charli's Blog

Charli, have you peeked at the Hills.Co. Salary Data Base on TBO.Com? It has EVERY single county worker from the top to bottom and their salaries. I was in shock at the salaries of the powers that be in our Clerks office. In my area alone $45 hr, $35hr, another 2 or 3 at $30 hr...these are bosses that barely have a high school education, they produce nothing and are out of the office 70% of the time. Other birdbrains making $50, $60 same thing. There are 3 in our office that got big increases because they re-classfied their positions after the wage freeze. One of our higher ups who makes $60 an hour and no education, hired her daughter 3 years ago that flunked out of college and stuck her somewhere and now she is a director of one of our areas making big bucks. It is insane! Unfair! They put on this pitiful display about how the poor citizens are going to suffer and they could care less. TBO.COM -tools-data bay-all databases drop down and choose hills co salaries.

Randy... awesome info. One coworker is definately way over paid in my department.
And, talking about wasted money...have you seen the lousy job being done on the entrances at the County Center? Why not just plain concrete?

Surprisingly, the amendment is going to help my parents. They are selling their home and moving to a smaller one thanks to the amendment.

The taxes were the one issue that kept them from moving previously. Their house was just too big, but to move and incur the new tax rate would be detrimental to their income.

Concerning "Revoke the Property Tax Amendment"

Hi Charli

I love political blogs! I enjoyed your post. First Nobody should ever vote for a proposal they dony understand because nasty things happen when we do that. The constitution is fairly hard to ammend anyway and dog gone near impossible to undo something once done.

That said. The tax amendment, although not perfect was our best hope at the moment to preserve life long and long term residents homestead cap and get portability. This amendment did not benefit everyone in the same way. Fortunately for you, a very long time resident, your taxes are capped at 3% per year and now you have portability to buy another home or down size. and retain you cap. Those who are the most dissatisfied are those that have been in Florida a relatively short period and want you to have to pay the same tax rates as they do. Now, where is the fair in that seeing we have been pouring our lives out in Florida for the last 30+ years. My tax dollar is here. As I said in the beginning, the bill wasnt perfect but it was the best bet at the time. The upcoming vote on the sales tax amendment, please be familiar with that. Dont let anyone go tinkering with sales taxes. Its already 7% in Hillsborough Co and if you let the powers that be tinker with that lookout. Next thing you know you will be paying out 10% on every dollar you spend on most EVERYTHING! Again, thanks for the post. I enjoyed it.

elkahna <

Hi Charli

elkahna here

Sorry you didnt benefit from the amendment. I "assumed" that you were a long time homeowner and didn't think about someone just purchasing a new home. That is the reason we are still in the home we have owned for the last almost 30 years. Since the amendment passed now it is possible though not likely that that we might look for a new one.

I do agree with you on the sales tax issue except for the possibility of opening "Pandora's Box". The sales tax issue as I understand it is solely to eliminate the schools portion and that is the "Pandora's Box" effect as there is no cap at this point to the tax effect. It is possible although not likely for the sales tax to rise every couple of years to make up for budget shortfalls. Once that box is opened it would be almost impossible to stuff those evils back into the box. The other side of sales tax issues is that those that can least afford it are the ones most affected by sales taxes. Those on limited, minimum wage, fixed or subsistance wages would be negatively impacted the most. Anyway keep up the great posts. I love good, clean, spirited debate and opinion. I tend to learn something every now and again! :-)

elkahna <

Charli how did it go on your Condo problem? My daughter almost purchased her apartment about 2 years ago when they were converting over. After I looked over everything I told her not to do it and she is so glad she didn't. They did the same thing. Some were bought and when they couldn't sell the rest they went back to leasing them.