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Editorial

Budget priorities will test leaders' decisionmaking

You are expecting your annual raise to be a tidy sum, but your bosses and special circumstances smile on you. The amount is even greater than you imagined.

What should you do with the unanticipated money? Pay off bills? Take care of those nagging repairs you have been neglecting for years? Put something aside for the day when the bosses are not quite so generous and the cotton is not so high?

These are the questions facing the County Commission as once again board members find themselves with more tax dollars than expected in their laps. This problem, a nice one to have considering the alternative is not having enough money to pay the bills, will test their political courage and will demonstrate their fiscal philosophies.

It will also serve as a gauge of the public's interest in Citrus County's present and future. Do residents want their elected representatives to fund the services outlined in the proposed budget - such as more deputies and firefighters, a new library, storm shelter generators - or do they want their money back?

This being an election year, voters will get to tell the board directly how they would like the revenue handled. With budget hearings beginning this week and the Sept. 5 primary election looming, voters have ample opportunity to be heard.

Last year, the board found itself with about $3.3-million more than expected in property tax revenues fueled by the soaring real estate market. The choice then was to give it back to taxpayers in the form of a lower millage rate.

That decision was not unanimous, as some on the board argued that $2-million of the surplus should be kept for government uses, including a reserve for catastrophic storm damage.

This year, the board has even more money to dole out because the value of taxable property rose at a staggering rate of 33 percent in the past year. But with the real estate market cooling off, the days of the budget surpluses may be coming to an end.

That must factor into the board members' decisions as they go through the proposed budget. While there are some big-ticket items such as the generators and a GIS base map, much of the increase is in new hires. This includes 52 new positions in the county staff, 15 in the Sheriff's Office and nine in the Property Appraiser's Office.

These positions, if approved, become continuing costs, even if the revenue tide ebbs. The officials proposing the hires make compelling cases for their needs, and it will be up to the commissioners to determine if these are true needs and not wants.

Under the direction of Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick, the county staff this year provided the commissioners with a different kind of budget document.

He directed county division leaders to stay within a modest 4 percent budget increase. These wish lists then were pared down to what they determined to be essential needs to serve a growing population. Thus, the budget reflects 10 new firefighters, 10 parks and recreation workers, and people to handle new state mandates and to oversee the county's construction projects.

As for the constitutional officers, Dick simply relayed their budget requests to the board, which has little actual control over their spending plans.

The commissioners' task thus is to go through the county's budget program by program, department by department, and set priorities.

Some are easy calls. Yes, the county should set aside the proposed $2-million as matching funds for state and federal water and wastewater infrastructure grants if it has any hope of getting help with the high cost of water and sewer projects. Yes, it needs to staff the new library in Homosassa.

As for other requests, the decision will not be so obvious. Eight new groundskeepers would be nice, but are they essential?

These are the philosophical questions for the board: If the money is there, do you feel compelled to spend it all? And, if so, how do you balance the need to keep up with the demands for services that growth brings with the obligation to be frugal while spending someone else's money?

Even if the property tax rate remains the same as this year's, homeowners can expect to pay much higher tax bills. With many residents still grumbling about the 6-cent gas tax increase in January, commissioners must be aware of the financial hardships these higher tax bills will bring.

Among all of the numbers that will be floating around during the budget hearings this week, one should stand out: $39-million. That is how much bigger the budget is, as compared with last year's spending plan.

Only the five commissioners can say whether the taxpayers of Citrus County can afford to carry that load.

[Last modified July 25, 2006, 06:32:32]