Readers
Ltd-cash property tax going through the roof
The Pima County Assessor’s Office recently announced home valuations are down.
What they didn’t tell you is that, while they have dropped the “full cash value” of most homes in the area, they’ve jacked up the “limited cash values” by thousands of dollars.
Guess which figure your taxes are based on. The vast majority of us will pay even higher property taxes this year than we did last year!
I own a small rental business in a low-income area. I have never flipped a property and take great pride in providing long-term quality housing to those who can least afford it.
I am not greedy. My properties were some of the last to inflate in the boom economy and the first to lose their value when things went to pot.
Yet I will be gouged for even more property taxes this year and will be forced to pass that increase on to some of the poorest people in this community.
I feel swindled, mainly by the lack of honesty and transparency by the Assessor’s Office.
With a librarian’s help, I accessed real property values in the area and will appeal the valuations on all of my properties.
I urge everyone to join me. Please don’t wait till you get the shock of your lifetime in September – and find out your taxes are even higher this year than last year – to let the county know that honesty, especially in times like these, is the only acceptable policy.
Stephanie Jackter
small-business owner
County bloodletting should tap all veins
Another memorandum has just been distributed throughout Pima County departments:
“Given the difficult financial conditions facing the county in this and future years it is now appropriate to examine our present organizational structure, and to consolidate/streamline this structure, reducing future expenses. . . .”
Having seen many fellow employees laid off in recent months, I question:
What reductions are being made on the supervisory and management levels?
The county has always been top heavy, with too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
(County Administrator Chuck) Huckelberry’s salary ranges up to $273,000. Would he take a 10 percent to 20 percent cut?
Several positions pay $90,000 and better. Could those salaries be cut rather than releasing those who make $25,000?
What about county vehicles? Could those who take cars home use their own vehicles to reduce county costs for gas, insurance and maintenance?
How about Board of Supervisor meetings with breakfast and lunch at county expense?
Mr. Huckelberry should be willing to sacrifice some of his benefits instead of looking to increase insurance costs for the rank and file, and take medical insurance benefits from retirees beginning in July.
The idea of days off without pay is great if done across the board. Currently, though, the hourly worker would take the cut but salaried employees receive full pay.
Reduction should be for all or none. The upper echelon should take cuts, not just lower-level employees.
We signed a loyalty oath to the county, but the county does not feel the need to be loyal to its employees. It would be nice for the county to consider equal reductions across the board.
John Nelson
One who folded papers sad of Citizen’s folding
I want to add my sadness and dismay to the possible (probable) closing of our Citizen paper.
As a reader and former newspaper carrier in my teens (I’m 62), it will be like losing my best friend.
I will miss so many things about it – the comics, the great sports and the paper as a whole.
You have so many good people, it’s a shame to see them go.
You have started a very much improved weather page. It’s too bad it couldn’t have been done earlier.
I, too, hope that the bigwigs of our town will step up to save our p.m. paper. It would be a big loss not to have it.
DONALD J. WILLIAMS
Economic assessment right on the money?
The liberal left, in typically lazy manner, is quick to blame the Bush administration for today’s economic problems.
This is the easy, uninformed answer for those who don’t care to look into the source of the problem. I don’t believe there is much question that the economic problems are stemming from the mortgage crises. The fact you can buy a toaster and get a free bank.
If you dig a little bit, you will discover that the Clinton administration pushed hard to loosen standards for mortgage loans. This was on the belief that everybody should be able to own a home, regardless of credit, savings or income. This policy created tremendous booms in the housing and mortgage industry that rippled throughout the entire economy.
Bush warned of this in 2002 and pushed Congress to tighten the reins on these lending practices. Unfortunately, the U.S. was under attack (thanks to Clinton’s weakening of military and other U.S. intelligence agencies) and the impending implosion was not on the forefront.
The war combined with a liberal-controlled Senate and House allowed this to be pushed to the future.
Now Bush, who did not put this in motion but attempted to get it corrected, is taking the brunt of the blame.
This is just one of the reasons I have not and will not ever vote for the liberal, sheep-minded, left-wing wackos who weaken the very country I love.
Carla Garcia Gastelum