Property Assessments Should Continuing Falling

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Assessed property values should continue to fall in Coral Gables, but not as fast as recently.  Property tax revenues should continue to be a challenge for the newly elected mayor and commissioners.

The outliers are Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties in Florida, where appeals are declining. They have lowered assessments by about 22 percent from 2008 to 2010 after years of steep drops in home prices.

As the appeals wind through the legal process, assessors will have to adjust taxes to reflect market values, and property tax receipts will have to come down

via Property Tax Appeals Flood Cities and States – BusinessWeek.

Filed under Coral Gables

Public Employee Unions in Coral Gables: Not Indispensable

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Our Coral Gables leaders–city manager and commissioners–followed a single track during a decade:  they raised taxes and they increased spending over many years without regard for the eventual financial consequences.

Now they want to keep spending up on salaries and benefits and they want to keep up the taxes. It is time to make real spending and benefit cuts, and our city unions may face the same reaction that is taking place across the country against public unions, including police and firefighters who pretend to be indispensable (some are and some aren’t).

Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy.

…

Too many political leaders, they argue, acted too irresponsibly, failing to either raise taxes or cut spending.

via Public Employee Unions Face Rising Public Anger – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Finance, Taxes and Fees

A Touch of Economic Realism for Coral Gables Candidates

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

The economy of  South Florida, Miami-Dade County and including Coral Gables are not doing well.  Our city may do a little better because of its perverse income distribution (more wealthy who are doing better than others because of a rising stock market), but construction, construction employments, retirement incomes, family consumption should remain daunting for years to come.

It would appear that the city commission and city manager are living in a different world, raising taxes year after year, favoring intransigent labor unions and continuing to spend on superfluous activities.

…what we’re looking at over the next few years, even with pretty good growth, are unemployment rates that not long ago would have been considered catastrophic — because they are. Behind those dry statistics lies a vast landscape of suffering and broken dreams. And the arithmetic says that the suffering will continue as far as the eye can see.

via Deep Hole Economics – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Coral Gables, Economy, National

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Filed under Coral Gables, Economy, National

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