Tuesday, November 5 is Election Day. On the ballot is a Proposition for the adoption of a local 2-cent Sales Tax for the Emergency Services District.
The voters on the Bolivar Peninsula will have the opportunity to reduce the property tax that supports Fire and Emergency Medical Services on the peninsula by voting for a 2 cent sales tax. The sales tax is estimated to bring in about a third to a half of what is needed to fund the three fire departments and the ambulance service. If passed, the five Commissioners that serve on the Galveston County Emergency Services District # 2 have said it is their intention to reduce the property tax that now funds the emergency services. They have urged a ‘yes’ vote on the issue so that visitors to the peninsula will help pay for the fire and medical services.
“It just stands to reason that folks who visit the peninsula should help pay for the emergency services that are available to protect them while they enjoy their visits,” said George Strong, ESD#2 Board Member, “voters on the peninsula can assure that this happens by voting for the sales tax.”
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I’m sure there is proposed budget for the Sales Tax Revenue along with the $.10 per $100 we voted for to help fund the ESD. If someone would post that it would be interesting and helpful to share with the rest of us. Galveston Co. homepage has financials as of Aug 31, but no proposed ESD budget I can find:
http://www.galvestoncountytx.gov/ao/FinancialReports/August%202013%20Monthly.pdf
My extra $140 property tax is ok. Paying an extra $800-$1,000 in sales tax from my contractor husband’s profit who buys most of his lumber at Seaside, is NOT OK, especially without seeing some actual numbers/need.
The Commissioner said at a previous meeting that the County could/would add funds to help us with the summer “curve” – what happened to that??
As of this morning, the Galveston Daily News reports there are 189 early votes. Urge your like-minded neighbors to vote – at any polling place in Galveston County, not just here.
Amazing that “visitors” are mostly seasonal. The property owners that buy supplies to maintain their property and try to support the local economy are going to have to pay the lions share of the infamous 2%. Most “visitors” just buy beer and non taxable food. The sham that the property taxes will go down is preposterous. Galveston County is currently overtaxing all the Bolivar properties. The collected monies over the year is supposed to give representation to the owners, but all the services are going to the Mainland. The illusive “beach parking sticker fee” which is supposed to pay for beach cleaning just gets the trash and sand moved around on occasion and mostly in CB where the highest concentration of rental properties are. Galveston County is currently practicing “Taxation without representation” in my opinion.
The ESD and Galveston county’s commissioners are trying to sell the voters of the peninsula a pig in a poke, referring to the medieval practice of putting a cat or dog in a closed bag and selling it as a pig. They won’t tell us how much they expect visitors to the peninsula to pay in sales taxes. They won’t tell us how much they will reduce property taxes if we approve the 32 per cent tax increase. Don’t buy a “pig in a poke”. Don’t vote for a permanent 32 percent sales tax increase behind a nebulous promise to lower property taxes an unspecified amount. Tell the liberal RINO county commissioners and the spend happy board of the ESD that we’re not the idiots they think we are. We deserve better. Better information and better representation. Facts and figures please, not promises they won’t keep.
All valid observations but it seems really to boil down to the best option by individual household. Landlords don’t typically absorb increasing cost so that cost is passed on to renters balancing somewhat the low income burden.
The county collects some $4.7 million in ad valorem tax from the peninsula and has budgeted support for the transition to the ESD in addition to their (stated) continuing support of the service at some level. We’ll have to see where that goes along with the result of the “savings” the county stated they will experience with the elimination of the judge and other county employees.
If you have stood in line at the Big Store checkout on July the 3rd or any day during the season and holidays, the visitors in line with you are using the same emergency service that you are providing with your taxes. Even if they are just passing through, its logical they should bear some of the financial burden. The owners also use their rentals. When the owners are here, they are no different than the residents or visitors.
There are unknowns. I have been unable to this point to get the state sales tax collected for 77650 and 77623 in 2012. That number would help determine the potential of the additional 2% and thus how much the ESD ad valorem might be reduced. So I am left with a fairly firm idea of my ad valorem tax, a good guess at my taxable local expenditures and see the sales tax as slightly cost effective, given the ad valorem rate will be reduced as suggested. Then again, we thought less than a year ago the ad valorem tax would be eliminated with the sales tax.
My math was flawed. It’s only a 32% increase in sales tax, not 34%.
Wherever I’ve lived there have always been proposals to let the “visitors” pay for services in return for lower taxes. Never happens. The rates always remain, they just move the funds somewhere else. Example: motel occupancy tax. Who pays the 2% during the off season when the visitors are few? You and me.
How much is the ESD going to reduce their tax rate? Will this “Pie in the Sky” reduction be enough to offset the permanent 34% increase in sales tax that each and every Peninsula resident will have to pay forever? Where are the numbers? Don’t let the ESD sell us down the river like Galveston County has been doing for at least the 25 years I’ve lived here. The same County Commissioners who have taken our Justice of the Peace and Constable want us to do this to ourselves so they can return even less of our property taxes to the Peninsula. If you trust Galveston County and think they have our best interest in mind, then by all means vote for the 34% tax increase. Cut the taxes for the non-resident property owners who have built the hundreds of million dollar homes on the Peninsula and pay more taxes yourself everytime you check out at the Big Store. I would hope we have better sense.
Well said Mike