Today opens a season of serious decisions

Two weeks after voters overwhelmingly endorsed changing Florida's property tax system, the start of the campaign season for the people who must deal with the fallout begins in earnest.

The byproduct of Amendment 1 - reduced government spending at the local level - must be sorted out in Pasco's six cities and against that backdrop, 17 seats are up for election April 8. The weeklong candidate filing period begins at noon today.

City Hall shake-ups already are under way as at least five new faces will grace council or commission chambers in four governments. Dade City Mayor Hutch Brock, Zephyrhills council member Celia Graham, San Antonio Commissioner Dennis Phillips, and New Port Richey Mayor Dan Tipton and Vice Mayor Ginny Miller have indicated they are ending their municipal government tenures.

The task ahead for local officials is daunting. They must balance pressing public needs with shrinking resources while simultaneously trying to diminish the effect on qualify-of-life services like recreation, libraries and even gratis pick-up of yard waste. They must grow their tax bases, advance redevelopment projects and attempt to attract new businesses and industry.

Port Richey must confront a dawdling dredging project. New Port Richey wants to jump-start the private-sector side of downtown investment. Dade City has to make sure its infrastructure is suitable as it awaits potential growth. Zephyrhills is better-positioned than many of its counterparts, but it, too, must decide on whether to embark on anticipated capital projects.

City residents at least 18 years of age have until March 10 to register to vote. We encourage them to do so and to be more than casual observers, or worse, nonparticipants.

The campaign season provides the public with face-to-face meetings with the people who want to represent them. They should take advantage of the face time and question the candidates on their motives for seeking office and, more important, explore exactly how they might devise future municipal budgets.

The electorate shouldn't accept the ambiguous rhetoric of identifying wasteful spending at some unspecified future time. Voters should quiz the incumbents and challengers alike on specific areas to be cut. Will cities be able to maintain independent services, contract for some jobs, or eliminate others altogether? Residents should state whether or not they will accept new fees for services they now enjoy at no extra charge.

Voters should ask these questions, weigh the answers and respond accordingly when completing their ballots. Lamenting past spending decisions or prior personality clashes serves little purpose.

Pasco's local governments need intelligent, sensible, creative people to lead them, and the eight-week sprint of selecting those officeholders begins today.

[Last modified February 11, 2008, 21:40:36]