BRIEFS

County proposal to increase taxes contradicts its own goals

Christine Robinson
Robinson

The Sarasota County Commission has adopted 10 board priorities for fiscal year 2018. All are important and we commend the board for understanding how critical and crucial these issues are to our county.

Among the top five bullet points are housing affordability, small-business retention and adult homelessness.

These issues affect our quality of life, our economy and our future.

While recognizing the problem is a good first step, we have yet to see commission-approved plans for housing affordability and small business retention and expansion. We may have a glimmer of hope for a homelessness plan, but we are all holding our breaths as we had an earlier plan that failed. While we have a long road to go to solve these issues, what is clear is that we must not enact any policy to exacerbate these problems while we figure out what to do.

Now we hear that the Sarasota County Commission is contemplating a staff-proposed tax increase. County staff has them looking at a millage increase, a public service tax increase and any tax increase they can find. It sounds really good in the moment, what is $70 per $250,000 home? That’s nothing and will solve demands for more and better services and capital projects. It’s an easy fix that does not require a lot of effort and work. That is unless you keep in mind the board’s own stated priorities.

It seems like a good idea until you begin to think about the 58,786 households that are classified as ALICE households, or “Asset Limited, Income Constrained Employed.” The ALICE report is generated each year by the United Way and “…represents those who work hard and are above the poverty line, but due to high costs and factors often beyond their control, must live paycheck to paycheck.” Thirty-three percent of Sarasota County households are living at ALICE levels or below.

I went to this year’s report unveiling and it struck me how United Way was celebrating how much the private sector is doing to help these families. Companies like Argus member PGT Innovations are providing innovative benefits like building their own on-site child care facility, a company-sponsored health clinic and working privately on affordable housing. They are careful to contemplate the best way to help their employees.

Meanwhile, county government is contemplating raising taxes on these same folks, eating up any benefit that the private sector provides.

Let’s not forget that property values are increasing and that the county will enjoy a 3 percent increase in residential values and even more on commercial values even if the millage rate remains the same. This translates into an automatic increase on taxes collected on most homeowners and businesses. This staff-proposed increase I am writing about is in addition to that 3 percent increase. So, in reality we are talking about more than a $70 increase per $250,000 home.

Keep in mind, also, that homeownership in Sarasota County is decreasing because of affordability. The increasing numbers of people who rent do not live in a homestead-capped residence. They will experience a higher than 3 percent increase as their landlords pass on the tax increases to them.

But let’s use county staff’s numbers to be generous. Let’s stick with the artificially low number of a $70 increase.

What does $70 mean to 33 percent of all of Sarasota County households according to the United Way’s findings?

• $70 is 42 percent of the bare minimum for a single person to spend on food per month.

• $70 is 7 percent of the bare minimum necessary for a family of four to spend per month on housing.

• $70 is 22 percent of the bare minimum for a single person to spend on transportation per month.

• $70 is 11 percent of the bare minimum for a family of four to spend on health care per month.

The County Commission needs to think about the implications of any tax increases to that 33 percent of our households and their own stated priorities of affordable housing, supporting small businesses and combatting homelessness.

Increasing taxes on these folks directly contradicts these priorities. Furthermore, the increased tax money will not go directly toward these three priorities. It can’t: there are no commission-approved plans for these priorities. County staff needs to go back to the drawing board and take a page from our ALICE families, work hard to stretch a dollar and make tough choices.

Don’t take more from these struggling households and exacerbate the problems — which the commission has agreed to address — while lacking a plan to help these residents.

Christine Robinson is executive director of the Argus Foundation.