It is county budget time again and the county has another large increase in revenue. Naturally we see all departments and the constitutional offices wanting part of the action.

According to our Property Appraiser, Greg Brown, the county will receive an additional 13 million dollars this year. This county has seen a large increase in property values. Large as in a 27% increase in value added to 4% for new construction. This means the county will see a 31% increase in the Ad Valorem money for the county. That is an additional 13 million dollars for the county over last years budget. These figures include the beach tax money but does not include the $7.5 million in escrow for prior beach taxes.

This large increase is a one time shot due to the increased property vales and inflated sales figures from last year. Normally we see a yearly valuation increase of around 6%. All indicators point to a return to that level starting with next years budget. It should be noted that MOST of the actual increase in tax dollars received will come from vacant property and businesses. Remember, your homestead tax can not increase by more than 3% per year while there is no cap on property, rentals or business.

What does all this mean to the budget and us tax payers. The operating budget has a 13.5% increase. All constitutional officers have asked for an increase, some small like the $50,870 for the Supervisor of Elections (6.2%) to the very large like the $4,854,330 (17.75%) increase for the Sheriff. These requests must be looked at very closely by the commissioners and they need to refuse many of these large requests. Same goes for some of the other county spending requests. TEAM wants an additional $137,250 for a total county funding of $624,250. Emergency Management wants an additional $622,840. We must draw the line with these large increases.

I realize the county has put off building or expanding some facilities due to hurricanes and plain old foot dragging. Some could say the county really did not and does not have a good hold on what needs to be accomplished in this county. Some of the capital projects the county wants to address includes $2 million for the State Attorney office and $2 million for courthouse renovation. That is $4 million that could go towards a new courthouse. They want 7 million for a Public Works / Public Services Complex and $10 million for the EOC.

They have all these needs, most have been known about for at least two years and I have yet to see any long range plan they give a start date and identifies a funding source.

With all this considered I offer the following. We need to reduce some of the budget increase requests. Allow only a 6 or 7 percent increase in budgets. The remaining 24 or 25 percent of new tax revenue should go toward needed capital projects with a realistic capital improvement plan and get started on it.