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Government has to make dollar go further

By Times editorial
Published February 18, 2007

The new Emergency Operations Center was going to cost $5-million to build. The latest estimate puts it at nearly $20-million. Construction has begun on a new elementary school in Citrus Springs that was supposed to cost $11-million. It is now expected to top $21-million.

The School Board recently heard that renovating two aging schools in Crystal River will cost at least $28-million, and that is the cheap option. Bulldozing either or both and building anew would likely triple the costs.

County commissioners nearly choked last week when told that expanding sections of County Road 486 would cost $13-million or more - for each mile.

From roads and schools to parks and police, the price of providing government services is soaring to numbers that defy comprehension. Weary taxpayers, wondering if there is any upper limit beyond which they cannot be expected to pay, are pleading for relief.

Local government officials, for their part, point out that much of the problem is beyond their control. The state has been shifting costs and dumping unfunded mandates on them for years. The public, especially newcomers who have paid high impact fees, expect certain services. And construction costs and land prices are beyond their control. They can scale back the size of a project, but they do not set the prices for concrete and plywood.

While the public might seem to be sending a mixed and unrealistic message by demanding both significant services and lower taxes, the underlying theme is simply for government to live within its means.

In Citrus County, that phrase is gaining popularity with government officials as well as taxpayers. The time has come to put action behind the words.

If commissioners need an example of what can be done, they need look no further than Hillsborough County, where commissioners recently voted to impose spending restraints on themselves by tying their annual budget increases to population growth and inflation.

It remains to be seen whether this is simply pandering to voters or a genuine step toward fiscal discipline. At minimum, it is a signal to taxpayers that someone has heard them.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who praised Hillsborough's decision, has been coming at the problem from the revenue side, by seeking to reduce the money flowing into government.

Crist wants to see the homestead exemption doubled, a move that could deprive counties of an estimated $608-billion. He is also pushing for a Save Our Homes-style tax cap for commercial and rental properties.

Even the Florida House is getting in on the action. House Bill 363 would impose restraints by limiting county and municipal operating budgets.

County officials howl that these moves would economically cripple their governments.

Faced with these demands for fiscal restraint, the only recourse for local government is to focus on those items within their control, to be diligent with dollars while still providing necessary services.

Take the situation the County Commission is in with the new Emergency Operations Center. The county should not abandon this necessary project, one that the board already has approved.

While the sheriff makes a good case for moving ahead, the commissioners had no choice last week but to delay the project until more details are known as to why the costs have quadrupled.

One place to look is to their brethren on the School Board, who have been saving millions by using modular concrete rooms, so-called concreteables, in recent projects.

County officials recently toured and praised these facilities. Set aside the question of why the existence of these concreteables seem to have been a revelation to the county officials (the School Board has hardly kept them secret, justifiably bragging publicly about the savings). The larger point is, why is this method not being considered for the new operations center or for other buildings on the drawing board?

The quick answer is that the county already has spent thousands of dollars for architects to design an operations center using traditional construction. But does that mean that the designers cannot transfer much of that work to a structure made of concreteables?

Wouldn't the millions of dollars that would be saved using these concrete rooms more than offset the loss of these architects' fees?

No one knows because no one has thought to ask.

And that lack of creative thinking is part of the problem.

As the cost of living in their personal lives climbs, taxpayers are having to find ways to stretch their dollars. Government must feel the same sense of urgency and do likewise.

Taxpayers are being forced to make hard choices in their spending. Some things just are not affordable at this time. They may never be.

While no one on the Citrus County Commission or the School Board has called for imposing a spending restraint on themselves, perhaps they should before someone else, the governor or the Legislature, orders them to do so.

There are a number of big-ticket items on their to-do lists for the coming months that will give local government officials the chance to show that they have heard their constituents and truly intend to live within their means.

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 18:24:46]