In less than two weeks voters will decide whether or not to pass a fire assessment of $292 that would replace property taxes.
“I will tell you, I am going to vote no,” said resident Mohamed Yasin.
“It’s no different than paying homeowner’s insurance,” said Jennifer Combs.
Combs and Yasin both have their reasons behind the way they plan to vote.
On August 22nd, Combs’ daughter Emma nearly lost her life.
“I ran over to the pool and Emma was floating face down in the water,” said Combs
In in less than 8 minutes the Lehigh Acres Fire Department responded to the call.
Combs grabbed Emma (her daughter) out of the pool and started performing CPR. That’s when Lehigh Fire showed up.
According records Emma was already breathing on her own before the Firefighters arrived because her mother is a registered nurse and knew what to do.
“They told me that had their station not been there, Emma might have had to wait 15 minutes. Emma didn’t have 15 minutes.” *
On the other side of the issue are residents like Yasin who buys homes in Lehigh Acres then rents them out.
Yasin says he pays about $80 in property taxes a year per house. If the assessment passes, that number would more than 300% the amount.
He says if he wants to stay competitive with other landlords, he will have to pick up the tab for his renters.
“I will not be able to put it on the lease to make them pay because people are struggling here in Lehigh”, said Yasin
Voters will have the chance to decide on the issue November 4, how will you vote?
*ED Note- this statement is really not coming from Combs but from the Fireboards PR firm and is not fact. The PR firm has used the family unfairly with voters in Lehigh Acres in multiple stories and articles for the fire tax assessment.
I’d like to know how the heck he’s getting away with paying $80/year in taxes.
Because he purchased the house for 25,000 in 2008 actual the tax for 2014 $70.79
Lehigh Acres Gazette Web Team
you may not have to worry about renting to anyone if the community doesn’t have a viable service that the fire dept now provides – people actually look at things like schools and public safety while looking for a place to live
The only house that was ever saved in the last 10 years was saved by a neighbor with a garden hose!When the department wanted a PR picture for the news propaganda they had to go back to 2008 to find one that didn’t have the garage door melted. How about the one they had to go back and put out a 2nd time.Real pros.Always save the chimney and pool
if the fire dept was called why was’nt DCF