September 2008
Community Paper
copyright ©2008 by Community Paper College Park, Inc. All rights reserved.

WHO WANTS TO DISCUSS PROPERTY TAXES?
by Mike Derenthal, Derenthal Realty Group and College Park resident

After discussing the topic with my clients just about every day of the week over the past few years, I figured I knew a thing or two about property taxes.
But oh how little we appreciate how much we don’t know.

It seems to me most property tax discussions start out something like this…Less taxes are good. Government services should be made more efficient. If I’m forced to tighten my belt during a slowing economy, certainly the government can too.

I’ll be the first to admit that all of that italicized stuff sounds pretty good. Similar to when you attend a political rally and a candidate claims he’s for better schools, less traffic, lower crime, and more wins for the local team. These quick little sound bites make for great speeches, but the details often prove elusive.

I almost always vote, and proudly walk around with my “I voted” decal on my chest. I attend a few city council meetings from time to time. I pay my taxes, keep my lawn cut (most weeks), and try to participate in the decisions of this community. But it wasn’t until I started to write on the property tax issue that I realized just how little I understood and participated in the spending decisions of my local government.

So I thought I’d dig into it a bit more for this piece.

First, I researched the Sentinel. No, seriously. Not only was I curious to understand the nuances of how the local news was covering and explaining the story, I was also interested in the reader comments that were posted online. Most of them talked about “less government”, “belt tightening”, “reducing non-core services”, and “cutting back on the pork”. It all sounds nice, but again, few details on how to achieve any real cost savings.
Then I called our City Commissioner, Robert Stuart. I’ve never truly understood where all the money is coming from for the big venues project that got pushed through by the City and County awhile back. Can’t we put that project on hold and not have to raise property taxes? It turns out that Commissioner Stuart gets that question a lot, so much so that he’s addressed it in more detail under his commissioner section at www.CityofOrlando.net. (The short answer is “no”, the venues are not tied to the property tax increase, but I’m still trying to get my hands around the details.)

Once on the www.CityofOrlando.net site I opened up the link to review the City’s Budget in Brief document that goes into some fairly interesting details on the City’s expenditures, revenue sources, and proposed budget. I’ve lived in this city for over eight years, and not once have I reviewed the budget. I have since spent the better part of three days going through the numbers and graphs and financials in this document.

I’d love to tell you I now understand it completely – but not yet. I know a heck of a lot more about my tax dollars than I did before this exercise, but I still have a lot to learn.
Finally, I spent some time googling other articles and commentary on municipal budget shortfalls and taxation from other areas around the country. It turns out that people in large metropolitan areas of Georgia, Colorado, New York, California, and Pennsylvania are also dealing with difficult budget situations in their city governments. We are not alone. So are we all dealing with inept leaders who refuse to take clearly obvious steps towards fiscal correction? I don’t think so.

Where am I going with all this?

First, this stuff is important, and it’s complicated. If you’re talking to someone, or reading an article that throws around a lot of generic sound bites without well thought-out and specific plans of action, there’s not much value in it. Ask that person to identify some specific dollars and program areas that can be trimmed from the budget so we can all avoid an increase in our millage rate. Chances are they won’t be able to do that. That brings me to my second point.

To truly make any credible arguments in favor of or against a property tax increase, you should really try to understand what you’re talking about, in detail. Not enough time for that? Me either. So the next option is to support candidates and elected officials who do understand it, and who will hopefully represent your interests.

I get very discouraged with the political process at the federal level. We have a federal tax code that is unbelievably bloated, complicated, and full of special interest protections. Chances are I will never be able to affect any sort of change on this massive body of law.
But here in Orlando, my opportunity for change and input is relatively easy. I can pick up the phone and call the Mayor and my Commissioner. I can attend workshops and meetings to voice my opinion directly to those who are making the decisions on how these dollars are being spent. I can send an email that will actually be read by the people that matter. It is relatively easy to have my voice heard.

But I have to do it.

We can gripe and complain all we want, but ultimately the responsibility is ours. We can either participate fully in the process (something most of us don’t have the time to do) or we can work to support, elect, and actively communicate with the people we put into office to represent us. But we have to do it.

So if you really want to discuss property taxes where it matters, brush up on the details at www.CityofOrlando.net, contact our elected officials with your input, and attend one of two public hearings on September 8 and 15.

Feel free to drop me an email at mike@derenthalrealty.com.

by: Mike Derenthal, Derenthal Realty, www.DerenthalRealty.com
1520 Edgewater Drive, Suite E, Orlando, FL 32804
407-965-1919

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