Indefensible cuts

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published August 16, 2007

When word came down from Tallahassee that local governments would have to cut their property tax rates (or be brave enough to override the cuts), many began slashing spending for parks, recreation and other "nonessentials." But they also started cutting two areas that are absolutely essential: affordable housing and medical services for the poor. 

Difficult economic times call for maintaining or enhancing services aimed at the very families the Legislature claims it is trying to help with tax cuts. Yet Pinellas County is poised to do the opposite.

County Administrator Steve Spratt called housing costs a "crisis" in his budget message last month. Pinellas has responded better than some counties by planning to steer $10-million a year for three years into a new housing trust fund. But after the Legislature all but required lower property tax rates, the county proposed to cut next year's contribution to $5-million even though it has $23-million in funding requests from people eager to build affordable housing. That is awfully shortsighted. While the county is searching for ways to partner with others to stretch the reduced dollars, county commissioners should consider restoring the cut and looking for other alternatives.

Even more indefensible are Pinellas' planned cuts to medical care for the poor. With growing numbers of families unable to afford medical care, Pinellas would cut programs for the medically needy: $1.3-million to local hospitals for uncompensated care - gone; $900,000 for dental care for the poor - gone; $100,000 to help build a dental clinic - gone; $76,000 for the public-private Healthy Kids program - gone; $175,000 for Community Health Centers - gone. Other programs were trimmed, too, adding up to more than $3-million in budget cuts for the county's Health and Human Services Department.

Area hospitals have long sought more reimbursement from county government for the millions they spend taking care of uninsured people who can't pay their hospital bills. The county's decision to shrug off $1.3-million of that compensation hurts the hospitals and their paying patients, and it re-emphasizes the need for a dedicated funding source for indigent health care in Pinellas. "A solution to our county's indigent care crisis is mandatory and urgent," said Sue Brody, president and CEO of Bayfront Health System in St. Petersburg.

In a $2-billion budget, Pinellas County surely could find something to trim besides medical care and shelter for desperate people who have no lobbyist or powerful interest group looking out for them. The county budget will not be final until public hearings are completed in September. County commissioners should dig through it line by line until they find other expenditures to cut that don't put residents' personal welfare in peril.

[Last modified August 16, 2007, 08:29:16]