Gimenez wonders if tax cuts should be larger

August 3, 2007

County Commissioner Carlos A. Gimenez, center, spoke at the recent Chamber South breakfast. With him, from left, Bob Gallaher, Gallaher & Birch, chamber chair-elect; Phillis Oeters, Baptist Health South Florida; Peter Jude, Kendall Regional Medical Center; and Mary Scott Russell, president of the chamber.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Carlos A. Gimenez surprised a lot of us at the recent Chamber South breakfast by saying that the state-imposed tax cuts are not only reasonable, but probably don’t go far enough.
Some of us expected him to say that the tax cuts would create chaos and cause problems with many county services, and we were prepared to challenge that. But he took the fun out of it by telling us what we already knew – that the county was not cautious with our tax dollars during those years when property values were skyrocketing, and the current slump in the housing market is caused, at least in part, by irresponsible financial management by the county and (although he didn’t point the finger) by the school board and municipal governments.
“People are leaving Miami who I thought would be here forever,” he told the Chamber South audience at the Dadeland Marriott. “The younger generation cannot afford to buy a house. Taxes and insurance are so high, they can’t afford a mortgage payment on top of that.”
During all those years of rising property values, the County Commission held the line on the tax rate, but that tax rate was being applied to an ever-enlarging tax base as property values increased. Instead of looking at the dollars being collected and saying: “Let’s live on 3% more than last year, and adjust the tax rate down accordingly,” the county collected hundreds of millions in extra income as the tax base rose in double-digit numbers.
If you are protected by the Save Our Homes amendment, your taxes increased by no more than 3% a year. But when you try to sell your house, the next buyer will pay tax on the true value of the property, and may end up paying two or three times the taxes that you’ve been paying. If you do not have the Save Our Homes protection, if you have commercial or rental property, “your taxes have gone through the roof,” Gimenez said.
The county isn’t alone in this, of course. The school board and most municipalities are equally guilty. “Government will spend every penny it can get its hands on,” the Commissioner told the audience.
Gimenez also said that the actual amount of the budget cut faced by the county is a slippery number, depending on how it’s calculated. He said original estimates of $300 to $450 million were based on assumptions that the tax base would grow 15% and the tax rate would remain the same. In fact, he said, the actual reduction is only about $87 million out of a $2.3 billion budget.
He said that he has started to review the new proposed county budget, and so far he has not seen much in the way of cuts. “Homeowners will be disappointed when they see how little they save in taxes,” he told the Chamber. “The owner of a home valued at $250,000 in unincorporated Miami-Dade County will see a reduction of about $350 a year in county taxes. A $500,000 home will save $600 to $700.”
Gimenez said the County Commission needs to take a hard look at spending and how services can be delivered in a more efficient manner. “I have to wonder why we have more county employees now than before all the incorporations began,” he said. “We have so many new municipalities, all collecting their own taxes and taking over services that used to be provided by the county. You would think we would have significantly fewer county employees as a result.”
As nice as it was to hear Gimenez say all of this, the truth is that the crisis developed on his watch, and you have to be unhappy that he and the other commissioners did not see this coming. So let’s see what happens next. Will Gimenez take the lead to cut taxes further? What will the other commissioners do?
Gimenez also talked about the constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in January to amend the Save Our Homes protection. If it passes, homeowners would have the choice of keeping their Save Our Homes status, or trading it for a much larger homestead exemption, which could significantly lower taxes. The typical home would have a homestead exemption of about $195,000 instead of the current $25,000, he said. So a $500,000 house would be taxed on $305,000 instead of $475,000. People who bought in recent years could find themselves with a much lower tax bill, and – in theory — it would make Save Our Homes properties easier to sell.
The Commissioner predicted that the amendment would fail. “Too complicated,” he said. “I think the Legislature will have to come back with something less complex.” But if it does pass, he said, he personally would keep the Save Our Homes protection on his house.

Hispanic Chamber links banks and loan applicants

July 22, 2007

At the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s cocktail party announcing the new Loan Link program, from left, Armando Trabanco, the chamber’s immediate past chairman; Ralph Gonzalez Jacobo, chairman-elect; Liliam M. Lopez, chamber president/CEO; and Jorge Hernandez, vice president of US Century Bank.

The South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has launched an innovative program matching businesses looking for loans with banks willing to make them.
Called “Loan Link,” it is the concept of past chamber chairman Armando Trabanco of US Century Bank. A dozen banks in the chamber are participating, and within the first few weeks of the program all of them already have received applications.
“We find that everyday it becomes more difficult for small business owners to obtain financing for their businesses,” Trabanco said, noting that this is a good way for chamber members to help each other.
Chamber president Liliam M. Lopez explained that each of the lenders has provided the chamber staff with information about the kinds of loans they make. When an application comes in, the chamber staff refers that applicant to the appropriate lender.
“Within 48 hours of submitting the application to the chamber office, the applicant is contacted by the lender, who provides guidance, assistance and information on personal or business loans,” Lopez said. “It’s a very simple process that just takes a few minutes to complete.”
“Loan Link provides direct help to those needing a loan, thus avoiding the sometimes impossibility of getting help on the phone from any particular financial institution,” she said, noting that the chamber involvement cuts through the red tape.
The South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce began 13 years ago as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in the City of Miami Beach, and has grown into a countywide organization over the years, holding meetings in various locations. It has 650 members and many interesting activities. Meetings are conducted in English.
Go to the Organizations Page and click on the SFLHCC logo to access the website. There’s a link on the home page to the Loan Link application, if you want to review it. Or you can call 305-534-1903.

Intense “Speed Leads” networking a hit with participants

July 7, 2007

The intense networking at the Speed Leads after-hours event by BankUnited and Chamber South drew 54 participants. It was such fun, the event will be repeated July 31.

BankUnited and Chamber South teamed up to offer a free evening of Speed Leads, and the event was so successful that it is being repeated in July.
“It’s a take on speed dating, where business professionals can have the opportunity to meet everyone in the room in a very fun and productive manner,” explained Carmen Garcia, BankUnited vice president and manager of the South Miami branch.
“Our guests sat down in two rows of chairs facing each other and had three minutes to interact and exchange business cards with the person across from them. At the end of three minutes, everyone moved to the next seat.”
The after-hours event drew a crowd of 54, who enjoyed appetizers to ease their hunger and lots of wine to ease their apprehension over participating in such an intense networking experience.
Garcia herself participated. “It was a great opportunity for my team and myself to meet everyone at the event,” she said. “I sat down with 25 other participants and exchanged business cards and briefly networked for the allotted time. It was a great way for me to identify certain prospects that I wanted to follow-up with later during the event. I was able to continue my networking in a more productive manner for the remainder of the evening and am now working on my business development with all those new leads.”
Garcia said the event was supposed to end at 7 p.m. “But we still had guests lingering past 8 p.m. Everyone had a positive experience.”
Natasha Quiza of The Vault, an advertising agency, made a lot of new friends. “At first I thought: This looks like a speed dating service!” she said. “But it was a great way to meet everyone in the room, and give them your three-minute pitch.”
Quiza said that for many people, “especially first-timers and those more timid in approaching people, this method makes it possible to break the ice with everyone and the true purpose of these networking function is preserved.”
Ramesh Nyberg of Coldwell Banker found a negative in being interrupted just as he was getting to know someone new, forced to move on to the next seat.
“It was a new experience, that’s for sure,” he said. “I think there are negatives and positives about it. The negative is that three minutes is just not enough time for two people to establish meaningful communication about your business. The positive is that it kind of forced people who might not be so outgoing to get their message out and be face to face with someone who might be able to help them down the line. Plus, there was time before and after to connect a little deeper with people. Overall, it’s a lot better than not networking at all!”
Sound interesting?
The event will be repeated Tuesday, July 31, starting at 5:30 p.m. at The Falls Branch of BankUnited, 8941 SW 136 St. Again, the bank will serve hors d’oeuvres and wine, and again, it will be free.
So practice your 30-second “elevator speech” and RSVP by calling Nicole at 305-661-1621 or online at www.chambersouth.com.
Whether or not you get new business, you certainly will make new friends!

Every deal is an exchange of values

June 11, 2007

Dorothy Scullion in 1980.

Years ago, when I was a young hospital vice president, one of the people reporting to me was the volunteer director, Dorothy Scullion. Scully had been on the job 37 years and was frustrating. Brimming with youth and enthusiasm, I had many suggestions to improve the program. But no matter what I suggested, Scully would say: “We tried that in 1957. It doesn’t work.”
Nothing I could do about it. She had the job for life, so I just focused on my other areas of responsibility and hoped that one day she would retire.
Then Scully did something I couldn’t believe. She fired a volunteer! Not just any volunteer, but the one who won the award each year for most hours of service.
Granted, he was a cranky old man who had nothing better to do, but he served an important role, staffing the Surgical Waiting Area each day, making families comfortable while loved ones were in surgery. This is where the doctors could find the families after the operation. His job was to keep the coffee pot going and the magazines stacked neatly and the area reasonably tidy. Although we received an occasional complaint about his attitude, he did a reasonably good job.
He appealed for me to reinstate him, and I summoned Scully to my office to explain.
“He didn’t show up for work today, and he didn’t call to warn me,” she said. “The volunteers have to feel that they do important work. They need to hear the message that we are counting on them. By not coming in and not calling, he let us down, and everyone needs to know we won’t tolerate that.”
I brokered a peace treaty. He apologized and swore he would never do that again. Scully took him back, having made the point to all of the other volunteers that each of them serves an important role in the organization.
This was the first time I realized that Scully actually knew what she was doing, and perhaps could teach me a thing or two. So we began talking.
One of her lessons was that every volunteer was there for a selfish reason – that even in the apparent selflessness of working for no pay, each was receiving something of equal or greater value in return.
Recognizing that is the secret to running a successful volunteer program, she said. Unlike an employer-employee relationship, where the exchange of values is “I work, you pay,” it’s more subtle for volunteers, and each one has a different motive.
In the hospital setting, the motive could be as simple as feeling useful after retiring. Or looking for new friends, or a new mate. Or to be in the right place at the right time when a job opens. Or to develop new job skills – like learning to use a computer – in preparation for a return to the job market. Or hearing the gossip on the elevators and knowing what the nurses REALLY think about the doctors. Or being a familiar face, not just a number, when being admitted as a patient.
One of Scully’s most popular volunteer programs was for retired couples. The wives would volunteer on Monday and Wednesday, and the husbands on Tuesday and Thursday, giving each some quality time away from each other.
Another was to trade hours in the most popular jobs for hours in the boring jobs. For example, everyone wants to work the information desk because you get to know who is in the hospital, and why. (You can’t talk about it, because you are sworn to secrecy, but you can display a knowing smirk when someone asks “How’s Harriet doing?”) You want four hours on the information desk? It costs you four hours of filing in the back room.
“Every volunteer is getting something that to them is of equal or greater value than the service they are providing,” Scully said.
So why am I wasting your time with ancient history about volunteers? Because the principle is very much the same in business. Just as Scully needed to figure out what each volunteer was getting in return for his or her service, people in business need to understand what the potential customer hopes to get in exchange for their money.
There is always an exchange of values in every deal. The deal does not happen unless each side thinks they are getting something of equal or greater value. So many sales are lost because people forget this basic principle.
When you are making a sales pitch, are you focusing on the quality of your product or service? Or are you trying to judge what the customer is looking to achieve, and slanting your pitch to emphasize the benefits to him?
The customer is not looking to buy a product or service, but rather to solve a problem. Ask questions. Try to figure out what problem the customer is trying to solve, and then shape your sales pitch to match that need.
Scully would be proud of me.