The left is going nuts because Florida governor DeSantis is proposing to phase out property taxes on homestead property. They are claiming the counties and cities will need to cut essentials like police, fire, roads, and schools. They say that there isn’t enough waste, fraud, and abuse to be found, and those essentials will be forced to face cuts. Let me show you why they are wrong.
The city of Cape Canaveral in Brevard County has a population of about 10,000 people and encompasses about 2 square miles. In the year 2000, population in the city was about 8,900 people, and it was about 8,000 people in 1990. That’s a growth rate of 0.5% per year over the past 36 years. <—Important stat, so keep this in mind as we look at the rest of this.
The city hall was built in the 1960s, and was about 3200 square feet. It looked like this:
In 2015, construction was begun on a new, 18,000 square foot city hall at a cost of $5.5 million. That number was close to what the city spent that year in its entire budget.
Now explain to me why they needed to build this giant edifice that costs more to build and to maintain than the building it replaced? Population was only 25% larger than it was in 1980, but the city hall building needed to be five times larger to accommodate all of the extra bureaucratic employees that are now working there.
The city’s budget is now $70 million, despite the fact that the city contains the same number of residents as it did ten years ago when the budget was $5.5 million. They built a larger city hall, then filled that space with more employees. Five times the building at twelve times the cost.
Why are so many more employees needed? The cost of government was $3 million per year in 1980, or about $11 million in 2025 dollars. Why does government need to be 7 times larger than it was in 1980, even though population is only 25% larger?
This is the waste, fraud, and abuse I am talking about. Maybe essential services NEED to be cut. That’s an insane amount of growth.
14 Comments
pcb_duffer · June 6, 2026 at 10:27 am
In the interest of statistical comparison: What was the number of employees per City department in 1990, vs. the number today? If the Police Department went from 12 officers to 36 in that time, why? And of course what’s the total budget of each Department? Of that amount, how much is direct payroll? How much is indirect payroll costs, such as pension, insurance, training, equipment, and so forth? The average American doesn’t understand exactly what it costs to put a cop on the beat for a year, or a teacher in the classroom. And yes, there are a lot of bureaucrats who could be winnowed out, all of whom cost payroll + taxes + benefits+ training + ad nauseum.
As always, the devil is in the details. A $40,000 patrol car that’s sold for little to nothing after 5 years has cost the City a lot more than $8,000 per year. It has to insured, fueled, and maintained. Last year, my 6 year old Kia drank $960 in gasoline, and insuring it was more than twice that (for fairly high limits, to be honest).
Divemedic · June 6, 2026 at 10:52 am
OK. Now explain why those costs are 12.7 times higher now than they were ten years ago, considering that the population is only 12% higher.
Sure, they may have 3 times as many cops, but why? Its hard to justify if the population has grown so little.
Its backwards to say “Im stealing your money to hire 3 times as many cops, and I dont have to have justification to do so. Instead, you have to justify why I cant.”
Nope. Im voting to prevent your taking those taxes, which will only cut your budget from $70 million to $57 million. Learn to govern within those means.
YourAverageJoe · June 6, 2026 at 9:00 pm
Hey for that matter, why does a dollar in California buy so much less than the same dollar does in Mississippi?
pcb_duffer · June 6, 2026 at 3:04 pm
My point is to just make sure we’re not comparing apples and lawn furniture. I’m certainly not going to cheer the growth in the scale and intrusiveness of government. If we have essentially the same population base, but triple the number of cops, the first question ought to be “Why?”. But if the number of officers has only increased slightly, while the total employment of the Police department has tripled, that’s a very different “Why?”.
Grumpy51 · June 6, 2026 at 4:36 pm
Figures be damned. Rockwall County (TX) Commissioners pushed through a new courthouse, voters be damned. I’ve attached a news article (caveat emptor) that I’ll admit I learned something from (some government decrees). But being from this area, why did it have to be SO LARGE?? Yes, it’s Texas, but things can still be done less ostentatiously. The local comments involved another large courthouse being built (around the same time) of Collin County.
https://www.roysecityheraldbanner.com/opinion/columns/the-saga-of-the-rockwall-county-courthouses/article_d4791ee8-2cd8-11ef-8ae8-e32b79aa5295.html
GrayDog · June 6, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Pikers.
Washington State Democrats control all three branches of the government and recently passed an income tax that is forbidden by the State’s Constitution. Over the last 90 years Washington state voters have soundly rejected six attempts to amend the Constitution to allow an income tax. The current Democrat controlled Washington State Supreme Court decided that maybe it’s not so unconstitutional after all… And so it proceeds toward implementation, against 90 years of precidence. After all it’s only a tax on millionaires. Having achieved this improbable success after so many years, Washington state Democrats are working to change that as well.
Steady Steve · June 7, 2026 at 1:24 pm
This attempt will fail also. It doesn’t matter what the state Supreme Court communists have ruled. The people can sue in federal court under the Guarantee Clause of the US Constitution and force the state government to follow their own constitution as written.
Anonymous · June 8, 2026 at 12:41 am
I am not at all versed on the matter; it doesn’t affect me. But it appears that the prior Supreme Court ruling decided that earnings are property, and therefore immune from being taxed as income. This new legislation apparently gets around that by purporting to tax the *act of earning*, not the earnings itself. And I spoke out of turn: The state Supreme Court has not yet decided on the constitutionality of the matter itself, which is presently under litigation before the Court (which apparently can’t readily distinguish between earnings and action from which those earnings derive.) What the state Supreme Court did decide apparently is that the new legislation can’t be overturned by referendum, declaring that the legislation is protected under the “support of state government” exemption. The dizzying circles of perfidy would be stunning if they occurred in America.
Divemedic · June 8, 2026 at 7:12 am
Please see my previous comments on the state of Washington.
Zone 5: Occupied Zones
Areas in zone 5 are areas where the government has ceded or lost all control and/or has openly declared that they cannot and will not provide basic government services like police, fire, and EMS. These areas are completely out of legitimate governmental control and can best be described as being behind enemy lines. Anyone who finds themselves in one of these areas is advised to leave immediately, even if this means abandoning property.
Minnesota: Minneapolis in the area of 38th street and Chicago Avenue (the area called “George Floyd Square”)
Oregon: Portland
Washington State.
Ralph · June 6, 2026 at 5:01 pm
We just drove though the panhandle (FL) and stayed a week. Impoverished is an understatement. Every municipal and county building or facility was new or nearly so. Closed businesses, houses empty, high foreclosures. What can’t continue, won’t.
YourAverageJoe · June 6, 2026 at 8:55 pm
Politicians hate math.
It always works against them.
Joe Blowq · June 8, 2026 at 9:26 am
Then compound it with the self-reinforcing feedback loop of asking “how do government workers vote?” They vote for more government of course!
This is one of the reasons why we will not be ‘voting’ our way out of this mess at the ballot box. There are, by design, too many self-reinforcing feedback loops (see welfare and social services). The point of all the government dependency programs, is to make people dependent on the government. If you get paid by the government to shuffle papers, you’re still dependent on the government (as in this example with Cape Canaveral, or any other government office in this country). This is why we have the problem we do in our country. Half the people WANT the government to take over their lives for them, do the thinking for them, the hard work for them. Half the people collect a paycheck directly or indirectly for the government – how many private contracts are paid with government dollars? You’re still dependent on the government if you don’t have any non-government customers. So many people are captured by the government in one form or another, it’s practically hopeless.
Divemedic · June 8, 2026 at 11:30 am
and how many people have a job because they are needed to help their employer comply with government regulations? That’s how you get administrative bloat
Gryphon · June 13, 2026 at 5:55 pm
One of the reasons for excessive spending on these ‘government centers’ is the propensity for ‘security measures’ that approximate an Imperial “Green Zone” Embassy in an Occupied Nation. Many of these places have Generators, Water Supplies, Bulletproof Windows, Cameras everywhere inside and out, Bollards, Barricades, and “landscaping” Retaining walls to make it Impossible for an ordinary vehicle to approach the Building at all. On top of that, to enter this type of ‘public’ building, you have to make an Appointment, online, and provide an I.D.
One of the Worst Examples near my AO is in Fairfax County, VA. The “County Board of Supervisors”, (S)elected Officials, have a “Boardroom” where their Public Meetings are held.. but the ‘Public’ can only ‘attend’ them in an Auditorium on the floor below, where they can watch and listen to these ‘officials’ on a Screen.
I used to Laugh at the term “zionist occupation government”, but what constitutes ‘government’ at all levels now fits this Term so closely it’s no longer Funny.
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