Sheriff Bob White said he didn't want to send the wrong message.
He need not worry.
White, in an interview with the Times this week, publicly endorsed a plan to increase the sales tax in Pasco County to build new schools, improve roads, preserve environmentally sensitive land and buy public safety equipment.
His message?
"I think we really have to think of the kids."
Who could get that wrong? It is sound thinking, a message of which more of the populace should be cognizant.
White is the county's top law enforcement officer and a loath-to-back-a-tax Republican. He described his own annual budget preparations as a "challenge ... to keep my hand out of your pocket." But he also has taken a broad view of Pasco County and realized common sense is worthy of common cents.
School crowding is a potential precursor to double sessions. That means less learning, more unsupervised time for kids with accompanying spikes in juvenile trouble, more work for deputies and a reduced quality of life all the way around.
"What goes along with that is, it's disruptive of families, it causes chaos in the homes, it causes child care issues and tempers between the families get frayed and they have the financial worries and it just creates all kinds of problems," the sheriff said in his first extended public commentary on the so-called Penny for Pasco referendum to be decided by voters in March.
Though proceeds from the sales tax increase will buy patrol cars and mobile computers for the Sheriff's Office, White's support is tied to education. Until this week, White had been noncommittal toward the proposed tax increase, deferring the decisionmaking to county commissioners and characterizing himself "as the policeman, not the tax man."
He didn't back away from that position. He said voters should decide the issue, but he plans to vote for it.
It takes some political courage, particularly for a first-term Republican sheriff, to join the chorus publicly singing the praises of a tax increase in Pasco County. In these parts, tax increase and public support are as friendly as Keyshawn and Gruden.
Check the recent history. One of Sheriff Jim Gillum's officers was on the planning committee for the failed children's services tax in the early 1990s, but Gillum distanced himself from the referendum when he saw it as a political loser. One of the components of Lee Cannon's electoral demise was voters' rejection of his proposed property tax increase, by a 4-1 margin, two years before he lost the 2000 election to the then-unknown White.
Now you know why White feared a misinterpretation of his message. He is courageous, but within reason. There is a strong sense of caution 10 months before he faces voters in the 2004 general election.
He doesn't plan to stump for the Penny for Pasco on the campaign trail the next three months. But if asked, he will voice his support. Or, in his own words, "have a position without leading the band."
That's fine. His public commentary alone is a key asset for the citizens' committee pushing the referendum because of White's immense popularity. He has built substantial credibility by forgoing the adversarial working relationship with county commissioners and administrators that dominated the Cannon and Gillum tenures.
And White now joins a growing list of fiscally conservative Republicans, including state Reps. Heather Fiorentino, Ken Littlefield and County Commissioner Pat Mulieri, who had voiced support for the sales tax proposal because of the need for school construction.
"For me," said White, "passing this tax is good for the school system, and that's good for Pasco County."
That stance contradicts the position of the Pasco Republican Executive Committee leadership which rejected the tax proposal before the spending details were released. We wondered about retribution. White said he hadn't considered it.
"It (sales tax) is the right thing to do." said White. "They're entitled to their opinion. I respect their opinion and I guess they have to respect mine."
