The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Posts tagged ‘housing’

Housing & Taxes

Dear Editors:

Recently, Sixty Minutes broadcast a report about housing in Florida. The report centered on the increased cost of housing, from rental to actual home ownership.  Many homes in Florida, the report said, were being purchased by corporate entities and wealthy individuals and groups which are creating a rental business and thus driving up the rental prices and putting houses in the hands of wealthy people, not the common folk who work for a living below the living wages required in our society today.  What Sixty Minutes did NOT present was the impact on property tax bills for Floridians.  Having been a one-time resident of Florida for nearly 40 years, I have some questions which were not addressed by Sixty Minutes.

Homestead Exemptions and Taxes

Unlike the STAR program here in New York, Florida has a homestead exemption for the primary residence of all people, not just for senior citizens.  Who put this program in place? Many years ago, it was DEMOCRATS who put this in place, not Republicans.  I think people need to know this. Certainly Fox News is not going to inform the nation about this. I am disappointed that CBS did not inform, either, with the report on Sixty Minutes. Homestead exemption gives the ability of homeowners in Florida to not pay taxes on x amount of value of the property.  It is a standard amount and could have changed since I lived in Florida, so that is why I use “x” rather than an exact amount of exemption. 

In Florida, I have had primary residences in Palm Beach County and St. Lucie County.  In southwest Florida, I once owned property considered to be “secondary,” so was not exempt as primary.  I paid a higher rate – the full tax bill – for the property in southwest Florida. 

Due to Rick Scott nixing the idea voted in favor by the people of Florida for a fast-speed train from Orlando to Miami, my primary residence of property in St. Lucie County, along the path of where that train, voted in favor by a MAJORITY of Floridians and backed up by a BIPARTISAN support (the senator who represented my district in St. Lucie County, Republican majority leader in the Florida Senate supported the idea and fought with Rick Scott until term limits put Senator Alexander out of office; unlike the Republican majority leader from days gone by who hailed from an upstate NY area – he was my senator here in New York – who faced no term limits and could accomplish more for the people of New York when a Democratic Party governor here worked against the people).  Between the burst of the real estate bubble and the lack of the voter-approved train, I lost money on the property in St. Lucie County, as I watched the developer of the real estate project fold.  All due to a Republican named Rick Scott.  The property went “under water,” which is an expression typically used for automobile loans and not for real estate because in those days real estate prices were a small but steady increase over a long period of time.  Not any more.  I was also told that, to rent the home, not only would I give up my homestead exemption, there were some taxes imposed by the state of Florida.  I never looked into this later aspect, but just worked to sell the property and move back to Palm Beach County.  I accomplished this goal and sold the Fort Pierce property, then purchased a villa in Palm Beach County. 

In thinking over all of this and viewing the Sixty Minutes report, I have to wonder why CBS News did not present the facts regarding taxes.  In saying that most people were unable to purchase homes there, due to the increased cost of housing from an influx of people with money from the west coast of the USA and what could be considered “slum lord” ownership comparable to the ghettos of Germany under Hitler, I have to ask: who pays the property taxes now in Florida? Those who are able to afford the expensive housing – the wealthy – can pay lowered property taxes due to homestead exemption. Those who are workers in Florida now pay huge amounts of taxes by way of huge increases in rent. Or am I wrong about this assessment?

If the ownership of rental properties are paying, in a corrupt manner, for housing which is “secondary,” not “primary,” taxes with homestead exemption, then the Republicans running Florida are doing “favors” for such slum lords.  With such ownership, regardless of whether there is illegal homestead exemption or not, the renters are paying a large chunk of the taxes and are being denied the ability to purchase homes and pay the smaller amount of taxes available with homestead exemption. Is there a tax that these owners of secondary housing paying the state of Florida? That, I am not clear because I never pursued it with my property in Fort Pierce, but just sold the property. 

In this age with lies about Democrats being “tax and spend” Democrats, words hurled by Trumpicans at Democrats, I repeat. It was Democrats in Florida who implemented the homestead exemption in Florida.  Add to this the fact that the Democrat turned Republican and darling of Ronald Reagan reigned for one term over the implementation of a sales tax on services in Florida.  He was a Republican when he did this, not a Democrat.  And Ronald Reagan had embraced the man at the 1984 Republican National Convention.  Nevertheless, I do believe it was the Democrats who helped repeal that tax on services. The news media in Florida can correct me if I am wrong and my memory is hazy on this issue.  I am not a coward, as are tRUMP, Rick Scott, and Ron DeSantis, should I be in error.  If I am in error about the later statement regarding the service tax, please… let me know.  I am a man and willing to take it on the chin (figuratively speaking). 

The Trumpicans can shut their mouths when falsely using the words, “united we stand, divided we fall.” With those folks, it is more like “united we Nazi fascists stand, divided we fall.”  But by using the words in a more generic sense, they get people to follow them, like lemmings being led over a cliff to their death.  Like cowards, the Trumpicans (like Palladino of New York) use the words which originated with unions and the civil rights movement, referencing ALL OF HUMANITY and particularly WE THE PEOPLE (first three words of the USA Constitution), not fascists. 

Be Careful What you Wish for…

In the 1960s, my grandmother, God bless her, visited her sister in the state of Florida. She came back with the words, “it’s terrible down there with 90 degrees in the shade.”  She did not add that with the heat was such a high humidity, compared to upstate New York when it gets hot, that there is steam coming off the roads after it rains in the summer.  My grandmother said, “everyone is going there to seek a paradise and the fountain of youth. I never saw a paradise and the fountain of youth does not exist. I shall never return there.”  My grandmother never DID return to Florida right up to her death in 1982. 

I would classify living in Florida as negative because of “heat, humidity, hurricanes, and housing taxes [hidden in rental charges and extremely high HOA fees, far worse than village taxes in an upstate New York county – at least 10 times more in order to pay for sidewalks, streets, and social hall within a condo or single-family home development; privatization of services provided at a lower cost in many governmental jurisdictions]”.

To people in Tioga County and upstate New York who are pessimistic and think they have it so bad.  When it comes to moving to Florida or elsewhere, be careful what you wish for…

Conclusion

Perhaps Trumpicans in Tioga County and elsewhere in this nation should wake up to what is happening today with regard to housing and taxes.  What is happening today is due to firing up with false crap and stirring up the mud, by Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, and other 21st Century robber barons. These crappy fat pigs / robber barons have denied the workers of America decent living wages and wish to remove retirement and health security for we the people of America.  At the same time, need to understand that the wages of CEOs with their bonuses have increased more than 1000% since the 1970s. This has been accomplished with the use of supply-side Reaganomics. deregulation, and the ultimate curse of monopoly.  With considerations of housing and taxes, the media is not telling the truth, sad to say. 

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Housing in Minnesota and Elsewhere

Interesting to learn that there are those who consider the prices of houses in a neighborhood decrease when black folks move into those in Minnesota. For me, I have lived in integrated neighborhoods in Florida and found them to be wonderful places to live alongside some wonderful people of all races. The timing for living in one neighborhood was what hurt and caused the prices to decrease because it was during the time of an extensive increase of 125% over two to three years, with house flipping galore and corrupt deals between banks and developers. It had nothing to do with the makeup of the people moving in when the overall housing bubble collapsed and prices fell.  I repeat. the decrease in prices had nothing to do with black people moving in because it was integrated and those who were black suffered just as much as those who were white.
One step further. In the last couple of years, looking for a home in upstate New York, the prices of homes were so very expensive in areas which are more integrated than here in Tioga County, NY. In this county Republicans are in the majority and there is a very large white majority. To hear someone here complain about “housing prices will go down should black people move in” is absolutely a bunch of drivel. 

Once again, there are too many Americans who don’t even recognize what it means for capitalism.  If you have more people of any color move into areas and are able to create new developments for all, you have more people purchasing the homes. The demand is up. If the supply is low, the prices go up. If the housing inventory is too large, the prices go down. It’s called capitalism, stupid and that means supply and demand considerations.

Right now, there is an opportunity for Tioga County, NY, to bring in new residents of nay color, due to the opportunities to move into the “country” and work remotely from home. The idea is that we need to create jobs first in order to develop the area. But in this case, there is a potential market with those who are seeking lower prices and living in a more open area, rather than in urban areas where it is sometimes easier to contract viruses and bacteria.

In the end, If you develop an area with lower-priced housing, you can then attract the business, opportunities for more people, and jobs for more people.  It is ludicrous for those in Minnesota to consider that blacks ruin a neighborhood.  And too many Republicans claim “there is no systemic racism?” I don’t want to hear such BS anymore.  If you build it, they will come, including all people and all races.  That is a good thing which I saw the positives of such actions in Florida.There are simply too many Republicans who don’t like this idea because they wish to destsroy the ability of registering voters of all colors. 

—

Professor Douglas Willet Cornwell (Retired)

Newark Valley, NY

bibsinger@gmail.com

———————————“Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “The problems of the world are not that some people love in a different way. The problems are that so many people don’t know how to love at all (CGA, 1970).” A Puritan is someone in fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time. “Liberty and justice for all [not priorities on individual and selfish rights].” “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union [and overall wealth of American society]…” 
Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are affected.” Stacey Abrams: “Compromise about actions, but not about values.”  Oscar Wilde: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”  Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Benjamin Franklin: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Whoopi Goldberg: “To handle this COVID-19 pandemic effectively, we all need to get on the same page.”  Note: To be clear, I do not like being patronized. I do not express my disdain over what happens to my fellow humans just for my own sake and to pursue favors and handouts. I do it in order to gain R – E – S – P – E – C – T for me and for millions of other Americans of any race, ethnicity, religious belief, or sex and sexual identity who try to walk in integrity as they attempt to achieve, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  PERIOD.  One nation under God [our Creator] with liberty and justice for all.

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31 July 2011

Often on this post, I have commented about my Dutch family relationships to the Roosevelt family.  By marriage, my Dutch family, the Schoonmakers, are related to the Roosevelts.  This is well documented in the Schoonmaker genealogy which is available from the Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz, NY.

Had it not been for my ancestor, Capt. Frederick J. Schoonmaker, financing the American Revolution to the brink of his own bankruptcy, this nation may have had a Schoonmaker with a huge mansion running for president.  But Capt. Frederick “lost his shirt” by financing the building of the chain across the Hudson River (one end of the chain was on the present-day location of West Point).   He is an example, unlike the Bush family, which derives from the same geographic area as the Roosevelts and Schoonmakers, of commitment to community and one who takes a dim view regarding the love of money.  This is the same contrast of a wealthy Schoonmaker with the Koch brothers and others today.

The hateful people of the 21st century tea party quote the original Tea Party, but abandon all sense of community which existed among those who funded and supported the American Revolution.  They all do this out of love for money and reckless abandonment of love for the human community.  The tea party’s actions are being performed in the name of a 20th-century atheist bitch (so-called Jew – a traitor to her Jewish roots) who was pissed at the Soviet government when she came to America acting like she was some kind of expert about what life in America should be about.  These things are being done in the name of a wealthy family which once owned a chain of salons in a Caribbean nation and also in the name of a former legislative leader of the government on that island nation.  None of these people understand the American way of life and our heritage for love of community, so there actions are those of hatred – in support of the fascist Bush family.  There is no toleration of an opinion regarding hatred.  It is not an opinion.

Last night, I viewed the DVD, Eleanor and Franklin.  It was quite revealing.  Many people, both Republicans and Democrats, could learn from Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Having read a great deal about FDR and Eleanor, the film appeared to be quite close to reality.

A scene the ideological Republican tea party members need to consider.  A belligerent reporter approached President Roosevelt (standing on crutches, by the way, due to his polio – need I remind pigs today who don’t know what it feels like to be helpless), he asked four questions and the president addressed each one.  The reporter asked FDR:  “Are you a communist?”  The president answered, “no!”  The reporter continued:  “Are you a capitalist?”  FDR:  “No!”  The reporter:  “Are you a socialist?” FDR:  “No!”  The reporter:  “What are you?”  FDR:  “A Christian and a Democrat!”

Today, FDR’s answer to the last question probably should have been:  “An Episcopalian and a Democrat” – because so many so-called Christians have lost sight of the focus of Jesus Christ and mis-represent Him.   But then, a Nigerian Anglican archbishop, the Episcopal bishops in Pittsburgh and central Florida also mis-represent Jesus Christ, too.

A lesson for President Obama and the Democrats.  FDR made a comment about “putting Americans back to work,” but I never heard him talk about “jobs creation.”  To me, jobs are just one part of “putting Americans back to work.”  But Democrats today focus ONLY on that one little aspect, forgetting the opportunities (as do the tea party folks) which give Americans the ability to invest in their future.  On the opposite extreme, the tea party folks think ONLY about entrepreneurship (greedy selfish entrepreneurship which abandons any sense of community) and these tea party people toss out every aspect about creating jobs.  Thus, we have a polarization in America today – stimulated by the vengeful attitudes of fascists like the Bush family.

FDR created opportunities in the form of “bonds.”  Victory Bonds and the like.  Democrats never propose strings attached to the tax cuts of the wealthy.  For instance, Democrats never propose the following to the wealthy of America:  if you want the tax cuts, then here is where you need to invest the money from your tax cuts:  Bonds… in Housing, Education, Food, or Health bonds.  Government bonds underwritten by the private sector.  An alliance of public and private in order to make this nation healthy and “put Americans back to work.”

FDR believed in “unemployment compensation,” but I believe he would have been appalled at what he would see in the system today.  Corruption.  People who have become lazy and LOOK for the “shortest distance between two points.”  Construction workers located in the cold snowy areas of the nation who collect during times when weather prohibits them from working.  Teacher unions don’t get this type of unemployment during the summer, but are under attack today.  I knew a union member (now deceased) in the trades who was appalled at the existence of such horse s*** unemployment “handouts.”  Yet union members are the ones taking it on the chin today?  During World War II, this now-deceased CWA member fought valiantly against fascist Mussolini, losing a thumb in the conflicts in Italy.  This union member also admired FDR and Nelson Rockefeller of New York.

Solution:  if weather prohibits people from working, then the government provides funding to help such people bring home income, rather than handing out unemployment checks.  For instance, Vermont imports students from Australia to run the ski lifts during the winter – while unemployed construction workers in the northeast sit on their asses with no work.  The government could be the catalyst to help bring employers and potential employees together, rather than providing handouts which ultimately create lazy people.

I believe, if the Bush family and others would drop their goddamn vindictiveness against FDR – which clouds their decision-making capabilities – then we could, as a community of Americans solve our problems more effectively.

Drop the goddamn ideology and solve our problems  – NOW!  Stop the horse s*** and develop a better cup of ice cream!

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