If you would like to ask a City Commissioner a question about the proposed property tax increase, you will not have to travel downtown.
Tallahassee Reports, with the help of the Killearn Country Club, is hosting a Town Hall meeting to address the proposed 27% increase in property taxes.
Commissioners Scott Maddox, Nancy Miller, Curtis Richardson and Gill Ziffer have committed to participate in the Town Hall
The meeting will be held this Thursday, July 2nd, at the Killearn County Club banquet room and begins at 5:45pm.
The hour long meeting will be broken into two segments. The first 30 minutes will be devoted to questions from Tallahassee Reports and the second thirty minutes will feature questions for members of the audience.
The purpose of the meeting is to get answers from City Commissioners on why the property tax is required and to give commissioners a chance to hear from voters.
Northside Town Hall Addresses Proposed City Tax Increase, Four Commissioners Scheduled to Attend added by Staff on
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Good meeting–Bec is dead on . Richardson wanted to make talking points and this crowd saw through it.
Great job Tallahassee Reports! Also a shout out to the commissioner’s Maddox, Ziffer & Richardson to address the issues.
Here are a couple of my observations:
1. It was a huge slap in the face that Nancy Miller backed out (isn’t this her district?). I would say that about the Mayor, but we all know he has no backbone and will not stand up and face the voters.
2. I gained respect for Scott Maddox. I may not agree with everything he says, but he made the most sense and did not back away from any questions. He is opposed to the tax increase and stated they could find the money needed for public safety in the current budget. Also stated that is had been over 20 years since they went through each department to try and eliminate things that are not necessary. He said he was going to push for this on the next budget (his last).
3. I lost a lot of respect for Curtis Richardson. It really does seem like he will do what ever the Mayor wants. He clearly stated he supports the full 27% increase. He rambled on about a lot of the issues and was very defensive when the current city manager received some criticism. Also, he was out of line when he threatened to leave in the beginning. He was rambling on and people were getting upset. He lost me when he said the increase is only $5/month for the median household in Tallahassee. Well, my response is tell that to the person who cannot afford the $5 to fill a prescription or someone who is unemployed.
4. They said they have $50 million in reserves, but still had to raise our taxes because using that money would affect our bond rating. I almost left when I heard this.
I could go on and on, but again GREAT JOB TALLAHASSEE REPORTS!
Even if Mayor Gillum has already made up his mine to vote in favor of the proposed 27% increase in the property tax milleage rate— it is “bad form” for our city’s Mayor if he chooses not attend the Northeast Town Hall meeting.
Is Andy attending?
My question is, why are the 4 city Commissioners even attending this meeting? The 4 of them should have simply said, we do not support this and we are voting against it. By attending, and not saying they will vote against it, they lend some credibility to the increase.
I hope there is a big turnout for this meeting with lots of good questions.