It sure felt more like a cold and windy day in mid-March, rather than being the 5th of April. Thank goodness I wore my winter coat to work, but that wasn’t enough to keep that bone-chilling wind from making me uncomfortable.
Instead of going straight to office, I stopped and got a fill-up of gas, and when looking at the amount on the ticket that pump spit out, I could see our gas prices are on their way back up again, so I’m gonna have to pay closer attention to my driving habits, and more cost effectively, start planning the many errands I have around the City.
There were more phone calls which had come in from the general public regarding their recent real estate assessment notices, and for sure, one of them had me on the ropes, because she was asking some very specific questions which I honestly couldn’t answer, so I later went online to see if there was some sort of percentage template our City Assessor was using to come up with those increases. Well, after randomly checking both residential and commercial, those percentages were all over the map. Believe it or not, there were several which actually dropped, but all in all, there were percent hikes which varied from 15%, all the way up to 35%. If I have time, I’ll going to do some additional checking, because as I see it at this point, there’s no real rhyme or reason that’s surfaced, and no, I’m not going to call any Assessor’s offices, because I’ve been down that road too many times over the years, and almost always, the reasoning they use for their valuations, are nebulous at best. Sorry, been there–done that. About three years ago, I challenged one to the point where she’s now likely grinding an axe for me into perpetuity, and only because I made a point to challenge several of the erroneous statements she made. Once again, people in positions of meritocracy, absolutely hate being challenged, and especially when they’ve been proven wrong. I can’t remember the last time such position-holders have ever admitted mistake and/or said they were sorry.
Another well known called today to tell me he’d done some additional digging and found that not only has our real estate assessments gone thru the roof, our City government called for the maximum millage rate allowed by Iowa law, so when those tax bills arrive next year, that’s when there’s going to be and even greater public outcry. I know for a fact, that over the many years of assessment increases, there were many times they’d lower the millage rate, just so the tax bills would remain relatively the same, so be prepared. He also went on to say that when comparing our City government’s disbursements for 2021 to 2022’s, there was an increase of over twelve and a half million dollars more paid out in 2022. Had I not know him well enough, I would’ve insisted he was looking at those number wrong. Now tell me, what in the world created a 12.5 million dollar increase in spending? I know David Rachie’s been sucking every penny he can out of our City’s coffers, but definitely not that much. The more I’ve been hearing these past several days, the curiouser it all becomes. I believe we need a few more concerned citizens to go down their own rabbit holes, just to see what they come up with. Like I said before, many hands and focused minds, make little work.
Most of my day was spent working on files, along with paying bills and wrestling with my end of the month accounting. The hours seemed to fly by, so at least I didn’t have to be out in that wind any more than I had to. A hot cup of tea and good lighting, kept me at it until I had everthing completely up to date.
I forgot to mention a very soulful conversation I had yesterday with a gentleman who’s the Executor of his parent’s estate, and since I’ve known the family for a very many years, we spent a good forty-five minutes comparing the trials we had to endure which were created by others during those last years before death and after. Since the death hasn’t been that long ago for him, more than once, I assured him that it’ll get better in time to where he’ll look back at it as another closed chapter of his life. Several things he mentioned which was done to him by others, were near exact match-ups to what I personally had happen, which prompted me to say, “No matter what anyone tells you, there’s almost always discord which comes to the surface after the last parent passes. I was glad to hear, he also took the high road and walked away, instead of fighting a losing battle with those who live in their hard-coded worlds of denial.
Another well known called this afternoon, just to ask my advice regarding his plan to completely sever his relationship with a toxic family member, and after hearing his plan, I thought it a bit wild, but if that toxic person has enough gray matter to read between the lines, then it would be OK, but I think he’s giving that individual too much credit in understanding his cloaked words. I did tell him that if it were me, I’d be as matter of fact as possible, and leave it at that, and for sure not to use any nasty words or name-calling. I believe such letters, have even more lasting effect if they contain no emotion, which would be similar to a company or government entity’s letter of severance. Yup, short and sweet with zero emotion.
Here we are in the midst of Holy Week, and since Good Friday is only two days away, I’m sure many businesses will be closed either all or part of the day. I won’t be surprised if there’s streams of cars heading out of town to spend Easter with distant friends and relatives. I haven’t looked at this weekend’s weather, so let’s hope there’ll be pleasant driving conditions.
I have another closing tomorrow which I’m fully prepared for with the exception of removing a lockbox and pulling a yard sign. That was another one of my listings which had multiple offers on it. Yes, this low inventory we have is causing many pile-ups.
Tonight’s One-liner is: What is permissible, is not always honorable.
