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Voters have homework to do before polls open

By Times editorial
Published March 12, 2007

A decade ago, 907 Port Richey voters decided against combining their municipal government with their larger neighbor. In the same election, 918 New Port Richey voters picked a three-person council majority to run their city. Just one troubling aspect of the nearly identical turnout: New Port Richey had more than five times as many registered voters as Port Richey, but less than 10 percent of them bothered to go to the polls.

Next month, the ballot issues will be repeated and today is the final day to register to vote for the April 10 municipal elections. We encourage eligible adults to do so and to immerse themselves in the issues in anticipation of important electoral decisions.

Port Richey voters will decide the future existence of their city. A nonbinding ballot question asks whether to authorize spending $250,000 for consultants to devise a plan to liquidate the city's assets and repay its debts in anticipation of dissolving the city. If that doesn't bring a spike in voter turnout, nothing will.

Meanwhile, New Port Richey voters will choose from a slate of seven candidates to fill three council seats. Redevelopment remains the top issue, just as it did a year ago. Still, a hotly contested mayoral race in 2006 brought less than 12 percent of the city's registered voters to the polls. Since then, a council majority helped stall the Main Street Landing project by refusing to consider a plan to create a special taxing district to finance up front infrastructure costs. With it, most of the city's other pending redevelopment efforts - Railroad Square, a private venture at Orange Lake and the former Hacienda Hotel -remain in limbo. However, council did find time to ask voters to increase their compensation.

In Zephyrhills, a relatively pedestrian race between two candidates for one council seat is the only contested election among the four east Pasco municipalities. Growth, traffic and a possible community center are leading issues in Zephyrhills.

While the issues and prickly personalities can be repetitive, the importance of public participation is not. Difficult budget decisions could lie ahead depending upon what action is taken by the state Legislature in Tallahassee to change local governments' tax-collection systems.

Lamenting past spending is the easy way to campaign, but voters should consider candidates' proposed solutions to the issues in their communities.

Sitting on the sidelines isn't a sensible option. Voters need to select smart, sensible, creative people to lead their municipal governments. They can start by making sure they are eligible to vote in next month's elections.

[Last modified March 11, 2007, 23:03:41]