More Collier Citizen Opinion

• Citizen on the street: What would you do if you won the lottery?
• A New Perspective: Season off to rough start, but there’s hope
• On the Mark: Bailouts may come in many forms

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You sure let me have it on last week’s column. There was quite a discrepancy in taxes, depending on when you purchased your home and where it was located.

People from Golden Gate to Pelican Bay called or wrote to question my property tax numbers versus theirs, as many of them noted increases in their assessed values.

The key to some of that difference is that I purchased my home in 2005, prior to the new portability law, so no Save Our Homes exemptions had been built up. Many of you had a stretch of years, where your assessed value had not gone up with the market and this year’s notice hit you with higher valued tax levies because you were still catching up to artificially held low appraisals.

Hopefully, the commercial properties will be a little more realistic in values than the market is currently showing.

Many homeowners couldn’t understand the value placed on their homes. It’s not what they’ve been seeing in pricing. Something to remember is that the value on this year’s taxes is based on 2007 sales.

Last year, it was pretty difficult to swallow an increase in appraisal, based on what market conditions were doing. A kind gentleman, Larry, at the appraiser’s office, talked me through the process, noting several home sales in the area and we thoroughly discussed the ins and the outs of the appraisal process. It helped a lot. Their number is 252-8141

Primary election results

As this column is being written, official counts aren’t in, but it appears the elections went pretty much as people had expected, with no big surprises in Collier County. Upstate, there was a two-way Republican primary for U.S. House of Representatives that drew 29,000-plus voters and was won by a narrow 50-vote margin. Every vote still does count.

As the election comes to an end for some candidates, it is disappointing to read the harsh comments under the online stories. It’s pretty easy to be an anonymous armchair quarterback and criticize the candidates who lost.

We owe these folks a debt of gratitude. It is the challengers who keep government clean by requiring candidates to have to answer to their constituents.

When you see a candidate who lost, sincerely thank them for stepping up to the plate and making our democracy work. We need them. There were a couple of candidates that were just a little too green to make the cut. They need to stay involved and be that dynamite candidate in the next election cycle. The value of contested races can’t be overstated.

We’re looking ahead to a good general election. The weak part will be the fire district races with more than two candidates. These races should have been included in the primaries, like the school board races. That way, if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the top two go on to the general election.

The way it is set up, the most desired candidate may not win if two like-minded opponents split the vote, allowing a candidate to win without a majority vote.

The fire districts are big business and these races should be treated with as high a regard as the other offices. There are many issues ahead that will require a steady hand and well grounded representation. We need the best candidates to represent us.