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County's Budget 'Turkeys' Not Cause For Celebration

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2008

"Politics," the late American newspaper editor and writer Charles Dudley Warner once quipped, "makes strange bedfellows."

Nothing proves this point more than the pet projects Gov. Charlie Crist approved last week for Pasco County in the new $66 billion budget crafted by the Legislature.

In the state's fiscal year that begins in a couple of weeks, the county will be the beneficiary of more than $18 million in state money for local projects and programs. And that doesn't even include money the county is eligible to receive from a $10 million pot for an affordable housing pilot program Pasco is participating in with two other counties.

So you thought it was a lean state-budget year? That's what we were repeatedly told. Indeed, the budget is $6 billion lower than the package Crist signed last year.

And there were some devastating statewide cuts: $130 per student in public schools; $163 million to nursing homes; more than $200 million to hospitals that treat the poor; and millions more to services for the developmentally disabled.

Pasco's awards don't really reflect such tough times, do they? That's where politics come in. Pasco's Republican-only delegation sure earned its pay this time.

Among the county's booty is a real doozy - $10 million to help fund infrastructure improvements needed for new schools. Wonder what taxpayers in Escambia, Hardee or any other county think about that.

Officially, it's called the Pasco County School District/FDOT Concurrency Pilot Program. This is an amazing gift, considering the county and school board, both with budgets exceeding $1 billion, continue to butt heads over who should pay these costs. It's a local issue that should be solved at home without state money.

You can only guess what will happen when the money is gone.

What's even more incredible is that this appropriation didn't make Florida TaxWatch's dreaded list of "turkeys." It's the biggest one of the bunch. A $5 million appropriation to entice companies with high-paying jobs to come to Pasco was labeled a gobbler.

Let's look at something else that's happening locally. The Pasco County School Board has to cut spending by $16 million because of reduced funding and revenue, and the Pasco County Commission has to slice an estimated $22 million for the same reasons. Most of this is the result of the Legislature's "property tax reform."

Package that with Pasco's state prizes, and it all amounts to a money-juggling act that doesn't make sense.

Maybe Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, the House Democratic leader, is right. "This is not a budget that warrants celebration," he said in a statement. The same should be said of Pasco's take, considering the circumstances.

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