Fiscal Rangers

Florida Property Tax Cut Proposal to be on November Ballot

Amazingly, another tax cut proposal will be on the November ballot that could reduce property taxes up to 25% but increase sales taxes to offset the cuts. Local government agencies better start tightening their belts now! vj ======================================== from the Ft. Meyer News-Press at: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080317/NEWS0120/80317038/1075 March 17, 2008 Property tax cut proposal to be in voters’ hands By Jim Ash news-press.com Tallahassee bureau TALLAHASSEE — Voters will decide in November whether they want to cut their property taxes by an average of 25 percent, and make up for the nearly $8 billion in lost government revenue with a penny sales tax increase and a combination of budget cuts and other state savings. The powerful Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted 21-4 this afternoon to approve the measure by former Senate President John McKay over the objections of critics ranging from retailers to the Florida Catholic Conference, speaking on behalf of the poor. The vote was a personal victory for McKay, who was first rebuffed in the Legislature in 2003 and who has been pursuing it ever since. "The only opponents of this proposal are the special interests," McKay said. "The voters of Florida are going to make this decision. It's... Read more →

PEW Center on the States Issues Report Grading State Government Performance

The Pew Center on the States is a foundation that just issued a big report ranking the performance of the states by various criteria. We talked about it in the previous post about the article from David Broder. You can find the full pdf version at www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp . Florida received a B- which may sound good, but that is a ranking of 5 out of 10 measurement levels, with D being the lowest. Florida was listed as having a weakness in financial controls, and some other categories. Attached below is a pdf of just the Florida page. Download pew_center_gradingthestates2008_florida.pdf Now, we will keep looking for a similar ranking system for County governments and K-12 School Districts - so far most articles on K-12 focus on grades and student performance, and not fiscal management of operations to ensure the non-instructional departments are efficient, effective and economic. If working performance is not measured and ranks, non-instructional staff shouldn't receive raises or have salaries at the level of business until their work performance is measured and tracked like business employees. vj Read more →

Managing Government Operations in a Disciplined Manner is Growing

Businesslike management of government operations is being practiced more, according to David Broder, who wrote recently in his Washington Post column (see below) about a joint report on the "2008 Government Performance Project". It seems a foundation, the Pew Center, and Governing Magazine just issued their second report after the first was issued in 2005, and businesslike management of government operations is growing. He cited several examples, and described how some newly elected State Governors (not Florida!) with management experience are setting a new tone of expectations on how government should work and be "managed". They even state that performance auditing was rare in 2005, but is now routine if four fifths of the states. The report ranks states, and Florida is neither at the top of bottom of the list, so I will look it up and add it back here later. The full results of the study are in the March issue of Governing magazine, as well as at www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp . I will read the report and see what can be applied here in Lake County. For instance, we have been talking on this blog about adding performance benchmarks for the Lake County School District (which has NONE),... Read more →