kadura say you didn’t know what you were doing. The judge agreed with them.
I think they are all wrong. I think our voters knew what they were voting on, what our City needs to survive and that now we have a couple of people who have hijacked our future.
I’m not going to go into the truth about their statement “at the expense of the rest of the city”. Redevelopment pays its way and it pays off in the future.
I think it is a pity to be held hostage by people who don’t understand how taxes and infrastructure concurrency work or the details of OUR Comp Plan. Illogical People. An example? The large resort district, roughly 5% of our city area is still, after years of being prevented redevelopment which would increase the taxes they pay, is still paying, according to this PAC, 6.7% of our taxes. 5% pays 6.7% that is about 34% MORE that simple area ratio would suggest. This same 5% could be paying 10%, 15%, 20% or more. EXCEPT, perhaps for the lawsuits by a couple of people.
Please vote to restore our system to the way it was, to restore our system to the way every other city in Florida works, to restore our representative system of government, and to restore our residents’ best interests.
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