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County Budget Balanced - Briefly

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - For a brief moment Wednesday afternoon, it looked like Pasco County commissioners finally had balanced their budget for next year.

Then commissioners Michael Cox and Pat Mulieri recommended setting aside more than $700,000 for 10 new patrol deputies. Then Sheriff Bob White reminded commissioners he still needs $200,000 for new school crossing guards.

Before they knew it, the commissioners were back in a nearly $1 million budget hole with less than three weeks to dig their way out.

'That's the process,' County Administrator John Gallagher said as he left the 2 1/2 -hour session. 'Either I pay for it or somebody else does.'

Gallagher suggested that could mean further cuts in county services such as parks.

That's how commissioners ended the latest round of negotiations aimed at squeezing the final drops of red ink from the 2007-08 budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1. The talks were testy, and the votes were sharply divided.

By 3-2 votes, commissioners:

•Denied Clerk of Circuit Court Jed Pittman's office $17,000 to pay for travel expenses to conferences and cut another $70,000 for new hires.

•Approved $382,000 in donations to charitable agencies such as the United Way, Salvation Army and YMCA, despite the objections of Mulieri, who wanted to put at least half the money into funding new deputies.

•Ordered county staff to set aside $717,000 to fund 10 deputies for six months starting April 1. The exact source of that money remains unclear.

A divided board also funded 16 new crossing guard positions from unspecified sources. Commissioner Jack Mariano disagreed with the county paying for them, saying White should find the money in his own budget.

The board denied White any more money for school resource officers, the deputies who work in county schools. White will have to shuffle officers from elementary schools fill gaps at middle and high schools.

As the meeting wound to a close, Cox asked that White leave open eight vacant jobs, several of them clerical, until the end of the month in hope that those positions might provide some of the money needed for the 10 deputies. The sheriff protested.

'Commissioner, you have cut me to the bone, to the bone,' White said. 'It's very difficult for me to find anything to give up.'

Then he chided commissioners for not making his office a high-enough priority, drawing indignant grumbles from the five people on the dais.

'We've had enough of the back and forth,' Commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand said. 'Thank you for being here.'

The first public hearing on the as-yet unfinished budget is set for Monday. After that, commissioners will hold their next budget-cutting session Sept. 24. A final budget hearing is set for Sept. 25.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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