Uneven Field

What a different economic landscape it might be if all taxing authorities had the same hoops to jump through as the school district to raise taxes for operating costs.

The public school district, being slowly sliced into a million little pieces by the state, having already slashed $2 million from its budget and shed 42 jobs, must take to voters the question of raising an additional $2.5 million a year, under current property values which seem likely to change.

The district's request automatically sunsets in four years, or roughly $8 million to $10 million, as one county commissioner points out again and again, over the span of its lifetime.

That is roughly the equivalent of what the county did with taxes over the five years between 2001-2005 with annual increases of 16 percent, 12 percent, 16 percent, 30 percent and 25 percent, increases that amounted to an increase in property tax spending of more than $8 million over that span.

Not once were county commissioners forced to go before voters for approval. Not once were commissioners compelled to tour the county to make their case to face sometimes hostile audiences.

Commissioners held public meetings, as required, but they were little more than theater productions with the main line reading "it is too late to cut anything this year, wait until next year" despite dissent and outrage from taxpayers and small businesses.

And lest it be forgotten, nearly four years later there is little sign of taxes coming down and three of the five commissioners who inflicted the damage - the three who just happen to be holding up county-wide voting - remain in office.

A fourth came in at the tail end of the spree and also remains in office.

Accountability? Let the taxpayer be the judge.

Yes, when the state held their feet to the fire a couple of years ago, commissioners eliminated a transfer station in Wewahitchka to meet a mandated cut and sliced fewer than 20 positions from a workforce that remains as bloated as that tire company mascot.

But the county again offers little inclination of producing meaningful spending cuts this year, particularly with chairman Nathan Peters, Jr., stating his top priority is to not shed any county jobs this year.

What a luxury, especially for school employees crossing their fingers about having a job after March 17.

During a recent budget workshop, commissioners were informed they might face finding $2 million to cut from the budget to be crafted this spring and summer, but that they have some $1.5 million that was expended this year that will not have to be spent in the next fiscal cycle.

You can bet none of that money sitting about is coming back into taxpayers' pockets.

There was also the question of what might happen to that great multiplier in the taxing formula, the mill.

A mill equals $1 for every $1,000 in taxable property value and the amount of dollars a mill will bring in Gulf County, which any homeowner can attest is seeing plummeting property values, figures to be significantly less next year.

To maintain current spending levels commissioners therefore must either raise the millage rate or, depending on how steep the drop in county property values is, cut as much as $2 million to $3 million from the budget.

Take a guess which option will be the keeper this summer?

Further, if commissioners can uncover $2 million to cut from the current budget, couldn't they have already provided relief? And shouldn't any increase of the millage rate be taken to voters just as the school board is compelled by law to do?

There is a saying about what is good for the goose and the gander.

Commissioners instead take the same stance - point fingers everywhere but the mirror and inflict pain only on others.

None of this touches on the city of Port St. Joe, which is in a state of turmoil over its finances, stretched thin on infrastructure projects, well over budget on a new water plant while passing on costs to residents and businesses and taking a page from the county's book in the pointing-fingers dance.

And like the county, the city can, with a simple three-vote majority, assess any property or sales tax it wishes without giving voters any kind of say.

So the rules should change.

The school board is stuck with the state as a budgeting partner, but the county and municipalities should by ordinance adopt a cap for millage rates. For example, the city of Destin, a charter government, caps its millage rate at 2.0.

Yes, property values are higher in Destin, the mill brings in more revenue, but it is an example of fiscal responsibility.

That would serve two purposes: to lessen the onerous tax burden on residents and small businesses at a time of real crisis and force elected officials to make decisions based on genuine needs instead of wants or special interests and surnames.

Such ordinances could bring a new era of government as the old era's expiration date has long since passed.

And they would serve as the template for voters when the next referendums, the ones that matter most, come before them - the election or re-election of county and city officials.