Sunday, November 1, 2020

Election Day is here, and Mike Moran refuses to speak to voters

Mike Faisano is a former member of the state House and Florida Senate, a lifelong Republican. He's currently the Pasco County Tax Collector. And he finds plenty wrong with a program that preys on the poor while guaranteeing that the rich get their money with interest

Faisano spoke last week on Cathy Antunes' The Detail on WSLR about PACE, which stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, and what he had to say was chilling. 

Commissioner Mike Moran
And Sarasota Commissioner Mike Moran (left) has yet to explain his connection to the PACE program.

PACE is a public/private agency that purports to help vulnerable homeowners in economically depressed areas. The problem is these people can be sold loans by contractors without proper monitoring.

These loans can be dangerous because PACE extends loans via sales pitches that claim that virtually anyone can be "Pre-Qualified in Minutes" -- claims that carry the credibility of government authorization, with no one monitoring those pitches or asking for income qualification information. 


The loans get placed on homeowners' tax bills. If the interest rate spikes, or they lose work due to circumstances like the CoronaVirus -- facing tax bills they cannot pay -- they can lose their homes.

The money being loaned belongs to wealthy investors. These lenders are guaranteed to be repaid by the state and local governments through the tax liens, said Faisano.

"I don't know of a time when tax collectors have been used as debt collectors," said Antunes.

"Never," said Faisano. 

PACE puts vulnerable property owners at risk, while giving 6 percent or higher return to wealthy people, guaranteed by the government. Faisano explains how the wealthy lenders are in it for the interest rates -- and if the homeowner is unable to come up with the tax money, someone else can pay the price of the tax certificate as the homeowner sees their home auctioned off.

The prediatory program has been in the news recently in part because, as reported by the Herald Tribune, Sarasota Commissioner Mike Moran has been serving as the executive director of a PACE funding agency operating in Flagler County and in the City of Kissimmee. 

Among the noteworthy questions raised:

  • According to his contract with PACE, the Sarasota public official has been paid $150,000 a year -- more than he earns as a Commissioner.
  • However, Moran did not disclose that he has this second job.
  • Further, Commissioner Moran has report his income from PACE.

Moran has essentially run a "dark" campaign, agreeing to only one forum with his opponent, Mark Pienkos. He has not faced questioning about this, and his mailers and advertisements tend to speak not of his record on the Board of Commissioners, but of his support for Trump and the NRA. 

Nonetheless, developers and PACs have poured tens of thousands of dollars into his reelection campaign.



You can hear Cathy Antunes' entire interview with Mike Faisano here.

Read more about the perils of PACE here.

Mr. Moran has sought to have a criminal investigation of three Democratic candidates in this election - yet refuses to address questions about his own questionable issues.

And have a good hard look at how things seem to work in Sarasota County: Mr. Moran, who voted for Jim Gabbert's debris demolition plant at the Celery Fields, along with the Siesta Promenade, and developments by Carlos Beruff, Pat Neal, and Randy Benderson, has hidden his income and the very fact of his work at PACE from voters, refused to take part in public debates or forums, yet is getting borne on a tidal wave of developer dollars to a second term on the Board.

Is Sarasota's political machine is so strong the people have yet to understand it?

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