Lauren Ritchie
COMMENTARY
February 6, 2008
Pull out the red pencils! The chop-fest is about to start.
Some of us are looking forward to it. But bureaucrats? They're not. Stinks to be them. Since Amendment 1 passed last week, they've been howling at full steam.
Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my! We're going to have to cut firefighters and police!
Oh, please.
Prediction: Government staffers are going to act like they've been fed through a jet engine twice. The first things they will try to cut are services for the poor, the elderly and children. Then the bureaucrats will target the average taxpayer -- they'll cut youth sports, trim library hours and reduce the number of garbage pickups. They'll charge per-sheet fees for toilet paper in city hall if they can get away with it.
They are hoping you will be scared enough or mad enough to beg them to raise taxes and keep the world spinning on its axis.
Folks, don't buy it. Instead, make them cut the kingdom.
Officials everywhere are going to be trimming budgets because they're not getting the windfall to which they've unfortunately grown accustomed during the past few boom years. I keep repeating the following figures because they tell the dramatic story of tax increases in a nutshell: All of Lake County's taxing authorities combined took in $198.4 million four years ago. This year, they're taking in roughly $377.8 million, a 90 percent increase.
Have people really demanded 90 percent more in services? Has the population grown by 90 percent in four years? Of course not. And while they're swinging a machete to perform this delicate tax-reduction surgery, whose head do you think they'll be watching out for? Yours?
Bureaucrats are going to have to cut back a little, and they're reacting like spoiled children.
Let's take an example.
Leesburg city commissioners voted Jan. 22 to buy a $20,000, 12-passenger GMC van for SWAT members to ride to missions and competitions. In 2007, Leesburg called out its SWAT team 19 times and went to two competitions, one of them in Orlando.
When questioned about the need for the van, the police chief reported sadly that team members were forced to jump out of the back of a pickup for their most recent mission in which they seized a whole pound and a half of marijuana.
Chief Bill Chrisman said the van also could be used to tow a trailer with a lighted message board to a median. And -- though officers carpool to the gun range -- a van would allow them to ride together to Astatula for qualifying, which would save gas. He said this with a straight face.
"This would be a community vehicle to help us rid ourselves of the drugs. I don't want to see it sit idle," the chief said.
He closed by praising the professionalism of the SWAT members.
City Commissioner David Knowles jumped on the chance to pander:
SWAT members, he said, "risk their lives to protect the people of Leesburg, and we have to tell them we're so . . . cheap, we can't buy you a new vehicle."
It's a relief to know that unemotional logic prevails when it comes to spending taxpayer money. Bye-bye, bucks.
By paying mileage instead, Leesburg can cover 39,604 miles of travel, or the equivalent of 2,317 trips to Astatula, for the cost of the van.
So, you tell me: Is Amendment 1 really going to force a cutback on critical services? My answer is simple -- only if you, the taxpayer, let it. It's time for a red-pencil brigade.
Lauren Ritchie can be reached at Lritchie@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5918.
Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel
Matt Puckett
Deputy Executive Director
Florida Police Benevolent Association