Toledo, Ohio – In response to yesterday’s public hearing on a one dollar increase in the Lucas County conveyance fee, Commissioner Pete Gerken is calling on leaders from the Lucas County Improvement Corporation and the Toledo-Lucas County Housing Fund to submit a proposed budget and plan for 2009.
“After two public hearings it is clear that both the LCIC and the Housing Fund are interested in this potential increase in the conveyance fee. In order to give my colleagues and me a reasonable basis to make a final decision, I am asking the leaders of both organizations to present a proposed budget and plan for how they would spend these funds in 2009,” said Gerken.
To allow both organizations time to present this budget and plan to the County Commissioners, Gerken is asking that any decision on a conveyance fee increase be deferred until Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at the regular Commissioners’ meeting.
“We as a Board must make a final decision with the best information available to us. If the LCIC and the Housing Fund have a detailed plan for these dollars, it’s important that the Commissioners have a chance to see it before we decide,” said Gerken.
Gerken is asking that each organization present its budget and plan to the Commissioners within the next 10 days.
The Commissioners are currently debating an increase in the conveyance fee, which would raise it from its current rate of $3 per $1,000 of property valuation to $4. This extra dollar fee is expected to generate approximately $800,000 in new revenue in 2009.
Comments: I appreciate that Gerken is actually asking for some accountability on how a new source of tax dollars will be spent...but we all need to remember - this is new taxes.
By asking for how these organizations will spend the money, they're all saying that they need the money more than the people paying the tax do...You and I are better judges on how to spend those dollars than any publicly-supported agency - especially if we're allowed to keep them and not fork them over to the government.
2 comments:
Maggie,
This doesn't sound like the Gherkin that we have all come to know and love (extreme sarcasm).
Methinks he's entertaining offers from each competing group and will weigh them to see which best gives him some sort of advantage.
I do not doubt that Comrade Gherkin will vote to confiscate the additional taxes, just to whom it will go and for what "Pete" purpose it will serve...
Maggie:
Thank you for covering this subject.
I attended and testified at a public hearing, and am corresponding with County Commissioners about this proposed tax increase. I support the Toledo Board of Realtors in opposing this tax increase.
The tax is regressive. It taxes the wrong people. People who have to sell a house in this market are already hurting. The 6000 or so people who sell a house each year should not be asked to pay the cost of economic development for a city of 300,000.
A certain giant sucking sound, of people leaving our region for greener pastures, will only get louder if this tax increase is passed.
More sellers will be 'under water' and fewer will want to or be able to sell. Jobs in real estate related fields will be lost.
Surely we can fund economic development some other way.
Please see my blog post at www.HomeFinder100.com/blog for more thoughts on the matter and my letter to the editor at the Blade.
Lonn Dugan
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