Hey Mr. Mayor!    Renters pay and have a say!

Posted: March 23, 2008

Mayor John Bush’s letter in the Spring 2008 Insider delivered on March 21, 2008 contended that “Nowhere in their opposition did they reveal the truth of the subsidies their complexes have been receiving from City homeowners through property taxes.”   The “their” in this sentence are apartment owners, renters and property managers in the city who will bear the brunt of the city’s new fire tax.

Of course, Mayor Bush does not elucidate that three quarters of the property taxpayers in the city will be negatively affected by this new fire tax.  This means single family owners, condo and town home owners, apartment owners, commercial property owners will pay MORE tax per year for the same service.

Mayor Bush’s lies that renters have been subsidized by city homeowners is far from the truth and Seminole County public records prove it.

What the general public needs to understand, including the mayor and the commission, is that apartment owners pay hefty residential property taxes for their complexes because they do not have the Save our Home benefits or homestead exemptions.   The costs of these property taxes, as well as property liability insurances, tangible property taxes, etc. are all passed on to the renters of these apartment units in their monthly rental rates.   The fire service tax will be no different.

So the apartment owners and their property managers, whether they live in the city or not, have the right to speak on behalf of their renters regardless of Mayor Bush’s decree that they don’t live in the city or are not registered voters.  What does that have to do with the issue?   Apartment owners and property managers are business people.   Are business people not welcome in Winter Springs?   It seems that way from Mayor Bush’s derogatory and misleading comments.

What is most bothersome and important to note is apartment owners must pay the same tax whether or not their apartment buildings are fully occupied. It doesn’t matter if they are 50% occupied, they will always have to pay as if they are 100% occupied.  The same will hold true for these apartment owners if the City Commission passes this oppressive annual fire tax. And who will take the hit for the increase to apartment owners’ bottom lines, renters of those apartments.

But it is important to note this fire tax will be equally oppressive to every property taxpayer in the city, not just apartment owners.   Mayor Bush is trying to divert your attention by making renters the scapegoats in his quest to do City Manager Ron McLemore’s bidding.

As proof of PFGG’s claims, at the end of this article is a list of the five biggest apartment complexes in the City of Winter Springs and information obtained from public records.  For each apartment complex, it shows the total number of apartment units, the total taxable value of the property, the total tax paid to the Seminole County Tax Collector for 2007 (includes amount paid to Winter Springs), the actual annual amount of tax paid to the City of Winter Springs for 2007, and how much tax cost for each unit per year.

Clearly you will see that apartment owners are not subsidized, and neither are their renters. 

And please be aware when you are looking over these tax figures that some of these apartment complexes are geared to seniors, or lower income individuals and families.  So if the Mayor or the City Commission wants to stick it to those renters the hardest of all then that should tell us all loud and clear that the city’s affordable housing initiative was nothing but false rhetoric and political posturing by elected officials who can care less.

Legends (252 apartment units)

Total 2007 taxable property value: $21,077,879

Total 2007 tax paid to Seminole Tax Collector: $317,352 ($1,259 per apartment unit)

Total 2007 tax paid to Winter Springs: $70,649 ($280 per apartment unit)

Golfpointe Apartments (42 apartment units)

Total 2007 taxable property value: $3,176,093

Total 2007 tax paid to Seminole Tax Collector: $48,318 ($1,150 per apartment unit)

Total 2007 tax paid to Winter Springs: $10,646 ($253 per apartment unit)

Seville on the Green (170 apartment units)

Total 2007 taxable property value: $11,196,680

Total 2007 tax paid to Seminole Tax Collector: $168,579 ($992 per apartment unit)

Total 2007 tax paid to Winter Springs: $37,529 ($221 per apartment unit)

Park at Laurel Oaks (552 apartment units)

Total 2007 taxable property value: $33,083,069

Total 2007 tax paid to Seminole Tax Collector: $498,104 ($902 per apartment unit)

Total 2007 tax paid to Winter Springs: $110,888 ($201 per apartment unit)

Mosswood Apartments ( 147 apartment units)

Total 2007 taxable property value: $3,575,750

Total 2007 tax paid to Seminole Tax Collector: $53,837 ($366 per apartment unit)

Total 2007 tax paid to Winter Springs: $11,985 ($82 per apartment unit)

Of course Commissioner McGinnis doesn't want the true figures revealed.   She's for the "FIRE TAX" along with Commissioners Miller and Gilmore as well as her cronies on The Highlands Homeowners' Association board of directors.   HHOA President George Colombo has been mum in city hall on the issue, doesn't even speak up.    Of course he is not going to defend Highlands condo or apartment dwellers on this new tax because he receives taxpayers' money with NO BID CITY CONTRACTS for customer service training and state of the city videoing --- all granted by his buddies Mayor John Bush, Commissioners McGinnis and Miller, and City Manager McLemore!   Highlands owners and renters, you have been left high and dry on by your Board on this fire tax.

The email below was just received by PFGG, and we have left it in it's un-formatted original form.   It is very interesting to see that there IS concern about the functions of the city and their awarding of contracts at the stroke of a pen!    Makes for powerful monetary friends during election time -- plus one's job security.    The email activity as describe below is NOT uncommon to the inner workings of the city.

IP address omitted per request.

You missed something in your post about the fire tax.   George Colombo has
another tie to Winter Springs city hall.   His company is a member of that UCF
Technology Incubator.   Isn't that the same incubator the City of Winter
Springs just gave $200,000 to?   If that is correct, then you are probably
correct about Colombo not speaking up on behalf of his homeowner's
association as the president.   It seems his monetary connection to the city
and the incubator is more important than the interests of all his Highlands
neighbors.   And there are lots of neighbors over in the Highlands.

A friend of mine lives in the Highlands.   While playing golf at Casselberry
the other day I explained to him and my other golf buddies about this new
fire assessment.   My Highlands friend was pretty upset.   He says he has not
read anything about this fire fee from the association.   He lives in an older
condo where his city taxes are less than this fee will be.   He bought his
condo in 1984.   It is homesteaded and now has a widower exemption on it.   That
means his taxes will more than double if the city starts charging separate
for fire service.   That pretty much wipes out having any widower exemption.
Another golf buddy, who used to work at UCF, said Mayor Bush used to work
out there too.   Perhaps George Colombo's company had an inside track as far
as getting accepted into that Winter Springs/UCF incubator.   Oh, I also told
my Casselberry buddies not to get to comfortable because other cities were
looking at what Winter Springs is doing.   It just doesn't seem right does it?

Bunk Baker
Winter Springs, Unincorporated Seminole County

(The emailer is correct !   McLemore is using the City of Winter Springs as a guinea pig in HOPES that other cities will follow.    Maybe that means more money for his consultant firm -- obtained on a NO-BID contract!   That's been his pattern since 1996!    Time to bring that activity to a halt.   Colombo and the current mayor Bush were in a business partnership during Bush's first reign as mayor in publishing a newspaper for Winter Springs.   It went "belly-up" where it belonged.)

( It also might noted that Colombo received a $5,000 dollar contract ( NO BID ) from the city to teach people how to use the city's website.   That's a weird-o -- mainly attended by city employees themselves.     Must be one heck've of a website that employees of the city need to be schooled in how to use it as an employee of the city!   They pawned it off as a PR info scam.)
 SOUND OFF --- Email US @  PFGG

More email -- 3/25/08

I can understand what Bunk's friend is going through in the Highlands.  We
have it worse here in Tuscawilla.   Commissioner Don Gilmore is actually on
the Tuscawilla board.   No wonder Tuscawilla owners have not heard squat on
this fire fee from our association or the newsletter.   Gilmore is stifling
the board from doing its job.   I guess it is not worth being a member of the
association anymore, if they aren't going to help us out.

Fred W.

(That is an important observation Fred  -- they too will be impacted heavily along with that bogus TLBD assessment fee.    Not only that -- but there are condos and apartments within that community.    It is strange that no one has spoken out from Tuscawilla.    But than again you have the THOA board in there that plays right along with McLemore and his schemes.    I'd quit that association also -- they're NOT even a mandatory HOA, and have amassed a fortune in their coffers -- under that taxing scam.)