Opinion: Battling social programs

The Hillsborough County Commission is looking to cut its budget for social and cultural services. It's the government's version of Survivor -- throw the agencies together gladiator-style to compete for public money every year. The move is wrongheaded. In many cases, the non-profits are providing services the county must provide, and taxpayers save money farming the work out. If commissioners have a problem with suicide counseling or the Lowry Park Zoo, they already can vote against funding -- clean and simple. Creating a false competition would only give them a new excuse for such dirty work.

The idea of having museums "compete" against drug treatment programs and services for children and seniors shows the cynicism behind the proposal. There's nothing wrong with having non-profit agencies account for their public spending. But accountability is not what this is about. If it were, the county clerk could audit these groups and issue a public report.

Instead, commissioners are using the process to belittle social and cultural programs. Some of them will be doubly happy if the process frustrates the non-profits enough to seek reliable funding elsewhere. But let's not forget many non-profits exist as de facto agencies of county government, performing jobs required by law the county would otherwise have to fund and do itself.

For example, one of Hillsborough's greatests successes has been in improving drug treatment and lessening the burden of drug arrests on society and the courts. Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez, court and jail officials and the county deserve credit for working together in a broad public-private partnership. Why would commissioners want to monkey with an innovative approach that works?

The county should evaluate the non-profits during its annual budget hearings. The public should know what it's paying for. But ranking the non-profits like beauty contestants would have the bizarre effect of punishing social services that care for the weakest among us. It would fuel the falsehood that these agencies take from, rather than give to, the community.

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