Staff says tax cut would cost Manatee parks and libraries. Kruse is more worried about the taxpayers
'Im sure our budget will be just fund regardless of scare tactics,' county commissioner says
Updated, 5:35 p.m., Aug. 17, 2021
Commissioner George Kruse tweeted a summary of today’s action by the Manatee County Commission.
Here are some more details about the tax rate cut, which is worth about $8.3 million in savings for county taxpayers.
Marc R. Masferrer @MRMasferrer
Reducing the proposed property tax millage rate as backed by @KruseBOCC & @V_Baugh could take millions of dollars from parks, libraries & other @ManateeGov operations, according to options prepared by staff for Tuesday's commission budget workshop https://t.co/aNKdFN5tqUManatee County Commissioner George Kruse makes a good point.
Too often, government officials, especially the unelected ones, give off an aura that tells some: “We know best how to spend the public’s tax money. And if you give us less of it, there will be disaster!”
County Administrator Scott Hopes and his staff were not quite that alarming or dismissive when Kruse last month proposed trimming .15 of a mill, or 15 cents for every $1,000 of property value, from the county’s proposed tax rate rate for 2021-22. But their tone, at least how it sounded to Kruse and Commission Chairwoman Vanessa Baugh, suggested it might be tough to leave the lights on if the county were not able to collect the $6.5 million Kruse’s proposal would take from an otherwise $1 billion budget.
More ominously, staff suggested that if Kruse got what he wanted, commissioners might see some prized projects in their districts take a hit. The thought of that gave Kruse’s staunchest allies on the commission, Kevin Van Ostenbridge and James Satcher, enough heartburn to vote against Kruse’s proposal until they could study the fine print.
Some of that fine print came in the form of a staff report prepared in advance of Tuesday’s commission workshop on the budget. The unsigned report suggested libraries, parks and other prized government services could lose millions in funding if the commission cut the proposed tax rate. (A similar “this is what it will do to government” theme marked an examination of a separate proposal to give residents an even bigger break on their utility bills.)
Governmental accounting can often, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, be "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” In my more than 30 years of covering local government in four different states, I have often seen elected officials like Kruse struggle with getting straight, clear-cut answers from the accountants and the bookkeepers about the tax rate, fund balances, reserves, etc. Often, the elected officials give up and decide to trust the experts — leaving the taxpayers with the bill.
Kruse, whose business experience helps him at least ask the right questions, Baugh and even Satcher and Van Ostenbridge, have since November targeted that way of doing the government’s business. They even fired a county administrator, in part, because they wanted to shake things up.
They question why the county keeps adding millions to its reserves, when there are so many street and other infrastructure projects that need to get done. And at least Kruse and Baugh, wonder how in the world the county cannot afford to give the taxpayers at least a small break.
After all, it’s their money!
The sedentary, self-protecting nature of government bureaucracy can be tough to break for even the most persuasive politician. But the reality is, in Manatee County government the commission has the final say. Whether residents get a break on their tax bills this fall, is all on them.
The staff who work for them might do well to remember that.
I'm currently in the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY for the summer. It costs $10 per launch to use the boat ramps. There is a fee for using the beach at the lake. Parking is free now but that is up for debate. Let's charge the users of the services, rather than a blanket charge to homeowners only.
Parks and recreation are bloated the way they are. You see all these high dollar and amenities to very affluent neighborhoods that could easily support mini parks within their own development. When we are putting in million dollar soccer fields with nobody asked replacing playground equipment that just needs proper maintenance is a red flag to this taxpayer when other marginalized communities are suffering with no sidewalks or street lights.