The Money Comes, the Money Goes.

Big spenders in Florida government may have a problem in 2008. And why not? They've been spending public funds on every shiny bauble they can invent for the past decade. This editorial ran in the Winter Haven News Chief in June 2007.

The money comes, the money goes

by

Jamie Beckett

    State legislators are in Tallahassee this week. It’s special session time. This is when real business gets done. Tax cuts are a comin’ - so say the tea leaves and Governor Crist.
    Much of the public welcomes the pending change in property tax bills, with good reason. For while recent income levels have remained fairly flat relative to inflation, property taxes have inexorably risen above acceptable levels.
    While irresponsible the trend is hardly unexpected. Given the chance, government will spend money like - well, like government. Not even Paris Hilton at her most rambunctious can pull cash out of an account like a city with a drive to keep up with the neighbors.
    The problem with government run amok isn’t the realistic spending. If they were breaking the bank to build schools or a free medical clinic or patch roads that look as if Spessard Holland oversaw the ribbon cutting ceremony, that might be different. They’re still overspending. But they’d be overspending on infrastructure of value. Instead, local bodies across the state are busily building monuments to their own egos. The fact that they’re doing it at the expense of their constituents doesn’t seem to bother them in the least. Even when those constituents have been beaten and battered by repeated tropical storms and hurricanes.
    That’s not a small consideration. The fact that residents of Florida have had their homes, savings and insurance policies ravaged by half a dozen hurricanes in the past several years is germane to the discussion of spending. The ever increasing mandatory cost to consumers, in the form of higher taxes, is unconscionable.
    Consider what this massive spending spree has bought. Here in Winter Haven the new Police Station was built at a cost well above the original budget, due in large part to last minute tinkering with plans to satisfy an eleventh hour urge to move the building to a new location. The justification was that moving the station to the fringes of Florence Villa would result in an increase in property values and a renewed pride in ownership there.
    Surprise - so such luck. And in case you’ve ever had the occasion to need a cop while in that neighborhood at night, you’re pretty much out of luck. The doors are locked to the public.
    Your tax dollars at work.
    Winter Haven has also decided to dump huge sums of taxpayer money into a bus station that’s of dubious value to the public at large and a new airport terminal that nobody but the city commission seems to be interested in building.
    What’s a few million dollars between friends?
    Shortly we’ll be hearing a familiar cry in reference to the coming amended tax plan. The bleating will continue ad nauseam, “How are we going to pay for the tax cuts?” The answer is, of course; we won’t.
    Tax revenue can be equated to what the average business or family calls, income. You don’t pay for cuts in income, you endure them. Anyone who has ever been a party to cost cutting measures is aware of this. Government, by decree it seems, is incapable of even considering curtailing their spending.
    Spending, especially government sponsored spending, is the equivalent of whipping out a credit card as you wander through the mall, then a car dealership, a jeweler on the corner and finally, a really good restaurant. Tomorrow, they do it all over again.
    On an individual basis, only those with absolutely no intention of paying their bills would act so irresponsibly. Welcome to government. In the rarified air of government otherwise rational people spend to their hearts content on whatever they want. If the public doesn’t agree - too bad, they buy it anyway. If the bill is too high - so what, it’s not real money, it’s only credit. If there’s no actual need for the expenditure - big deal. Local leaders get so excited about how spiffy their names will look etched onto a brass plaque hanging on the wall of some new building - it’s worth whatever it costs.
    That is, until now.  The big boys and girls in Tallahassee just might put a crimp in the rigged game that’s been going on in the municipalities for these past several years. The special session will tell the tale.
    Soon there will be a pained outcry from those same municipalities, state wide. Concerned officials will warn of impending cuts in police and fire protection. It can’t be avoided they’ll say. The math just doesn’t work out.
    Au contraire. As our own Polk County commission learned the hard way, in a pinch the public doesn’t mind cutting bloated government salaries in half. It could happen again, if the math requires it, on the local level.
    Now that’s a cost cutting idea that could pay dividends.

Winter Haven resident Jamie Beckett can be contacted via his website: jamiebeckett.com

Reviews

[Edmund Jonah]

Hi Jamie,
This essay should appear in a local newspaper. It is expressed clearly with that hint of humour that makes it interesting while telliing of a serious matter that certainly needs correction. Not that correction will surely follow, but it certainly is worth letting your fellow citizens of New Haven aware of what's going on. There is just one typo: 'Surprise - so such luck' should of course be 'Surprise - no such luck.' I am glad to find you back with us.