Boynton Beach studies higher tax rate, reduced services

Add more police cars in this sagging economy? Increase taxes 18%? Typical Boynton, throw their hands up and charge their residents more for getting less. Instead, they give millions to CRA developers so their profit is assured for their projects. How about using some of those CRA dollars to pay for those new cars, salaries and pension costs for officers and other employees that service the CRA area? How about reducing your incompetent engineering staff back to pre-2005 levels (about 1/2 the present staffing level) or making the developers who use these services pay the whole freight? Taxes in Boynton are insane for the services you receive.

I stopped reading the article 'til I saw "rising pensions" as one of the reasons to increase property taxes.

Another fine example of trying to get blood out of a rock. Gotta get mine while the gettin is still good. The SoFlaWMD and PBCWUD set the example and now everyone thinks that its OK to do. Make em pay more for less.

why do cops get to drive their cop cars home? my neighbor is a deputy for Broward Co and has the perk of driving to and from work in his sheriff car. Why don't they drive the own cars to and from work like the rest of us? that would safe on gas money and wear and tear.

Mike,

You don't like having a police car parked next door? Do you get robbed often?

In the event of an emergency or disaster, wouldn't it be nice to know the cops could get to work?

Now, I do think there should be limits as to how far away a cop lives. I'm not in favor of a deputy in South Broward driving to and from his home in North Palm Beach. There should be reasonable limits.

I think the best part of the article comes in the last 2-3 paragraphs. In the "oh by the way" category, it turns out Boynton has 24 million in reserves and may have to use 3 million of it to help make things work during the economic downturn.

Maybe its just me, but isn't a "reserve" for that exact reason? You put away something during the time of plenty to save up for the time of famine.

I would have to believe that raising property taxes would be counter productive as it could make the cost of owning so high for already strapped homeowners that they would just walk away. As a result, the values would continue to decline, and we will be reading the exact same story this time next year. On the bright side, with less residents, they wouldn't need as many services.

What they need to do is make the necessary budget trims, leave the tax rate the same, and dip into the reserve.

"operational costs for the city have risen about 10 percent, driven mainly by pension and health insurance costs"

Government needs to match private industry in pensions and health care. The majority of private secure employees have no pension and lucky if they have health insurance. There is no reason why a public employee should have more. Public servants with little more than a community college education making in excess of $100,000 in wages and benefits is government waste.

I'm sure that the citizens will be happy to provide suggestions for reducing costs to match revenues.
One suggestion might be to stop the Also, why is the city using tax money to help pay for private homes for some residents? Finally, why is the City negotiating pensions that it can't afford to fund? Private companies and the Federal government switched from defined benefit pension plans years ago because they're too expensive!

oops...One suggestion might be to stop the massive CRA incentive payments to developers and use that money more productively.

Maybe they shouldn't have bought out the license of a strip club for over a million to help out a developer. Make the developer buy it out! What a bunch of wasters. The fact that they have 24 million in the bank shows how they have been overtaxing us all along.

Fix the budget and use the reserves or you will be forced out of your cushy overpaid jobs!

let me get this right.......the goverment is doing away with essential services.....because their insurance, pension, union mandated wages, and take home cars.....

sorry, but i have a answer for that.....cut back on health care like i did....i dont have it now. as for pension...i dont have one of those either....just my sweat. as for mandated wages....well sorry to say i dont have a contract where i get that.....as for the take home car program...take it away let them pay for one every month like i do....if they threated to quit.....let them go....let them see how hard it is out here....

They want to cut services but yet they need a $30,000.00 study to see if they should sell city hall.

They still are trying to live high on the hog with less money coming in. That seams to be the Florida way for residents and the government alike. Caviar lifestyle on a beer budget.

An 8% increase in Law Enforcement. Every police agency is asking for more. Let's consolidate into one police agency. It cost Boynton 29 million to run a police force? That is ridiculous, and clearly consolidation is the answer.

Less is less come to my house I'll show you how to live on a budget. You bummies are paid to be smarter then us. I'm just a simple man but I can tell you that less is less and your actions are just going to give you less.
Less realestate sales, sales tax, property values, dock stamps and permiteing fees.
Then you'll have less of a job come election day.

Go purchase the other strip club at the north end of Boynton why don't ya !! Oh, maybe the money is not in the budget so we can get hit with strip club tax.

Boynton Beach should pack it in....what a bunch of losers. No leadership or imagination. Get rid of Fire Department...keep CRA but focus on job creation ..team up with Delray/Boca on engineering, code enforcement, etc....do we need all these duplicative services?

i just don't understand why the police have take home cars.. just think how much money it would save if they had to drive there own cars to work .i've seen them use the patrol cars to shop at walamart and even go to the gym that they don't pay for,, whats up with that?

You all are acting like a bunch of sheep with your complaining and groaning. Just for a second, act like educated adults. Ms. Pesantes is renowned for painting a bleak and dramatically biased picture when it comes to describing anything related to Boynton Beach. I have first-hand information that Ms. Pesantes was provided with several different scenarios that were developed as a contingency based upon likely tax reduction revenue scenarios. Imagine that – government planning. Good ‘ole Pesantes, in her stereotypical and predictable form, merely selected the most dramatic of each scenario, combined them, and painted a biased and unethical representation of the truth. Her tactic worked too – look how many people she stirred up.

Think about it for a minute. Newspapers are a business. They make money through advertising and the more they sell, the more they make. By stirring up controversy, they guarantee their market because they understand that people want to know what is happening….especially if there is an “injustice” of some kind. It’s a simple matter of economics. Here you have a “for profit business”(the Sun Sentinel) criticizing a non-profit governmental organization (Boynton Beach) for their own financial gain and at the expense of the public’s equilibrium. I am not suggesting that, at times, the media is not well within their right to criticize government. In fact, I believe they have that responsibility! However, to patently misrepresent the facts as they have been presented in this story? That is something only my favorite theatrical reporter can do! Nice job again, Ms. Pesantes.

And folks, if you truly have an interest, please consider collecting information and drawing your own independent conclusions. Its all public record and it is all available for your review. This article is nothing more than a modern-day snake oil sales scam.

We told you this would happen when the fools voted yes on amendment 1.