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Call for deeper tax cut reeks of party politics

By C.T. BOWEN
Published July 19, 2006

There's no pleasing some people.

It's the logical conclusion to be drawn from Pasco Republican Party Chairman Bill Bunting's call for deeper property tax cuts in the county budget.

The proposed budget, yet to be the subject of workshops and public hearings, includes a general fund property tax rate of 6.238 mills, or just under $6.24 per $1,000 of assessed value. That is close to 7 percent less than the current rate.

Over the past four years, the tax rate has dropped at least 2.4 mills. It will drop more if commissioners decide to cut the proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. That is the call from Bunting.

In an e-mail to commissioners, he suggested (demanded?) spending cuts and told Times staff writer David DeCamp that the current tax rate should be reduced 2 mills. It would take a $36.7-million budget cut, according to the county budget office. That is not feasible, even with a $1.1-billion budget, because property taxes account for only 16 percent of county revenue. Impact fees, sales and gasoline taxes, monthly water and sewer charges, other fees for services, and interest income make up the rest.

Bunting's figure is unrealistic, even irrational and certainly politically foolish. What Bunting has done is give political cover to the all-Republican County Commission, which just might decide to whack the single biggest consumer of local property taxes: the Pasco Sheriff's Office, which also is headed by a Republican, Bob White.

The sheriff wants close to $89-million this coming budget year, nearly all of which is financed from the general revenue fund, consisting of $161-million in local property taxes.

Do the math. White is seeking more than half the money collected in county property taxes. You want a 2-mill cut? You'd have to hold the line on law enforcement spending and come up with another $24.7-million in savings.

You could delay or eliminate capital projects, but that means paying more in the future as construction and land acquisition costs increase. Furloughed employees and shuttered services are the other, unattractive alternatives.

As an aside, we'll make a bold prediction here and suggest that the unabridged version of the sheriff's budget proposal won't be approved by the commission. Actually, it's not that bold. Commissioners have been generous with White but might not be as accommodating this year as he seeks 98 new employees and a nearly 19 percent budget increase.

Bunting's wife, Ann, penned a letter to the Times that appears elsewhere on this page. She says the sheriff can have what he wants, while identifying two other potential cuts: the Transportation Capital Improvement Program and the $1.6-million land purchase for a new tax collector's office in central Pasco.

Trouble is, the transportation budget isn't financed with property taxes. Impact fees and gasoline taxes account for the revenue there. Surely the Buntings aren't suggesting reducing road impact fees for developers, are they?

The other allocation is painfully obvious in its political nature. Not counting nonpartisan offices, Tax Collector Mike Olson is the only Democrat elected countywide. The Buntings just as easily could have fingered as extravagant the capital improvement money for the sheriff's expanded jail or a new service center for the supervisor of elections, but those officeholders are Republican.

It also shows that the Buntings reside in west Pasco. Anyone who has searched for a parking spot at the cramped county building in Land O'Lakes wouldn't begrudge the request for new quarters for the tax collector.

The commission must advertise a property tax increase of 13 percent because the millage is higher than the rollback rate, the amount needed to finance last year's spending absent new construction. That is a reality.

But here's a bigger reality: The proposed tax rate is the lowest in two decades. If you own the same home that you did last year, your tax obligation to the county government is declining and you'll be paying less in the coming year than you were 10 years ago.

That should please some people, shouldn't it?

At least the reasonable ones.

Reach C.T. Bowen at bowen@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 19, 2006, 08:03:34]