Brochure could have lessened the criticism

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published August 12, 2007

The Hernando County Commission's staff is enduring criticism, much of it caustic, as a campaign builds to lower the property tax rate more than the approximate 1 mil proposed, and to find even more savings than the $7 million that has already been cut from the operating budget.

Some of the criticism is valid, and efforts to rein in spending should continue. But some of the rants and blanket condemnations are without merit and point to a lack of understanding about how taxes are collected, distributed and spent.

That obstacle is difficult to overcome, but the County Commission took a huge step toward furthering residents' knowledge about government funding when it instructed its staff in May to create a small pamphlet, complete with pie-chart graphics and easy-to-understand language, to explain where every tax dollar goes. The staff complied and the commission approved mailing the handout to every taxpayer in the annual Truth-in-Millage, or TRIM, notices the Property Appraiser's Office sends out every August. Total cost would be $4,900.

But then the Florida Legislature met in June and handed down its property tax reform mandates. Cutting spending to accommodate those state-mandated rollbackss consumed local governments, including Hernando. In the ensuing frenzy of budget slashing, the mail-out plan initiative met a premature death at the hand of jittery staff members, whose hasty recommendation was quietly approved by the commissioners in July. The cost to print a fraction of the pamphlets and make them available for pickup in government offices and on the Web was now $960.

The irony of that wrong-headed decision is remarkable. Placing this information so conveniently into the hands of residents probably would have been the best defense the commission could have offered against the next blitz of taxpayer discontent. That reaction is almost certain because, even after all the hoopla about cutting taxes, most bills' totals won't change as much as anticipated.

The further irony is that the county commission is powerless to significantly affect much of that bottom line because it does not control the Sheriff's Office budget, or the tax rate set by the School Board, to which residents pay more than to the commission.

Setting aside any potential political shelter the mailed pamphlet might have provided the commission, the commission and its staff missed an easy and inexpensive opportunity to help residents make more informed decisions about their government. That would have been worth investing an extra $3,940 to do it right.

[Last modified August 11, 2007, 20:30:02]