Q&A of the day – About Tuesday’s local elections
It’s the Q&A of the day. Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1
Today’s question comes from Carlos…
Thanks for checking in on what’s been happening with state government. I’m glad to have you on it. It’s hard to get good info on local issues sometimes. My question is if you can fill us in on the local elections next week?
Bottom Line: Appreciated Carlos. Feedback like yours is helpful for me deciding points of emphasis for future stories. The most popular series I put together last year was the Florida Amendment series and coming out of that I’d heard from many listeners that they’d like more coverage of state and local political issues. That’s why I’ve been doing more than I used to on state and local government issues.
At the expense of sounding like a broken record, the elections that are most likely to impact your day to day life are the one’s closest to you. They’re also the least likely to draw attention and voters. That’s why it’s so important to inform and engage. Tomorrow there are elections that impact residents of 23 municipalities in South Florida – 16 in Palm Beach County and 7 in Broward. On March 26th there’s a Special Election scheduled in Miami-Dade.
Here’s a link to the info for those elections:
Broward: 7 municipalities
Link to the elections: https://bit.ly/2U5uBgF
Palm Beach County: 16 municipalities
Link to the elections: https://bit.ly/2DWnBvv
Miami-Dade: 1 municipality
Link to the election(s): https://bit.ly/2SbvC4Z
A few weeks ago, aside I shared this updated info with you about the impact of local governments:
- Do you care about $3,458 annually? That’s what I calculated the average local tax burden to be annually in South Florida right now.
But turnout has averaged just 18% for municipal elections and 12% for Special Elections – making it all that much more important to inform and engage. Some have asked me for my thoughts on candidates/specific issues, etc. I don’t endorse specific candidates but,on the issues... I try not to meddle too much in municipal governments where I live.I’d rather encourage you to inform yourself and engage others in your community.
I might not appreciate the issues to the extent the residents of those towns can. I will say ubiquitously that I’m not supportive of issues that raise property taxes on homeowners. All of forms of taxation, property tax is the most regressive and potentially detrimental, to people. I for one don’t want to be responsible for literally taxing people out of their homes. With a strong and growing South Florida economy we need greater prioritization on these public works projects in general budgeting rather than waiting until there’s a big need and attempting to pass through huge bonds/tax increases to account for years of questionable management. More to come tomorrow...