City Consolidation

City Consolidation may be the way to go… what are your thoughs?

Submitted Comments: (if any)

Springfield, Parker and Cedar Grove are largely slums. The other cities do not want anything to do with these mismanaged cities. Talk to their mayors. You are in for a fight if you think you can vote the huge financial problems of the above three cities on to the back of surrounding cities. Not gonna happen.

Comment submitted by  on  11/08  at  07:17 PM

The residents of Springfield should know that if they are absorbed into either Callaway or Panama City, they will then be obligated to pay city taxes. Even joining Cedar Grove, Parker, and Sprinfield into one city would still result in a city tax on property. The average Springfield resident can’t afford any more taxes than they already pay in addition to HUGE increases in the cost of homeowners insurance. They are paying rates equal to beach property that is worth more than three times the value of a Springfield home. Bet ya didn’t know that. $1500 a year for a $70K home in Springfield. $1500 a year on a home on the beach that is valued at $250K. Both brick homes and same square footage. Neither home is new.

Comment submitted by  on  11/08  at  07:30 PM

There is another option to consolidation that would prove very beneficial to the east side of Bay County and that is secession. There is really no way for both sides of Bay County to successfully exist side by side anymore. Their needs are way too different. Let the Beach go their own way. This would leave the rest of Bay County in charge of it’s own destiny. If we continue on the path we are on, the east side of the bridge is going to end up a huge slum while the west side becomes a rich man’s mecca. All our taxes are being spent on the beach side of the bridge. This is one reason the school tax bill failed. The words, “new construction” were taken by many to mean new schools for the airport city that will soon be built. Without any qualifying data, there was no way to keep all sales tax income from being spent there, leaving the old run down schools on the east side without access to funding. The ugly truth here is the public does not trust the school board or the superindendent. I forsee some major changes coming in the next election. We need new blood that will represent ALL of Bay County not just the priviliged few on the beach. It is just as deserted this winter as it has been for many many years. This means few taxes are being generated and the east side of the bridge once again carries the west side until the tourist arrive in the summer. The beach is being developed for the future at the expense of the entire county. Secession from Bay County by the east side of Hathaway Bridge will get us and our incomes out of this mess. Either the Beach secedes or the rest of the County does. No other option will suceed. Time to bite the bullet and do what is necessary to stop the financial ruin facing Bay County citizens due to investors manipulating our government to their advantage.

Comment submitted by  on  11/09  at  09:05 AM

Very astute and spot on comments, springfieldgramma.
Because this is a report by the sanitized news media, one of the main pluses of having the separate cities has been left out. Remember the pipeline? The county lawyers had screwed up and the fiasco would have never come to light without the local City of Callaway asking some hard questions about it. The fact that this town has an insider “good old boy” network that actively works against the community as it suits their individual needs is never mentioned by the local news media. They could lose advertisers or be sued if they do, so one cannot really blame them, but local corruption remains a very pertinent fact. Consolidate the town into one big government and the local citizens lose their voice. I live in Callaway, and can easily contact the town government, and they will listen, if I have a problem.
Can you do this with the county, if you are not an insider? Without fetching a lawyer when they give you the runaround?  While the facts on paper all point that the consolidation is economically a better way to go, I live in the real Bay county, where the law is very often not what is written in the law books but decided behind close doors in some crooked judge’s office. Judges who are mostly appointed and never run for election, even though
they take in money from political donors that will
roll over into their retirement funds. The people who are “donating” money to these judges are not doing it for their health, they are business people who expect a return upon their investment.
Consolidate and remove the checks and balances on these jokers? Yeah, right.

Comment submitted by  on  11/13  at  06:07 PM

i dont think they are complet slums.

Comment submitted by  on  01/13  at  05:57 AM