Columns

At least the deputy mayors survived

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published June 26, 2007

What does charging $3 per car at Fort De Soto Park have in common with whacking Santa and New Year's Eve?

Both are responses that some in local government are talking about after the Legislature's command to cut property taxes next year.

Let's start with the city of St. Petersburg, which says it needs to cut about $14-million to get down to the required level of $223.9-million.

Actually, that level of spending would be a hair above this year's $223.7-million. It's not an overall "cut." It's just less than the government would spend otherwise.

At any rate, the city has to lose $14-million from what it wants to spend. Mayor Rick Baker's plan calls for cutting:

- Support for events that the city "co-sponsors," such as Ribfest, the St. Pete Santa Parade, First Night St. Pete and the Mainsail Arts Festival. Total cuts: $222,000.

- Funding for arts and cultural agencies such as American Stage, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Dali Museum, the Little Theater and Great Explorations. Total: $540,378.

- Funding for social services, such as the spouse-abuse center CASA, homeless programs, elderly services, family support and food banks. Total: $820,000.

- Money for "nondepartmental" events or programs including the Pier Aquarium, the Chamber of Commerce, the Festival of States and the Museum of History. Total : $1.2-million.

Okeydokey. Cutting all those things combined accounts for $2.77-million, out of the $14-million needed.

I ain't saying they are all great uses of tax dollars. But cutting them does affect a broad spectrum of people to gain just a small share of the needed cuts.

Okay, that still leaves about $11-million to cut. Of that, about a $4-million savings comes from not building city reserves as much next year -- no city jobs, programs, bureaucracies, bricks or mortar are directly affected.

So now we're down to needing about $7-million in actual cuts ... but, wait!

Baker also proposes upward of $1-million in fee increases to citizens. So now the actual whacking to city government is reduced to about $6-million.

Then at last, Baker gets down to cutting the government.

He loses 50 jobs and slashes code enforcement, but most cuts turn out to be more nips and tucks than deep structural change. And there are still cuts that directly affect citizens, such as reduced hours at libraries and adult centers.

I ain't sayin' the mayor targeted things that are the most visible. I'm just saying it's interesting that all that stuff got axed in one swoop.

No actual deputy mayors were harmed in the writing of this budget.

Now, back to the matter of Fort De Soto, the Pinellas County park once named America's best beach.

This morning, the County Commission will meet to discuss the budget. It sounds as though some want to talk about charging admission to Fort De Soto - even though the staff's current plan meets the goal without it.

It's not that a fee at Fort De Soto is unfair (although $3 a pop seems steep, and they oughta have some kind of annual pass).

But since the commission doesn't need to do it, doing it anyway would be mostly an act of spite. Fortunately, they're all grownups who are above such a thing. Right?

[Last modified June 26, 2007, 08:31:45]