My property taxes went up 40% the first year of my residency here in South Florida. My condo fees went up 45%, and my insurance costs went up by40%. The three items total sixteen thousand dollars a year. Ridiculous!

I owned my apartment at Pine Needle Retirement Community in Lancaster, PA, and paid a quarterly fee there that was used for the same kinds of things that my condo fee is here. I’ve checked with some of my former neighbors at Pine Needle, and while their quarterly fee has gone up, it is still only half as much as my condo fee is here.

Everyone I talk to in South Florida describes a similar situation, and so many residents are retirees living on fixed incomes. Retired people here have to go back to work, if they can, or move away from Florida. There is little or no industry here, so younger people are employed in support/service industry, things like cleaning, lawn, and pool services. There are companies that manage condominiums, like mine. Of course there are literally hundreds of restaurants, hotels, and inns. There are also hundreds of thousands of resort type rental properties up and down this ninety-mile stretch of coast, so there are real estate people that do nothing but manage rental properties. There are high-end department stores and boutiques, and liquor stores by the thousands. However, while the service industry pays owners, CEO’s and upper management extremely well, the middle and lower echelons are paid extremely poorly. Middle class families have to rethink their budgets and downscale, or move out of the state. Poor families get poorer, and their rich landlords, those folks that live inside the Intracoastal Waterway just squeeze harder and expect more from service personnel. I guess it’s harder for the poor to move, though increases in Latino population throughout the United States suggest otherwise.

The new governor, Charlie Crist talks the talk about stopping profligate county spending in Florida, and pressuring insurance companies to do something about their rates. Newscasters like Lou Dobbs run special community forums with members of the Florida state house and senate about the problem, but it remains to be seen if anything can be done to stop the runaway costs. Certainly, taxes and high insurance rates that already exist are not ever going down.

Why is this political? First, because at the county level in Florida, politicians work on the good old boy system, and profligate spending is the name of the game. County taxes statewide have gone up by 80% since 2002. Pet projects designed to line pockets are rampant. Second, I’ve already written about one program here in Palm Beach County that wastes millions of dollars a year. It is designed to profile and trap gay men, and has done so to over twelve hundred, though some of these are heterosexual and bisexual men caught in a police juggernaut that is straight - pun intended - out of the 1950’s (See Isaac Stolzfuts' Journal, December 14 and 17, 2006.). Third, politicians at the state level have long stood by and watched and allowed the escalation take place. Despite the rhetoric, I see little chance that the spending spree will stop.

I have begun looking at single dwellings in South Florida since that would do away with the exorbitant condo fee. I’m also looking at communities outside of Florida. Since there is an exodus of middle class retirees from Florida, I want to know where they are all going. Unfortunately, most areas that meet my criteria – it must have museums, orchestra, opera, theater, good libraries, preferably ocean or lakes, and a warm climate - are expensive as (BLEEP!). However, I’m still looking.

It really is too bad. South Florida has so much to offer - beautiful clear warm ocean, great weather, culture, magnificent native and imported flora and fauna. Never the less, if one form of spending pushes the economy, all other forms of spending heat up, and this state has literally hit the upper end of a hyperbolic curve. Infinity here we come!

(SH-BLEEP!) I may just have to move to the desert.