How big is your residential property? How big is your home? Do you have a shed, how about a swimming pool?
Your Lehigh Acres Fire Department Commissioners wants to charge your.17 cents per square feet for what ……..residential property????
Ballot Question:
So is it the 10,890 square feet of your quarter acre lot or is it the 2500 square feet of your home or is it the 1925 square under air of your home, what is it? The above ballot question so unclear, why?
Who wrote the ballot question? The attorneys the fire board hired that’s who!
And most important thing in the ballot language doesn’t mention that this new fee is INSTEAD of the current ad-valorem tax. The fire board’s special attorney recommended not to include the additional language to remove ad-valorem into the ballot because “you may need the income one day”. Even the fire board’s website has no mention of the promise by all the fire commissioners of only one tax, http://www.lehighfd.com/fire-fee-assessment . Is this the backdoor for double taxation? (PLEASE NOTE THE CHIEF ADDED THREE MORE PARAGRAPHS TO THEIR WEBSITE AFTER THIS STORY BROKE.)
Apparently the fire commissioners has still surplus money ($75,000 was budgeted just for the tax assessment consultants) to pay for such an incomplete deceptive addendum on the November ballot.
The Chief added the following the to their website after the original story broke:
“The main thing to remember is that the assessment fee will be replacing the fire taxes already paid by the residents. It IS NOT in addition to what they are paying now. The amount they would pay in the future could be greater or less than what they are paying today. They will only be paying or saving the difference between the two (2) fees. Currently, the District WILL NOT be charging a property tax (ad valorem tax) in addition to the assessment; this has been a point of confusion lately. The current proposed voting ballot language/question will be updated to reflect this information as well.”
The tragedy of this situation is that all the money and power of the ballot issue and the non-ad valorem assessments (think the word TAXES) lies with the Fire Commissioners.
The question that is not being asked “Is this even legal in the first place?” Can the Fire District actually assess the property owners for Fire rescue services and at the same time assess for Fire services also as though it were an ad-valorem tax? Does Fire Rescue provide a benefit based upon the square footage of the property or for that matter even to the parcel itself? The Florida Supreme Court has some thoughts on that issue.
The property owners have no one on their side of this legal issue. Believe me this is a legal issue. Don’t let the bleeding hearts tell you it is about fire protection and life saving issues. The property owners need to get some legal help to fight back now not after the issue becomes fully enacted as an ordinance.