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Highlands Today

Where's The Relief?

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Donna Seibert

Published: October 20, 2007

In 2002, my husband and I began investing in property in Highlands County. This county has always been a great place to "get away from it all." The fishing is fabulous, the traffic less congested and the beauty breath-taking.

We were extremely excited to be able to retire early in 2006 to an area that we both love and enjoy. Our excitement quickly disappeared as we reviewed our 2006 Highlands County property tax bills. Our taxes had increased by 62 percent!

If this county had adequate staff in 2005, why would a small 3 percent decrease this year (2007) be such a big deal when increases of 62 percent and higher in the prior year should have more than covered any additional staffing needs for police and fire protection? I am sick of hearing how devastating this tax rollback is for the county. What about the tax increase from 2005 to 2006 that many of us have been burdened with? What happened to those extra funds? A 3 percent rollback is peanuts compared to the previous years' increase.

Between these tax increases and homeowners' insurance policy prices, we have decided that we cannot afford to live in this county, nor in the state, and will be relocating to a more affordable place to live. I hope that the county and the state can figure out a workable solution to this problem before both enter into a deep recession.

Please decision-makers, wake up! Your decisions are costing many investors in this area more than we can bear. Is it greed? Is it that you don't want to grow?

If you choose to keep the taxes where they are you should think about encouraging businesses to move into the area that will provide the kind of salaries that can support the increases. Surely I can't be the only one with this complaint.

Donna Seibert
Lake Placid

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