THREE Tampa-area blogger gatherings!

The good folks at Sticks of Fire are coordinating a gathering:
Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 6:00pm
Hawks Neighborhood Grill, 3114 W Bay to Bay Blvd, Tampa, FL (map)

Blog & Multimedia Seminar
Saturday, 03 March 2007, 10:45am
Tampa Tribune Office, 3251 W Bay To Bay Blvd, Tampa, FL (map)

The Tampa/St.Pete Blog Writers Meetup Group will be meeting:
Monday, 05 March 2007, 6:30 PM
Panera Bread, 3181 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677 (map)

Don't know that I'll make the Saturday session, but I'm hoping to hit the other two :)

Florida prop. tax: Real solution must morph over many years

Earlier this week, the Florida House of Representatives proposed a plan to address the problem with skyrocketing property tax. It would save my wife and I almost $400 per month. But I have mixed feelings.

Property tax here is ridiculously high. Insurance is also high, but I can at least understand some of that, given the propensity for hurricanes. Here are the data for the Litton house:

• Size: 2,000 square feet; Lot: 80 feet by 120 feet; Appraised value: $270,000
• Property tax: $5,650 / year
• Home insurance: was $2,282. We just received a notice that we are blessed with a 30% increase. Our insurance will now be $2,986.

The bottom line is that we pay $720 every month for our tax and insurance. And that is not easy  (insurance is more than twice what it was when we moved in 2 years ago!)

As reported in the St Pete Times this week, the Florida House wants to eliminate property tax on homes that qualify for the Homestead Exemption (in general, one must be a Florida resident, and the home must be one's primary residence, so this does not apply to 'second' homes such as vacation homes). To make up for lost revenue, the House proposes increasing the sales tax from the current 7% to a new rate of 8.5%. By eliminating the property tax for some and by raising the sales tax, the net effect for the Littons would be a savings of about $4,700 per year. WOW!

So why do I have mixed feelings? Because for folks who rent their homes, the property tax is not an issue, but their sales tax would increase. The Times estimates an additional $250/year. We are a middle class household, fortunate to be able to be buying our home. Many working for minimum or near-minimum wage, are not able to purchase a home. So they rent. Some would say, "Hey, they'd only have to pay an extra $20 or so per month, so what's the problem?" Well, an extra $20 of expense per month adds up to about 3 hours of wages for someone earning minimum wage. There are many others today struggling to just have any roof over their heads, and the burden this would place on them should not be ignored.

So what do we do?

I don't know the definitive solution. This problem is not as simple as what the plan proposed by the House would imply. Governor Crist's plan would double the Homestead Exemption to $50,000 (no tax on the first $50,000 of value), and that has some merit ...but it would be better to tie this exemption to the median home value. Perhaps initially raise the sales tax by 1/2 of one percent, and grant an exclusion for an amount equal to the first 25% percent of the median home price in the state (I believe it's around $200,000 currently). That would start with the Crist-proposed amount, and allow for the amount to adjust as values adjust, without requiring legislative intervention.

But then there's the Save Our Homes ("SOH") amendment, which restricts the amount by which a Homestead Exemption-qualifying property's assessed value can increase each year. This could not be eliminated without forcing many people to leave their homes, since there is no way they could afford to have taxes suddenly raise by an order of magnitude! A Miami Herald article reports that the Florida Association of Counties has offered some additional suggestions.

A real solution? The reality is that the current system results in a much heavier tax burden being covered by those purchasing a new home or living here only part of the year - and by businesses, since the Homestead Exemption and SOH do not reduce their taxes. The suggestions I've read so far all try to apply a one-time fix. That will not work! A real solution needs to gradually apply the tax burden equitably across the population. An equitable solution would eventually rely on sales tax. Perhaps we could gradually increase the sales tax over 5 years while the millage rates are reduced, eventually eliminating the property tax. The SOH was an amendment to the state constitution in 1992, so it can only be repealed by a vote of the people. But the Legislature could change the sales tax and the millage rates.

I'm eager to see what other ideas are proposed. About the only thing on which everyone can agree is that the current system begs for change.

So THAT is what was wrong with our water pipes!

For several months we'd been noticing air in our water pipes. Once or twice a week, we'd get up in the morning and when flushing the toilet or turning on the sink or shower faucet, there would be air belching out with the water. Neighbors did not have this problem. Our water bill was normal, so no leaks.

The culprit was the water softener drainage hose. The water softener is in our garage. The drain hose goes up from the softener, over across part of the attic area, and then down into the utility room to share a drain with the washing machine.

Here are pics of the water softener in the garage, the spot where the hose empties, and what I found when I crawled up in the attic to have a look:

...and here it is after I used some good ol' duct tape to hold the hose up next to a stud, allowing a more gentle curve:

This was all discovered while we had a guy from Culligan here. The softener had quit working, and during the US$235 repair, he got things working (had to replace a worn piston, a circuit board and a switch), but said that the drain hose should have a lot more flow to it. He was a big guy, so I took my little runt self up into the small recesses of the attic to see if something was kinked. They had done the original install a couple of years ago, but the warranty on that was over. Anyway, the kinked hose (no doubt got soft and fell over during the hot summer) had caused some other failures, which led to the softener pulling in air instead of the brine that it would normally pull. They sent another guy out (a little guy) on Friday to do a more permanent fix than my duct tape workaround :)

Oh well. Things are working well now, and Culligan is giving us free softener salt and completely free maintenance for the next year (which is normally US$209) ...so it kind of evens out. Kind of.

Solicitation for my son's fraternity

My son, Ben, is in the middle of the final semester of his senior year of college. He'll graduate in a few months with his geek degree (Computer Information Systems , with a minor in Spanish). He's also working on his Greek pursuits; his fraternity is Theta Chi (motto: "Assisting Hand"). I was wary of fraternities in the past (a guy I knew in high school died during his frat initiation at college). Things have changed. There is no hazing of any kind. Fridays are volunteer day at the local Shriners Hospital. This is quite different than the image I'd had of fraternities. To a man, each of Ben's frat brothers whom I've met has been a true gentleman.

Well, this weekend they're trying to raise some funds for Theta Chi. They'll be bowling and are needing folks to pledge an amount per pin knocked down over the span of a few games. Ben doesn't bowl often (no time). When he has gone, I believe his score is in the 130-150 range. So 10 cents per pin could conceivably work out to US$45. Three cents per pin would most likely be under $15 total. I'm sure they're extremely grateful for anything.

So if anyone cares to help a college guy and his frat - reconnect with that university spirit - here's your chance. I'll update this post after Saturday with his final score, or you can email him directly, or you can donate through this PayPal link by sending funds to his email address: brlxboarder at gmail dot com

Is Obama too young? NO!

The other day I heard someone state that Barack Obama is too young to be president. Maybe they just meant that he looks too young? If he were to win this next election, he would be 47 when he took office. How old must one be? He would be older than Teddy Roosevelt, John F Kennedy, and Bill Clinton were when they each took office.

But far more important than one's age is one's outlook, intellectual rigor, position on the issues, and willingness to be honest in the execution of one's duties ...rather then beholden to the highest bidder as we have seen far too often!