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Alachua County Tax Data  
Taxes Strangling Alachua County

Taxes are playing a major role in the evolution of Alachua County. The culture of the county is changing due to the shifting demographics as folks search for safe harbor. Nationally we see migration happening on a grand scale; mainly due to people trying to find a less expensive place to live. Alachua County has received its fair share of those seeking a better quality of life during this period of population reshuffling. As the population of the county grows there should be an inflection point for local government on taxes. More taxpayers should mean more revenue collected. More revenue collected should mean less tax hikes and a possibility of lowering of taxes.

Local government has made it painfully clear to the taxpayers that under no circumstances will there be an inflection point on taxes. Doesn't matter if revenue collection is up or down, there will always be a need for tax hikes. That seems to be the official quasi policy being subscribed to by the city and county commissions, and the school board as well.

Alachua County, once a safe haven for those who value a low-tax lifestyle, has decided to rebrand by tightly wrapping itself in job killing regulations and high taxes. This rebranding has caused the county to develop a feudalistic aura. High taxes and regulations are making things so tight until only the wealthiest citizens can breathe consistently for a prolonged period of time without the need for government assistance.

In reality, Alachua County is now faced with a situation where it has shrinking tax rolls, ballooning property and aggregate taxes, and a robust neo-liberal agenda it wants to experiment with. An agenda that inevitably impose an additional economic burden on less affluent taxpayers.

Because of either the inherently regressive nature of many of the taxes and fees upon which local governments rely, or the manner in which they have been implemented (and sometimes both), less affluent taxpayers may well carry more than their "fair share" of the aggregate tax burden on a per capita income basis. They pay more than they may reasonably be expected to pay given their limited disposable income. This is the root cause of the affordable housing crisis in Gainesville. Less affluent taxpayers pay without the benefit of any political saliency, thus they are treated as pawns on a neo-liberal chess board. In short, these taxpayers may have little or no political voice or community visibility depending on where they live.

Taxes and the workforce
Alachua County attracts workers from neighboring counties but it discourages them from living here mainly due to the high taxes. In 2019 twenty-seven percent of all the jobs in the county was some type of government job. That number has risen much higher since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. The troubling thing about those numbers is not that the state average for government workforce per county is only twelve percent; the troubling thing is that a sizable percentage of those workers live outside of Alachua County. They pay their property taxes elsewhere. That doesn't bode well for those who have to bear their burden.

The thought of burgeoning local Government payrolls and shrinking tax rolls is frightful. What happened to the inflection point? Why didn't we reach it? The short answer is bad revenue management. Now we have a situation where each iteration of tax increases causes more taxpayers to flee to neighboring low tax counties. Alachua County local government is making a big mistake trying to tax its way out of past blunders while at the same time continuing to enact new blunderous policies.

The missing ingredient and the thing that is needed most in Alachua County as we go into a post-covid world is more decent paying non-government, non-healthcare industry jobs. Instead of focusing on how to bend the curve on the number of college graduates that leave the county in search of greener pastures each year, county leaders spend countless hours watching mundane presentations on how a new one-cent regressive sales tax will be the be-all and end-all for every problem in the city and county; either that or spending long hours trying to incorporate yet another non-profit organization into the mix.

Nationally, industry is migrating as well. This is the time for counties to hang out the open for business sign. This is not the time for a county to have the closed to industry sign out. Industry as far away as Indonesia is looking to relocate to better position themselves in the supply chain. The lures that work best for attracting industry is educated workforce and limited regulations. Alachua County has the most educated population per capita in the state. Unfortunately, that great attribute gets negated by the county billing itself as the most regulated county in the state.

Conclusion
You must be inherently wealthy, have a very high profile career, or work in local Government before you can begin to break even and get some of the benefits from all the things you pay for as a taxpayer in Alachua County. The current level of taxation isn't sustainable, unless the goal is to turn the county into a place where feudalism is acceptable and the masses are banished to a life of serfdom.

How not following the Model Ordinance for Proportionate Fair-Share Mitigation of Development Impacts on Transportation Corridors ruined Alachua County's roads

The 2005 amendments to Florida's growth management legislation directed local governments to enact concurrency management ordinances by December 1, 2006 that allow for "proportionate share" contributions from developers toward concurrency requirements [see 163.3180(16) F.S. in Appendix A]. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) was directed to develop a model ordinance for proportionate fair-share contributions for use by local governments no later than December 1, 2005.

The intent of the proportionate fair-share option is to provide applicants for development an opportunity to proceed under certain conditions, notwithstanding the failure of transportation concurrency, by contributing their proportionate fair share of the cost of improving the impacted transportation facility. This Model Proportionate Fair-Share Ordinance is the result of a collaborative effort between the FDOT, the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR), a Technical Advisory Committee comprised of transportation and development professionals with experience in concurrency management, and a cross-section of Florida developers and their consultants. It provides a series of options that are intended as a framework for proportionate fair-share programs.

The Model is a technical assistance product that local governments will need to adapt to their situation. Local governments should obtain professional planning and legal assistance when adapting this model regulatory language to fit local needs.

What Happened?
Alachua County opted for a proportionate share program called the Multi-Modal Transportation Mitigation (MMTM). The logic behind MMTM was to encourage growth by charging lower impact fees. Developers were given a pass on paying a true proportionate fair share amount to cover the impact of their developments to the community. The public was told the MMTM fee would be just as good, if not better, than what the legislature was proposing for managing transportation proportionate share in Alachua County. Alachua County exercised its home rule authority rights to shun what the legislature was proposing as a solution to mitigate the impacts of growth.

MMTM has been in place for fifteen years and the chickens are coming home to roost. The County Commission is now scrambling to come up with creative ways to tax the public to make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars that should have come from the developers to cover the impact cost the Urban Cluster density has had on transportation corridors.





Comparing Alachua County taxes,fees and surcharges (Per Capita) to State averages

Taxes,Fees&Surcharges Alachua Cnty State Avg
local Gas tax $55.74 $44.70
local Sales tax $89.08 $152.63
Local Communications Services Tax $35.86 $31.19
Local Public Services Tax $96.67 $61.52
Local Building Permit Fees $17.83 $36.29
Electricity&water tax $456.77 $203.50


The median property tax in Alachua County, Florida is $1,984 per year for a home worth the median value of $189,600. Alachua County collects, on average, 1.05% of a property's assessed fair market value as property tax. Alachua County has one of the highest median property taxes in the United States, and is ranked 456th of the 3143 counties in order of median property taxes. The average yearly property tax paid by Alachua County residents amounts to about 3.25% of their yearly income. Alachua County is ranked 477th of the 3143 counties for property taxes as a percentage of median income.





Property Taxes in Gainesville
Gainesville is another Florida city with a relatively high average property tax rate at $963 per $100,000 in home value. As a result, the property tax bill for a $250,000 home in the city runs about $2,408 per year. That's above average.

Sales and Gas Taxes in Gainesville
Gainesville's combined state and local sales tax rate is below average-only 7% (second-lowest rate in our rankings). On the other hand, the city's combined state and local gas tax is high-38.025 cents per gallon (highest gas tax rate of any major city in the state).


Can data paint a clear picture of the overall health of a community?

Tax data hold vital key indicators that reveal the success or failures of policies that affect community health. However, data is of very limited value unless it is normalized and presented in micro-data format specific to each County.
Millage and Tax rates listed by counties in tabular form paints an accurate picture of how counties compare with state averages as well as other peer counties. This is the best method of revealing outlier counties that need to re-think their tax policies.
Tax and millage is starting to be recognized as a liability rather than an asset in the fight for relieving stress and improving the mental health of a community. High tax counties tend to have a greater need for mental health and other social services.

Studies consistently find that the amount needed to provide for basic needs, like food and clothing, exceeds the federal poverty line in Alachua County. Taxing poor families makes it even more difficult to provide for those needs. With each new round of tax increases comes the proverbial straw that broke the family's budget.

A broken budget means disaster since you have to live on less than you make. Now those folks are encouraged to give themselves over to the Ethers of government. Hence, government now gets to play the role of savior by indoctrinating their souls into the world of eternal social services.
There is a culture in Alachua County that licks its lips at the thought of hearing new broken souls are on the way. Hence, the reason for the implacable push for more new taxes.

Utility Taxes in Gainesville
City residents get hit hard with local utility taxes. The local public service tax on electricity is 10% (highest rate of any major city in the state). The city's public service tax on water is also 10% (second-highest of major cities in the state). Gainesville's communications services tax is also pretty high. At 6.17%, it's one of the 10 highest rates for the 50 largest Florida locales.

FL County millage and tax data       
CountyTotal
Millage Rate		Median
Income		Poverty
Rate		Total Taxes
Collected		Percent of Increase
Since 2018
CountyTotal
Millage Rate		Median
Income		Poverty
Rate		Total Taxes
Collected		Percent of Increase
Since 2018
Alachua 21.6007 $49,078.00 19.8% $344,738,161.00 7.63%
Baker 15.7523 $61,769.00 15.4% $15,779,910.00 5.24%
Bay 12.5475 $51,829.00 13.4% $208,314,159.00 -3.02%
Bradford 16.8118 $46,197.00 19.5% $16,785,066.00 2.56%
Brevard 16.3676 $54,359.00 11% $696,845,167.00 5.66%
Broward 20.004 $57,333.00 12.6% $4,120,586,403.00 8.52%
Calhoun 16.175 $38,609.00 21.3% $6,470,596.00 -8.22%
Charlotte 16.1471 $49,225.00 11.1% $296,951,431.00 5.71%
Citrus 15.3719 $41,424.00 15.2% $162,371,758.00 9.11%
Clay 15.6381 $62,653.00 8.8% $187,334,748.00 13.68%
Collier 10.6707 $65,675.00 10.6% $1,018,829,966.00 2.62%
Columbia 17.0244 $44,491.00 17.3% $50,637,644.00 8.06%
DeSoto 18.0061 $35,057.00 26.1% $34,588,407.00 5.69%
Dixie 20.1327 $38,237.00 24.7% $11,089,355.00 3.82%
Duval 17.9044 $53,473.00 14.5% $1,273,926,058.00 8%
Escambia 14.5189 $49,286.00 14.7% $280,262,136.00 4.39%
Flagler 18.6743 $53,872.00 10.3% $179,593,385.00 6.69%
Franklin 13.0613 $42,855.00 22.8% $27,576,298.00 1.98%
Gadsden 16.668 $40,922.00 23.6% $25,417,306.00 1.13%
Gilchrist 17.3829 $42,357.00 16.8% $13,541,061.00 -0.59%


Comparing Alachua County City and County Expenditures (Per Capita) to State averages

City and County Expenditures Alachua Cnty State Avg
County & Municipal Government Expenditures $4,187 $3,207
Total Municipal Expenditures $3,045 $1,442
Total County Expenditures $1,142 $1,765
County & Municipal Environment Expenditures $1,895 $643.85
County & Municipal Transportation Expenditures $214.34 $342.89
County & Municipal Court-Related Expenditures $67.84 $47.96


      


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How 21st Century Election Fraud Works
Election fraud has many flavors, with the most popular being voter suppression laws. Voter suppression may be a problem that present significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right and it should not be tolerated.
However, we believe computer voting with no paper trail presents a bigger problem than simple voter suppression. The preferred outcome can be achieved in a more eloquent way through a software program rather than telling some little old lady she can't vote early anymore or telling some guy he can't drink water while waiting in line to vote. Those type of incidents get labeled as voter suppression and make headline news even though they or more likely to be red herrings.

The real problem that should be of utmost concern is after you cast your ballot you are forever separated from it. Your ballot gets accepted into the netherworld of today'shonor system that does not subscribe to any type of non-repudiation for voters. The "I VOTED" sticker is not the same as a real receipt that shows an itemized list of what you voted for. A receipt you can hold onto for life. Providing voters with a true receipt after they vote should be a slam-dunk with today's technology. Let's face it, we don't live in a world where people can be trusted to count votes and report an accurate count. Non-repudiation is badly needed in our system of voting.

Here is a simple example of how computer vote counting can change election outcomes. The sample ballot below contains two items to vote for:
1) A president
2) County single member districts

Do this

Press "Open polls"
Select your outcome
Check ballot items and press "Submit Ballot" *
Press "close polls" to see results

* No matter how you vote you will always get chosen outcome


Open Polls Close Polls




          

          

          

          



          Submit Ballot

Vote Totals
Donald Trump
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Joe Biden
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For Single Member Districts
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Against Single Member Districts       
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Understanding Florida's Home Rule Power

Source: Florida League of Cities, Inc.

History
Source: Florida League of Cities, Inc. The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of the powers related to local governments - the 10th Amendment reserves those powers to the state. During the 18th century, cities, counties and parishes across the nation derived their powers from their state constitutions, and local governments relied upon state legislatures for all powers.

An example of the difficulty in a non-Home Rule era: Traffic control signs. If a city wished to erect signs to control traffic (horses, wagons, and the newly created automobiles), the city first had to obtain state permission through a special act, or general law of local application. Cities and counties might seek permission jointly, or by population category but still had to petition their legislators for these bills during each legislative session. It was not uncommon in Florida for more than 2,000 special acts to be filed in a session during this era.

In the early 1900s, however, states began to adopt "Home Rule" provisions in which cities and counties were allowed to enact ordinances at the local level without state "blessing" - or without the enactment of special acts, general laws of local application, or similar measures

In Florida, Home Rule language was proposed in the 1968 Constitutional revision, and was adopted by the people. The Legislature adopted the Home Rule Powers Act in 1973, which ended challenges related to city and county powers. The Florida Constitution states in Article VIII, Section 2(b) for municipalities:

"Municipalities shall have governmental, corporate and proprietary powers to enable them to conduct municipal government, perform municipal functions and render municipal services, and may exercise power for municipal purposes except as otherwise provided by law."

These powers do not extend to fiscal Home Rule: the state reserves all taxing authority unto itself.
"GatorTown Review believes the fiscal home rule clause in the law help define the scope of 'home rule' and prevents counties from changing the definition the state assigned to a taxing authority mechanism like non-ad valorem. The legal non-ad valorem definition says this tax must "provide certain benefits to your property", not certain benefits to 'you', but to your property.
Alachua County has twisted the meaning of non-ad valorem so that your property DOES NOT have to receive certain benefits. Instead, the new meaning being put forth by the county attorney says if you drive on a county road or drink water, your property may not be receiving a benefit from a storm water tax, but YOU personally in a round about way are receiving a benefit from a non-ad valorem storm water tax."

Application
The most precious powers a city in Florida has are its Home Rule powers. The ability to establish its form of government through its charter, and to then enact ordinances, codes, plans and resolutions without prior state approval is a tremendous authority. To further be able to enforce them "at home" and to make necessary changes as a city grows is a great reflection of the trust that citizens have in their respective city leaders.

What is the role of the county commissioners?
The board of county commissioners is the elected body that oversees a county's governance. Counties must carry out constitutionally mandated responsibilities, and those established by the state. The constitutional services of a county are law enforcement and jail administration, tax collection, property appraisal, state court administration and supervision of elections. In addition, counties are charged with road maintenance, public health, solid waste disposal and other environmental responsibilities. Other county services are offered as determined by the elected county officials.