HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-26-15 Georgeton ACSSD Public Comment To: The City Commission &all concerned, July 24 2015
As owners of property within the city limits who will be affected by the Special Streets District,
we are formally protesting, on principle, another property tax increase. Granted,traffic and
transportation in Bozeman is a congested mess-decades of poor planning or no foresight in
approving, in the name of progress and good economics,development of the entire valley and
many of the foothill areas now comes around to the pockets of the people living within the city
limits. When our neighborhood around Hawthorne School is a dangerous mess of expensive
SUV's and huge pickups, these are not people living in "the district". Not everyone in Bozeman
is a trust funder,someone with plenty of money who moved here from elsewhere and wants
and can pay for every improvement possible, or one of the lucky who can earn a liveable
income in Bozeman. There are still plenty of us in the service, retail,everyday job category
barely able to make it here-and what will happen to this town when we are all priced out of it?
People without government jobs and the great benefits they include (paid for by taxpayers) or
employed by a company that provides benefits are already stuck with the increasing costs of
private insurance and healthcare along with absolutely ridiculous rent and housing costs.
Proposals for elaborate law and justice centers, potential "water parks", Story Mansion fiascos,
lawsuits over city and county government stupidity(who approves a development on an old
landfill site or messes with the King of Bozeman, Mike Delaney!), not to mention the necessary
but continual school tax increases all start to leave a bad taste and sense of hopelessness with
some taxpayers. Including a notice of an increase in tree maintenance taxes just fuels our
protest; in the 20+years we have lived here I've yet to see any maintenance done on a tree in
our neighborhood. High winds and snow and ice are the only things that bring down a dead
branch, hopefully not on your car-they then sit on the boulevard for weeks or forever waiting
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to be picked up. I used to think it was just that we were in the oft neglected Northeast
neighborhood, but now that we are being rapidly elitized with expensive developments and old
houses being torn down and replaced maybe that will change,who knows.
We were lucky enough 22 years ago to find an affordable house to buy. Our property taxes f
were about$600 a year,they are now upwards of$3500 and look to be increasing quickly and fC!
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continually. Unfortunately,the pay scale has barely increased. The fear of eventually being
taxed out of our home is very real. We didn't purchase our house as an investment, we don't
care that a house down the street sold for almost a million dollars and increases our value-this
is our Home. But,since this is Bozeman it would probably be considered progress if we had to
sell to someone who would then tear down a historic property and gain approval for some
cinder block and metal monstrousity twice as big bringing in even more tax dollars. Formal
protest and just a little of what I would like to vent about.
Kris and Bruno Georgeton 210 North Church Ave. 587-5673