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Politics

Amid budget cuts, one fund sits untapped

St. Petersburg has about $15.9-million in a fund earmarked for recreation.

By CRISTINA SILVA, Times Staff Writers
Published August 6, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Even as city officials scramble to free up tax dollars by cutting staff and eliminating more than $2-million in arts and social service funding, one large pot of money remains untouched.

About $15.9-million sits in the city's Weeki Wachee Fund, money earned from the sale of a 440-acre recreation area in Hernando County in 2001.

Though the fund was originally earmarked for park, recreation, beautification and nature preservation efforts, some city officials and tax reform proponents argue the time has come to re-evaluate how the money should be spent.

David McKalip, founder of the nonpartisan group Cut Taxes Now and a sometime critic of the St. Petersburg City Council, said he would support a plan to dissolve the Weeki Wachee Fund and redistribute the money to property owners.

The city already has a $15.5-million reserve fund. They don't need to save more money, he said.

"If our city is sitting on a huge slush fund, our leaders should be responsible and give that money back to the taxpayers when they are in trouble as they are now," he said. "It doesn't matter if you have a skate park or a dog park if you can't afford to live here. We are in a crisis and the taxpayers need their money back."

But a majority of city officials opposed redirecting the money, arguing that more than mere dollars and cents are at stake if the Weeki Wachee Fund is used for expenses other than what was originally promised to voters.

A 1999 voter referendum allowed the city to sell the property as long as the proceeds were used for recreation and beautification projects, a stipulation added by the City Council to sweeten the pot for voters concerned about selling the land.

"I don't think the voters when they went to vote on the referendum thought it would be okay for that money to be used for routine operating expenses," said First Deputy Mayor Tish Elston. "We have to be mindful of that, otherwise you break trust with the voters."

In recent years, interest earned from the Weeki Wachee Fund has been used to create skate parks, dog parks, a boat dockage project, and the Vinoy Basin Boardwalk.

The City Council ultimately decides how the money is used, and all project estimates must cover basic construction costs and projected operating and maintenance costs for 10 years to protect the city's general fund.

Slightly more than $1.4-million is currently set aside for future recreation projects. In all, $2.1-million has been spent on recreation projects since the fund was established.

St. Petersburg bought Weeki Wachee Spring in 1940 with the idea of supplying water to the city, but because of financial and political concerns, that idea never came to fruition.

After the property was sold for $14.4-million to the Southwest Florida Water Management District in 2001, the council voted to invest the money and use the interest to support new recreation projects.

The money has since been used to address quality of life concerns for the city's ever younger population, said council chairman John Bryan.

Residents, he said, "are looking for skate parks, and they are looking for dog parks and they are looking for things to do, and this was a means for us to provide that without looking into ad valorem taxes."

If the City Council wanted to use the Weeki Wachee interest money for other expenses, it would simply need to approve an ordinance allowing it to do so, said Chief Assistant City Attorney Mark Winn.

"It's not a major obstacle," he said.

It would be more difficult for the city to tap into the total fund dollars. Because part of the Weeki Wachee land was waterfront property, city code mandates any issues involved with the sale of the land must go before voters.

City officials also say it makes little fiscal sense to use a one-time source of revenue to pay for ongoing expenses, such as employee salaries or library operating costs. "Once you change it and use it for something else it will never come back to its original use," said Council member Jeff Danner, who recommended part of the Weeki Wachee Fund be used to create a new dog park in Historic Kenwood.

But Council member Bill Foster, who originally advocated using the Weeki Wachee money for recreation, said some residents aren't getting benefits from the fund.

"Not everybody goes to a dog park, not everybody can use a skateboard park, but everybody enjoys First Night and lots of people enjoy the Pier Aquarium," said Foster, who recently was the only council member to suggest the money be diverted temporarily to support arts and social agencies. "If we can just expand the fund's use to include other segments of our community, I don't think that is betraying the voters."

Government officials sometimes divert funds earmarked for specific purposes to other uses, and state law allows county and city officials to redirect tax dollars to pay for construction efforts.

But diverting funds can sometimes be risky. For example, some southern Pinellas residents still complain about 1995 legislation that allowed the state Department of Transportation to redirect money earmarked for the Pinellas Bayway System to improve another roadway.

In these fiscally lean times, even using the Weeki Wachee Fund for its intended purpose - to support recreation - could incite some voters, Bryan said.

"I don't see us spending that money on anything right now," he said. "To them, it is tax money. The taxpayer doesn't understand the difference when you are using it to build a skate park."

[Last modified August 6, 2007, 06:43:09]