We attended a Lake Tran board meeting yesterday specifically to hear them discuss the need for more revenue from the already over taxed citizens.

They passed the resolution to place  an additional .25% sales tax levy on the November, 2019 ballot .  They decided to change the term of the levy from “a continuing period of time” to a period of 10 years.

During the public comment section, LFC spoke regarding our review of their financial statements.  We made the following points:

1.  The new sales tax increase will generate $8.5 – $9.0 million dollars.
2.  This translates into ~98% increase in sale tax revenue, and over 50% increase in total revenue.
3.  We are glad that they chose to eliminate the “continuous levy”, since we believe that the political sub-divisions must be accountable to the taxpayers.
4.  As of 2017, Lake Tran has over $10 million in investments with $5 million of those investments in securities with maturities of 2 – 5 years.  Why the need for the cash?
5.  We have discovered that many of Lake County’s political sub-divisions are hoarding cash for some reason and they are “sucking the lifeblood” out of the community.

There was no discussion or comments made by the Board.

There was an astute board member that questioned the need for the tax increase since it will generate $9 million in the first year.  He was corrected by the Board leaders with the fact that it will only be $4.5 million since they will only get 6 months worth in the first year……no kidding, they said that….

We were waiting for Lake Tran to list 10 reasons why they need the money.  Quite frankly, they did not give one compelling reason why they needed the money.  Their argument of increased Dial-A-Ride customers is not good enough for LFC.

They are going to have to step up their game, and prove to the taxpayers that they need the money.  A new day is dawning in Lake County, and these political sub-divisions living off the taxpayers will have to be more accountable and justify their very existence.

On another item, they mentioned that Lubrizol Corporation has inquired about the possibility of moving the Lake Tran parking lot on Lakeland Boulevard so that Lubrizol could convert the parking lot to green space.  It was stated that Lake Tran does not have the money to purchase any land (What about their investments ?). Although the current space is ideal for Lake Tran services, they would entertain moving if Lubrizol would pony up $800,000 to $2 million for new land.

Categories: Lake, Uncategorized

Tags: FT