Pensacola City Council Jerry Howard lost a major plank of his platform when the Vince Whibbs Community Maritime Park passed on Sept. 5th. In his viewpoint on Gulf1.com (Howard says vote No) that ran before the vote, Howard wrote – “A vast majority of my friends, neighbors and business associates are voting NO because of all the questions raised above.” Fortunately, Howard doesn’t have that many friends or business associates, because the “No” votes failed.
On Luke McCoy’s “White Pensacola Speaks” today – Howard was given a full segment to campaign against the incumbent Mike DeSorbo. Howard went after the increase in property taxes apparently his businesses and investment properties jumped from $5000-$9500 for 2006-07.
The Save Our Home amendment prevents the property value of homes that have homestead exemption status from increasing by more than 3%, but businesses, vacation homes and condos, and rental property can be valued at the fair market rate every year.
Howard was trying to rally people to go to county and city meetings to fight the tax increase and get a bigger rollback. I’m not sure he will get much support from his neighbors who may believe businesses should bear a greater portion of the taxes and that home owners should be given as many breaks as possible. I’m not so sure they care about Mr. Howard having to pay more property taxes on his office and investment property.
“Elect me so I can save money” isn’t the best campaign slogan to garner votes from the retirees in his district. But what do I know? Maybe Howard can get his “vast majority of my friends, neighbors and business associates” to help him cut his taxes.
On the maritime park, Howard couldn’t resist another jab at Quint Studer – attacking the amount of his money Studer spent to get the measure passed – “With that much money, you could sell snow to eskimos.” Then half-heartedly told listeners to get behind the park project.
