Opinion Piece By Linda Sutter – August 28, 2020
Originally, I had been informed that the Fire District Assessment was only going to cost the tax payers, $36.00 per year/per unit. However the ballot which I received in the mail on August 27th told a completely different story. Suddenly, the Fire District is asking for $74.00 per unit/per year until the tax is repealed by the voters.
Well, voters we should nip this in the bud right now and this is why. This country is in a Great depression and currently there is no way out. You can look up the numbers I am about to give on your own time.
1. San Francisco, ½ of the store fronts are empty.
2. New York City unemployment rate is 20% in the month of July. 8.6 million people live in NYC that is 1.72 million people unemployed.
3. In NYC 83% of all restaurants were unable to pay their rent last month.
4. The State of Louisiana have lost twice as many jobs as it did when Katrina Hit, and expect more with Hurricane Laura.
5. South Carolina – 52% all renters are at risk of eviction.
6. All Americans owe more than $21 billion dollars in unpaid rent.
7. Overall, 27% of all Americans could not make their rent or mortgage payments last month.
8. According to Mortgage Banker Association delinquency rate in residential mortgages increased by 386 base points last quarter. That comes to 3.86% most rapid raise ever seen.
9. US Bankruptcies are at highest levels in 10 years. With an expected surge by end of 2020.
10. For companies with over $1 billion dollars in assets it is being projected that there will be a record number of bankruptcies in 2020.
11. World Trade Plunged to lowest levels on record during month of June.
12. The percentage of Hotel Mortgages that are 30 or more days delinquent soared to 23.4%
13. American Airlines eliminating 19,000 jobs next month after they got their bailouts of $20-30 billion dollars to keep their workers employed during 3-4 month Covid 19 period. As soon as they qualified for their loans to be forgiven they are now letting their 19,000 employees go. (No one is flying anywhere).
14. 31% of US workers that were brought back to work after being laid off due to health crisis have been laid off a second time. Another 26% have been told lay offs are coming soon totaling 57% all together.
15. According to recent study ½ of all US workers believe their job losses are permanent.
16. IRS is projecting it will receive 37 million fewer w-2 forms this year than originally anticipated. Each w-2 forms equals a job.
17. Last 22 weeks, 57 million Americans have filed unemployment benefits.
Heed the warnings folks and prepare for trying times in the next few months. Although I believe our First Responders, Fire District and Law Enforcement deserve our support, unfortunately, this is a bad year to ask for tax or assessment increases.
Vote as you wish, but my family is voting no new fees, assessments or taxes of any kind.
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But the president said the economy is doing great. Just look at the stock market.