Vote no for the Matlacha Pine Island Fire Department millage increase
To the editor:
Our millage rate is already too high. In 2005 it was 1.7 mills. The fire board said it was going to increase it to 2.3 mills for one year to pay for the building of the Bokeelia fire house. The board said it would revert back the millage rate to 1.7 after the building was built. As we all know, that did not happen. That cost was over $2.5 million not counting the cost for the land to build a large concrete block building. The building could have been built for a lot less than that.
Our fire board is not fiscally responsible with the taxpayers’ money. Now they want to increase it again by a whopping 25 percent. A mill rate equals $1 for every $1,000 in property value. If you take the new millage rate that they want of 3.75 and subtract that from the current millage rate of 3.00 that leaves an increase of .75 mills. That equates to 75 cents per every thousand dollars. A Pine Island home valued at $150,000 will get a tax increase of $112.50.
Phil Buchanan says, “An annual taxpayer cost increase of about $9.37 on an average Pine Island $150,000 home.” What kind of math does he use to come up with this number? He is wrong!
Jim O’Connell
St James City