Fiscal Lesson

As reported last week the district public schools face some serious belt-tightening for the coming year.
To say it was not unforeseen would be disingenuous, but the fact is that the schools were educated the past couple of months on how inextricably linked local governments are.
Now if only the rest ... save that for another week.
The problem, though, exists on Cecil G. Costin Blvd. and in Tallahassee.
The main problem nailing school budgets is steadily declining enrollment, which is predicted to really dip in the coming year.
The process has been a long one, tracing back to the permanent closure of the paper mill, but it has been steady throughout the decade.
Fewer students translate into fewer dollars, that math is pretty simple.
Take it one step further, there is the issue of how budgets are set. School districts do not set their operational budgets. As the state has pushed more and more of education spending onto local taxpayers, state lawmakers are also the ones who are putting the numerals to page.
But while the school district is "property rich," the county is considered "fiscally-constrained," giving county commissioners plenty of options to boost spending, Amendment 1 be darned.
Commissioners can increase property taxes by 10 percent with sufficient votes, they can more than double the millage if they so desire and have the requisite number of votes.
And as commissioners have spent all those back-door tax increases of the real estate boom of earlier this decade, they have treated economic development as a hobby, an afterthought for a long weekend.
They have treated the Economic Development Council as a political chit and treated efforts in the private sector to boost the economy or at least formulate a plan on moving forward as if asked to sign off on a shot of the plague.
For months folks in the community, most of them small-business owners, have met to formulate a kind of economic summit to throw ideas, suggestions and observations on the table for discussion.
With one exception, the county commissioners chose not to attend and now want to workshop with the presenters in the Commission meeting room because of bones of contention with the document that was produced.
That's what is has come to - commissioners calling a meeting at taxpayer expense to argue with a document generated by the public in a long-in-the-works public forum? What condescension toward constituents.
Better to play with the home field advantage, apparently, where the opportunity for bullying and tuning out real concerns is greater.
In any case, while school spending is limited in Tallahassee, there are few such constraints for the county and what that has meant during this decade is profligate growth in the budget and choking tax bills.
High property taxes translate into several things: reducing economic growth opportunities, reducing the chance to diversify the economy and create the high-skilled, high-paying jobs which attracts young adults.
Young adults who currently have to look outside the county for employment as economic opportunities have stagnated in their own community.
Young adults who might be considering starting and raising a family in that community, sending those offspring off to local public schools, who might provide the public schools with rising enrollment instead of declining enrollment.
So as the schools tighten the belt, or rather have Tallahassee tighten the belt for them, in the coming weeks and months, the county should be nurturing economic development to assist the schools.
They should embrace at least the effort of those who seek answers in the private sector, not do battle with them.
The EDC should be left alone and it should be doing everything possible to make a lease for the Port Authority to use part of the old mill site bulkhead on a temporary basis.
The importance of the new Sacred Hospital could not be clearer.
And it should be no less clear that the county should be looking out for all, including the schools, by lowering taxes, reducing spending and bringing about operational efficiencies.
There is a big picture here, regardless of whether county commissioners have motivation or inspiration to look.
The schools are experiencing declining enrollment in large measure because a combination of factors are conspiring to push young adults, young families, elsewhere.
The factors within the county's power? Commissioners should be doing everything possible to address.