Letters to the Editor
Editor’s Note: For the first time , we are including letters addressed to the editor of the Modoc County Daily News Blog, a practice usually devoted to page A2 of our print edition.
Auditor’s Disrespect for Shorty
Although relatively new to Modoc County, my family and I are proud residents committed to the fine community, its traditions and history. We also share the concern of many Modoc residents for the financial dilemma of this county and support Shorty Crabtree’s request for disclosure of the audit.
An audit is performed by an independent CPA firm to establish the validity and reliability of the county’s fiscal information and its internal controls.
The published audit is an independent opinion on whether the financial statements are accurate, complete and fairly represented. The audit reports our past, present and future fiscal position and administrative practices.
It is the checkpoint in the “checks and balances” of our elected officials and county administration. In addition, without a completed audit, administration cannot provide our county leadership with the accurate information (budgets, cash flow analysis, etc.) necessary as a basis for intelligent evaluation, planning and control.
County taxpayers have paid for and are entitled to review the audit results. We were told the audit would be completed by January/February 2010, yet nine months later, we are still waiting.
Shorty was acting responsibly by asking for the audit status. Auditor Darcy Locken’s response “because it’s not done,” lacked professionalism and the respect due Shorty’s position and this county’s residents.
Dan Lowry
Alturas
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Editor’s Note: The following letter was addressed to each member of the Modoc County Board of supervisors, Cheryl Knoch, Modoc County treasurer, KRCR-TV in Redding and the Modoc County Daily News Blog.
Hospital Tax
I am writing this letter in the hopes that one of its recipients will provide a solution to the inconceivable situation in which I find myself.
During the 70s, my husband and I purchased a parcel of land in the California Pines area of Modoc County. We paid $5,000 for it, hoping it was an investment for the future. Today, it is worth approximately what we paid for it. It has, of course, been very disappointing.
I am now in my 70s, living on a fixed income. I pay rent where I live. I have continued to pay the property taxes on the Modoc property, with the intention that the property would be some small thing I could pass on to my grandchildren.
Two weeks ago, I received the latest property tax bill. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that it has tripled due to the Last Frontier Hospital debacle. I am, apparently, suddenly liable for a hospital that has mismanaged itself into horrendous debt. How can this be? I have never heard of this hospital. I have never been in this hospital and, no doubt, will never be in this hospital.
I am told the increase in the property tax bill will go on for a number of years. This means I could be forced to pay property taxes in excess of the value of the land. How can this be?
I cannot possibly pay this bill. In a conversation with the Modoc County Tax Collector’s office, I was told that this could lead to their seizing the property and selling it. This is being forced on me, without my having done anything to lead to this hospital’s debt! What will this do to my credit standing? How can this be?
I am told there was a vote. Why was I not included in this vote? Why was I not even notified of this vote? If I was not involved in this vote or the debt of this hospital, why do I have to pay for anything?
Please respond to my letter. I have had a most difficult time getting any help from the hospital. Apparently, there are many people in the same situation I am in and everyone is trying to reach this hospital. There is, more often, a continuous busy signal and, once in a while, voicemail.
When I finally had a live person to talk to, I was told I’d be getting some kind of hardship form in the mail. Is determining whether I meet hardship requirements the solution to all of this. How can this be?
Please help me out of this cruel, unfair situation.
Ellen Gifford
Simi Valley
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Another On Hospital Tax
I'm one of the Cal Pines property owners that just received his Modoc County property tax bill. I immediately called the Modoc County Tax Collector's office to complain about my horrendous 269 percent tax increase.
The office representative referred me to call and talk to Judy Mason at the Last Frontier Healthcare District in regards to my issues. Ms. Mason was not sorry at all that I have to take food off my kids dinner table to support her rural life style.
Besides Ms. Mason, who else were the crafty politicians in your city/county that put this one over on the tax payers? As a property owner in your area, it's one thing to ask me for help when needed, but it's another to out right steal from me using current laws to hide behind.
This Last Frontier Healthcare group knew exactly who and where to target for there financial gains. They well new that the 15,000 non-electors (absentee landowners) they went after in the Cal-Pines area would not be able vote on the new tax issue, would have to pay, and have nothing to say about it.
I wonder how the Modoc County creators of this new Last Frontier Healthcare District and there "Grass Root Friends," as Ms. Mason put it, are able to sleep at night. What would they have done if the California Pines property development had never been subdivided into 15,000 vacant lots?
Also, why was it that other Modoc local communities like Adin, Lookout, and Davis Creek were not included in this vote? From what I see, it was due to prior polls taken by the hospital group that indicated that those area residents and property owners would vote against the additional property tax.
Even though these areas use these services, there inclusion to vote on the new bill would have been too risky. You don't have to be a mental giant to figure out that the individual Cal-Pines property owners are ripe for the picking. However, I don't think those thousands of absentee landowners are going to go away quietly.
Just for reference, I was born and raised here in this great State of California and after being here for 65 years the increasingly corrupt politics never cease to amaze me. I wonder what Modoc will vote in next year, as with their lack of consciousness, the sky's the limit and the non-resident property owners will pick up the tab.
"Bail Outs" is now the new word when you lack the knowledge and expertise to operate a viable and profitable business.
Paul Murray
Thousand Oaks
30 comments:
Nice to see Dan Lowry weighing in on the auditor's comment. While not a professional response, the bag of crap is now in her lap and she may be as frustrated as the rest of us. What a mess. Hope Darcy can correct course and give more of an accounting later. She didn't create the mess; she's cleaning it up and what a frustrating job it must be along with the politics that goes with it all. Glad I'm not Darcy.
You are right.
They were down right sneaky.
Plus they still have a 24 hour abulance crew in Adin. At a cost to taxpayers of 353,000.00 a year and it loses money every year No wonder the hospital was in the hole. Plus Adin does not pay any taxes for this.
Alturas Resident
Apparantly Mr Murray made a bad real estate investment and wants to blame others for his mistake. If he didnt want the direct costs and responsibility of taxes he should have invested in a REIT however the $195 hospital assesment would have paled in comparison to the drop in value of REIT's recently.
The moral to the story here is research your investments BEFORE you purchase them. When I moved here over 20 years ago I looked at property in Cal Pines and the rest of Modoc. The conclusion I came to was that if Cal Pines was such a great buy why wasnt the local population beating down the doors to buy there?
To attack a community oriented person like Ms Mason is typical of the entitled mindset. What has Mr Murray contributed to this community? Other than paying property tax just like resident Modoc citizens I would venture to say "Nothing". Ms Mason and countless others have spent hours, days, months and years of their personal time on the hospital and deserve our utmost gratitude. Mr Murray should thank Ms Mason and all that have worked on the hospital, without the hospital his property would be worth nothing!
Two comments, from what I understand, the accounting prior to the new auditors coming in was a total mess and why it has cost the County over $750,000 to fix the problem. With stuff written on scaps of paper and no controls in place, no wonder Darcy and the auditors are having a hard time. Also, realize that it is just her and two clerks to do on-going business plus try to finish the outstanding audits. Maybe if she had more staff, she could get things done faster.
Regarding the out of county property owners being upset about the tax increase, the County officals could have done an assessment based on property values, but that would have met that the burden would have fallen on large property owners. Yes, it is probably unfair to the CA Pines lot owners, but all entities nationwide do everything they can to tax the guy behind the tree...the non-voter...with high hotel taxes, and other fees. It's life.
It is a little hard to feel sorry for the property owners who are so disconnected with their property and this community that they didn't even know what was happening in Modoc this last year. However, Davis Creek, Adin and Lookout property owners should have been taxed too. I believe a lot of people knew this would piss off the Cal Pines property owners when they got their tax bill but they did not care. Really, it is their responsibility to keep tabs on their property and what is happening with it. If they are not happy with the new tax, then sell. Welcome to the Modoc Tea Party, sugar, cannabis, whiskey and all!
I was a bit surprised that the assessment applied to an owner of only vacant land. In Surprise Valley the hospital assessment is per dwelling unit. This tax still impacts non-resident and part time dwellings, but with a viable dwelling the owner is already used to paying much more than the assessment so the shock is less. Also I expect there are more apartments in Alturas where there is only one assessment for multiple dwelling units.
If a small parcel at Cal Pines is worth $ 5000.00 then the annual tax would be under $ 100.00 so an additional $ 195.00 must look like skyrocketing taxation. I wonder if Cal Pines vacant land owners could form a holding company, and transfer title to it.
Where did the "15,000 non-electors (absentee landowners)" come from? If the district expects $ 3,000,000.00 at $ 195 per assessment, that is 15,000 landowners total in the district. For reference the Census shows 9,500 persons and 5,000 dwelling units in Modoc.
However, the two complaining letters are hysterically overreacting which hurts their basic complaint. We have a disappointed investor from Simi Valley who wants to profit and pass the property on to her children but not pay the taxes on it, and a man from Thousand Oaks who must starve his children to pay the tax but some how found the money to buy the parcel.
There are many places with a high percentage of non-resident land owners that have no vote. But if all land owners could vote in those places, probably no local services would be approved, especially if the percentage of vacant land owners is high.
Greg Small
Concerning Shorty's question: When do we get to see the audit?? It's really been long enough. If they haven't found a way to cover everything up by now they never will. Let's see names, times and places and amounts.
Ron Rutledge
The thought of being ruled by absentee land owners should make everyone happy that we live in this country and not elsewhere.
Retired Businessman
Did the brainiacs when formulating the this tax take into account the number of people that are going to simply let the property go?
An already almost worthless piece of land being taxed over 6% annually is actually depreciating its value - even in good times you are lucky to earn 3% appreciation on real estate.
So if you were planning on holding a CalPines lot in hopes of it gaining value, sorry but you will have paid more in the tax to the Last Hope Hospital District than your property would have gained.
Simple math - a $5000 parcel after 20 years would be worth $8,767.53 (using 3% rate) a difference of $3,767.53; however you would have paid $3,900 in parcel tax for the Hospital District alone; a loss of $132.47 oh and don't forget the capital gains taxes as when you actually sell the property.
Like I said in GOOD economic time you can expect 3%; however I expect this rate of return is MUCH lower in Modoc making the fleecing of property owners even greater.
Excellent point 7:05PM - But what about the absentee corporate/businesses?
They have moved their assets and/or jobs from this nation to others...should we not be as concerned?
After all, the power is where the money is.
My uncomfortable feeling of looming doom increases each day the audit reports are wrongfully kept from public scrutiny. Then to learn Cal Pines property owners were taxed (without notice) to fund the hospital, while at the same time other towns in the county with county funded ambulance services through the hospital were questionably protected from being taxed fair shares for the medical center costs ... And, well, I'm wondering if the audit reports are being kept under wraps because we'd all panic if we learned there is no way out of this mess.
Lookout is in the Mayers Hospital district, Adin is the district line, we will be paying a smaller amount starting next year.
For Lookout the ambulance does come from Adin.
Property owners will pay $50 annually for each $100,000 their property is worth
http://www.redding.com/news/2010/nov/03/measure-passed-to-aid-mayers-memorial/
http://www.mayersmemorial.com/service-area.pdf
Re: the letter about Shorty Crabtree, I agree that Darcy spoke disrespectfully, but on the other hand, I have attended or listened to most of the recent BOS meetings and she has explained the reasons for the delay over and over and over again. Mr. Crabtree, please ask her privately to go over it once more for you. There is a reasonable explanation for the delay, and those reasons are not Darcy's fault, she is trying to do multiple tasks here with the County funds, including keeping current cash flowing and adequate for needs. Darcy does not have a full and well-trained staff to help with these things (if those people existed, then we never would have had our audits disallowed in the beginning), so she is also training people to modern and correct standards, which is not exactly a simple task on its own. She was not tactful to Mr. Crabtree, however, he should actually give her the respect to pay attention to her earlier, thorough reports on the delay and ask about those specific facts instead of just wasting everyone's time with a previously answered question.
With an important event such as this going on, why isn't there trained competent staff? I personally know of an excellent accountant, that was just let go at Strong Family Health Center, Susan Hegsted. This accountant kept books for 20 years without a "bad audit". She knows fund accounting software and the IRS requirements of federal, state and non-profit accounting. She kept strict quality controls at Modoc Indian Health Project Inc. and later Strong Family Health. Cedarville Rancheria, the sole governing body of Strong Family Health Center now, had to get rid of Susan to start moving the money where they wanted it. (watch them start traveling again), they did not pass their cash basis audit, and they will administrate the appropriation for the building of the new hospital??? They are the next group to watch. They are a California State non-profit so they are accountable to laws that Tribal Governments can usually duck, under tribal sovereignty. Susan is a moral, ethical, detailed and responsible accountant that still wants to live in Alturas. She is qualified, knowledgable and is not easily beset by drama and trauma, just her "so called" co-workers and "friends" betrayal and dishonesty. You do not need to limp along with untrained staff.
i know on one ever posts my comments or I sometime wonder if anyone out there is reading them. Well the powers that be have really steped in it this time. keep up the good work guys and then you get to sit back and wonder why i don't sit up front. its simple I don't want to be in the line of fire.
Gee, one day when those CalPine landowners decide to move to Modoc, they might just have a hospital they can get rushed to. They are just investing in their future health care...
"They are just investing in their future health care" like the folks in Adin, Lookout and In-Between, huh? Some folks buy property for investment purposes while never realizing that the powers-that-be would dare get illegal with the public's money, then set out to tax and rob unaware folk for more.
MMC is a ripoff outfit worse than any used car dealership! The hospital tax wasn't enough. I went to the Modoc Med clinic a couple of weeks ago to interview the new doctor to decide if I wanted to begin using the "improved" services a MMC. I made it very clear to everyone I spoke to at the clinic that I did not wish any services but only to speak to the new doctor so I could decide whether to use the services here. Saturday I got a bill of $165.00 for the privilege of doing this. If there is a charge of $165.00 just to talk to a doctor for the purpose of a personal evaluation of the doctor what do they charge for real services? This is a RIPOFF outfit!! As soon as you go in the door you better ask what it costs to talk to someone. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I pay this bill. I think I'll just keep going to Reno. They don't charge me for non service there.
Ron Rutledge
Wait a minute!! Thought the assessed tax of $195.00 was to be put towards your visit??? Isn't that the bill of goods we were sold?
If the hospital is now its own district why would we be paying Modoc County instead of the hospital district?
Could someone clarify or help me understand?
Ron, while I relate to your frustration, this may be a new record for getting a bill out quick. There's always a silver lining!!!
MMC bill is corrected. I must report that I met with a very pleasant lady at the MMC and was able to get the bill nullified. An apparent misunderstanding because of the new outside billing agency they use and a new doctor.
Ron Rutledtge
Orchestrated Manipulation
Modoc County Hospital Tax
This past September the residents of Modoc County in Northern California passed by a two thirds margin a parcel tax for the benefit of it's ailing hospital. Because of years, probably decades, of mismanagement and years of pleading with the State to give it money, the hospital has been saved - or has it? What happened is the hospital set up a vote limited to just under 4,000 residents out of the total of over 10,000 people of Modoc County. Then they included a development called California Pines into the vote. Cal Pines is roughly a 15,000 lot development that consists mostly of vacant individual lots and a few residents. I will talk more about this in Part 2, called California Pines Gold.
This vote was nothing less than orchestrated manipulation of the parcel tax system.
I have not doubt that the area needs a hospital, but to provide for it this way is wrong. After years of cooking the books, like using education money for the hospital, for example. The County did another misstep by pushing this latest tax. I guess they feel that the end justifies the means. Modoc County has prided itself as a Republican conservative haven but here is an example of taxation with representation.
California Pines Gold
We purchased a lot in the California Pines development in Modoc County in the early 1980's. It was originally intended to be a get away place, but never amounted to anything except a landholding for us and a failed development in general. Some folks have built homes up there and I'm sure they are quite content. Also there are some who are winners because they work for the property owners association. The POA seems to do a good job and I thank them for the service. We just received the latest newsletter from them and a lot of space was dedicated to discussing the yearly budget and what will happen to property owners who don't pay their dues or taxes. From looking at the budget it appears that just under a third of the 15,000 parcels are not paying dues. It is hard to tell because they balance out the budget to make things look better. There was also a few articles about the hospital assessment of $195.00 levied on Cal Pines owners with the newsletter basically presenting the tax as a done deal. I propose that the POA has a duty to challenge how this tax was so conveniently assessed on so many non-owner occupied lots. It is clear that the Modoc organizers of the tax ballot manipulated who and where the voters would be to decide this tax. On top of that, the hospital is giving residents a voucher for $150.00 toward hospital fees. So the nonresident pays $195. and the resident pays $45.
Modoc County has discovered the gold in California Pines that everyone else was so hopefully looking for and wanting to find.
What most of you don't remember is how Cal Pines got started. Modoc was just as "no change" mentality when that was developed, and the guy that did it was perceived as a "damn crook".
Someone made a comment about the number of owners who will refuse to pay the taxes. I will likely be one of those. I'm not concerned about the county taking my property away, it has no value anyway. Nobody wants to buy property at at Cal Pines, so the county can take my property and lose the taxes I was paying.
I bought my property, sight unseen, when I was a 21 year old serving my country over seas. I bought it based on brochures describing the ski resort that was going to be built. I thought it would be a good place to retire some day, and maybe get some use out of it in the meantime. I have since realized that it was all a scam and the scam continues to this day.
Worse, it turns out that Modoc county is a haven of tea partiers. Why on earth would anyone want to own property in a county full of crazy people.
I am SO happy you all have formed your hospital district! Hope there is lots of money in the budget to cover the suits that are going to happen over the inhumane treatment residents at your nursing home receive! Stay tuned.........................
It's called "insurance" 4:52 PM!!! And the state inspects all nursing homes regularly and MMC's SNIF has always passed. But that was a nice try at diseminating misinformation.
I was contemplating buying a parcel in California Pines, but fortunately I found this discussion first. I can see now that it would only be a BAD investment all the way around. I will be looking elsewhere. Even if the county started giving any ill-gotten land away, I would have to pass.
Good luck Modoc County with your questionable funding practices. I noticed that you've already successfully driven out some more of the landowners at Cal Pines and you have an auction for some of their properties running this month - good luck with that...
and good luck to the new healthcare district too.
I hope you can both get your act together now, for the betterment of the community. If not, it will only be a matter of time before you will have even less population to tax (or care for), and those in charge (hopefully) will be looking elsewhere for new jobs.
If you are a non-resident (nonvoter) property owner in Modoc County, try to pay yur taxes while withholding the hospital assessment. If the county refuses to accept this payment, put the money in a trust account dedicated to Modoc County Tax collector for your parcel for tax year 2011-2012. This will indicate your attempt to pay taxes due without that amount which is taxation without representation and will protect you from penalty or seizure of the property. Check this out with your friendly legal advisor if you don't believe me.
Modoc County has forced us to give up our properties. I cannot pay 30% tax rate because of hospital issue. This makes no business sense either. They want investors to invest in properties so they can generate more tax revenues, yet instead stifle any further growth and encourage the struggling land owners to go into default. Once the land owners go into default, they can sell their land at auction, if they can get a buyer to pay the never ending tax levee initiated by measure Q. Does any of the leaders of Modoc County see that this is not a viable solution? This has no direction to go but disastrous for the land owners of Modoc County, and the residents of Modoc County. Hopefully, there is a leader or two left with foresight to pull their heads out of their backside and come up with a viable solution that is fair and does not stifle future growth.
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