Politics

Mild relief brings pain

The county budget cuts 442 jobs while only lowering taxes slightly.

By BILL VARIAN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2007

TAMPA - Hillsborough commissioners unanimously approved a $4-billion budget Thursday that eliminates hundreds of county jobs while providing residents with modest property tax relief.

Thursday's losers include the county's public and education access cable television, its planning agency, its parks maintenance and after-school programs, and employees who review building permit requests.

Commissioners voted 4-3 against giving the public access channel any money, without explanation, and gave the education channel one year on a scaled-down budget to allow time to find other fiscal patrons, that on a 5-2 vote.

The final budget vote means dozens of parks, library and permit review jobs get slashed.

In all, the commission's vote lowers the county's millage by just under 1.5-mills, cutting about $56-million in spending.

The owner of a home in unincorporated Hillsborough with a taxable value of $200,000 who claims a $25,000 homestead exemption should see $213 in savings this year.

To do that, the county will eliminate 442 full- and part-time jobs. Of those, 298 are currently filled, and 97 of them are full time, though the county is working with employees facing layoffs to find them other jobs.

Commissioner Brian Blair expressed hope the county will try to avoid layoffs if other property tax cut proposals happen.

Commission Chairman Jim Norman said he thought the administration did a fair job spreading the pain but expressed concern about the future maintenance of parks.

A couple of speakers skewered Norman for his $40-million Championship Park sports complex plan. Hillsborough resident Karla Holding told Norman he should back off.

"That feeds nothing at this point except your vanity, because you feel all of your years serving need to culminate in this monument to yourself," she said.

Norman said the park would be paid for from sales taxes, and would raise money for other park maintenance.

Few of the dozens of speakers expressed pity for county employees. Rather, most spoke in favor of pet projects.

Many got some relief for their causes, as commissioners voted to shift money from a business incentive fund to cover their costs.

Others left unhappy. Commissioners voted 4-3 against providing the county's public access television any money, even though its backers formed the biggest bloc of speakers Thursday.

"It means they will be hearing from us in the courts," said Louise Thompson, who heads Tampa Bay Community Network, which runs the station and has successfully fought prior efforts to cut its $355,000 in annual funding. "We will once again be fighting for the residents of unincorporated Hillsborough County to get their voices back and free speech rights back on the airwaves."

Commissioners Blair, Norman, Ken Hagan and Al Higginbotham voted against the station. The county's education channel, initially facing complete cuts, got $250,000, a little less than half of what it got this year, with Norman and Blair voting against that amount.

Commissioners also rejected an appeal from speakers to cut the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission, by 5 percent, instead of 10 percent. The higher figure passed.

Bill Varian can be reached at varian@sptimes.com or 813 226-3387.

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 00:44:23]