Tavares, FL - Apr. 12, 2014
The Daily Commercial today published an article with quotes from all the known officials saying their budget was too little and they may need MORE taxes.
It is here:
http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_26e0f30e-5402-5adc-93e8-f06baa2e98a1.html
I submitted a counter balancing comment with alternatives at around 9:30 am today. As of almost 7pm, they had not approved my comments, so here they are:
This article provides a good over overview of some budget shortfalls for Lake County, but it mostly quotes officials who want to spend more money and does not balance the coverage with quotes from those who can provide an alternative position:
- The Lake County Board caved to the Homebuilder's Association and axed the perfectly good revenue source of impact fees on new construction for houses and commercial buildings. That could have provided MILLIONS in revenue to offset captital spending shortfalls. It could have been reinstated for transportation (and schools) to offset budget shortfalls, but instead the Board is talking about shifting taxes to EVERYONE and not those creating needs for new infrastructure for roads, etc. Why not reinstate the impact fees to 100% to tax those creating the need for new roads, instead of increasing everyone else's taxes?
- The Board has not stood up to the Sheriff constantly increasing his budget when there are no public hearings on his budget, no performance audits of his operations and no publishing of his detailed budgets online. Both the County and School District DO have public budget hearings, publish their detailed budgets online and have performance audits. Why should the Sheriff be able to avoid those transparency practices?
- This article cited a number of deferred maintenance and equipment replacement reasons to increase taxes. This indicates poor management either condoned or not understood by the Board and the administration. A properly run organization would know, and budget for annual maintenance and equipment replacement funds, and not defer them irresponsibly. Why does government always play these games of up and down budget crisis? Why are there not professional County management standards that require adequate funding for maintenance & replacement needs as part of the budget. If you have 50 trucks, and only budget to fully maintain 30 of them, then sell the other 20, and don't hide the budget shortfall.
- So, it would have been great if the article also discussed the above issues by finding competent individuals to quote, rather than just a "give me the money" perspective.
Vance Jochim