County budget director upstages Sheriff White

By C.T. BOWEN, Editor of Editorials
Published August 16, 2007

Sheriff Bob White speaks to the media after his request for an $11.2-million budget increase was rejected by the County Commission on Tuesday in New Port Richey.
	[Stephen J. Coddington | Times]

The man with the gold star has a tin ear.

Pasco Sheriff Bob White failed to hear or chose to ignore the public clamor for lower taxes. As a result, he devised a law enforcement spending plan unpalatable to commissioners complying with a legislative mandate to cut the property tax rate.

White's inability or unwillingness to recognize the political reality of a local government handcuffed by Tallahassee came to fruition Tuesday morning when the commission killed his proposed $11.2-million budget increase. The sheriff wanted to add 109 new positions and boost his budget to $94.7-million at a time commission-controlled departments are under a hiring freeze.

The public repudiation of the sheriff's budget-writing skills coincides with the commission's search for $15.8-million to cut from the county budget with the possibility of trimming another $1.8-million if the state pushes additional Medicaid costs to the local level.

Tuesday, the sheriff lauded the commission for its frugality and record of cutting the tax rate as rising property values increased county revenue. Then he spent a long time telling them Pasco's per-capita financial commitment to law enforcement pales in comparison to other counties. The sheriff neglected to mention some of those same counties now face severe budget cuts because of the way they increased spending in the past.

The sheriff also fell victim to a situation that has doomed many a live performance. Never go on second when the opening act has better material. County budget director Mike Nurrenbrock upstaged White's presentation when he told his bosses:

- The Sheriff's Office, over the past five years, takes 55 percent of the property taxes in the county general fund.

- The commission has given the sheriff nearly 98 percent of what he had asked for over the same five years;

- The population grew 20 percent and the inflation rate was 17 percent since 2002. Compounded, those two growth indicators totaled 41 percent. Meanwhile, the sheriff's budget had increased 51 percent.

Commissioners also doubted the authenticity of White's figures, some of which were compiled by Orange County, saying they needed an audit of how those locales assemble their budgets.

Consider the incredulity a residue from past sheriffs providing inaccurate data to past commissions. But it didn't help that the Sheriff's Office Web site tells the public White's proportionate share of the county budget shrinks each year.

It is an accurate observation only if you consider the county budget's bottom line inflated by impact fees, utility and incinerator costs, road-building expenses and other accounts that are irrelevant to the amount of money available for law enforcement.

Eventually recognizing that his proposed budget increase was in peril, White complained that in all his meetings nobody had told him what dollar amount to use. He asked commissioners to pick a figure and tell him what per-capita (again with that argument) amount they were willing to invest.

The county, incidentally, has said that in private meetings, White had been unwilling to budge.

So, the commission gave him a push. They offered up a nice round figure: 0. Zip. Nada. No increase. Make do with the same amount you get right now.

There hasn't been public disclosure of a number this low since Dean Wormer's description of Bluto Blutarsky's grade-point average: zero point zero.

The sheriff rejected an alternative to add more money for patrol deputies by sharing overhead expenses with the county on such items as fleet management and human resources.

"Now, you've gone from governing to meddling," White answered Commissioner Mike Cox's inquiry about the sheriff's need for a 22-inch tire changer.

Afterward, the sheriff told a gathering of reporters that the commission's cost-sharing strategy was penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Conversely, you could say the sheriff won't forgo independence in exchange for the opportunity to put more deputies on the road.

Who looks foolish then?

[Last modified August 16, 2007, 08:05:32]