[Goldwingnut]

For those who are interested in the budget for Sumter County for next year there will be budget workshops held on July 9th at 1:00PM and July 10th at 9:AM at the Pinellas Sumter County building Room 102.

These are the meetings that changes can be made, not at the final approval meeting like so many thought last year.

This is a link to the agenda and proposed budget. Take the time to review it and understand what is going on. If you have questions and want to recommend changes then this is the forum.
Agenda - 07/09/2020

I've looked at most of it and have started to digest all 300+ pages. Having dealt with the CDD budgets for the last 6 years and the entire budgeting process I'd like to share a few insights on what to expect.

Bradley Arnold, the county administrator, will be the central mouthpiece at the meeting and will be assisted by some from the budgeting department of the county. The commissioners will for the most part be silent and at the end the chairman will thank them for all the hard work and great job for the great job they did, and how there was so much done to save the taxpayers money, and blah blah blah more political double talk and avoiding the issues. Nothing will change from what has been put forward.

Typically at these "workshops" a handful of residents, if any, will show up and either ask no questions or questions of little relevance to the budget or with some pet project that has little to no value to anyone in the county except that person. Let us not make this another "rubber stamp" meeting. This is our chance as Sumter County Residents to make our voice heard and make a difference.

What I can tell you is that there will be no value in discussing last years tax increase, it is ancient history. Anyone who believes the foolishness of some of the candidates running to replace the commissioners about rolling back the 25% increase needs to rethink the idea. In Florida the budgets must be balanced, if you reduce the income (taxes) you will need to also reduce the expenses - shall we close the Pinellas facility 2 days a week, close the libraries all but 3 days a week and shorten the hours, put one less fireman at each station, or cut the sheriff's department's staffing, because these are the types of choices that would have to be made to attempt such a rollback. Some have foolishly floated the idea of issuing a bond to fund the county budgets instead of raising the taxes, this is the same a paying your mortgage payment with a visa card cash advance, pretty stupid.

I would caution all not to be foolish enough to say raise taxes on the developer and the other business, it doesn't work. You're not going to hurt any business by raising taxes, only yourselves. If you've ever run a business you'll know that businesses don't pay taxes, they collect them. A tax or a fee on a business is no different than labor and material, just another cost that is included in the final sale price and passed on to the consumer. It will actually cost more because the business will have additional overhead costs for the collecting and bookkeeping process and will do as they do with labor and material, mark it up. It's not greed, it's how businesses work.

Demanding the county have the developer pay for anything they aren't legally responsible for is another foolish tactic.

The county is actually proposing a decrease in the tax rate this year. In my opinion this is a patronizing gesture to the residents. They did this same game for 14 years and ignored the realities of the looming budgetary needs until they could shuffle the pieces any more and then hit us with a 25% tax increase due to their lack of planning. Insead of a tax decrease the tax rate should be maintained constant and the funds put into reserves earmarked for specific future needs and kept out of the general funds were it would surely be wasted. One incumbent has foolishly said they've been rolling back the taxes every year to allow us to keep more money in our pockets instead of the county capital reserves, an intentional afterthought, nothing more.

I will be at one if not both of these meeting. I encourage each and everyone of you reading this to look at the budgets and attend the meetings. If you don't understand something in the budget, ask them to explain it, right then and there and take no excuses. It's easy to have digital courage, it's more challenging and useful to have the backbone to stand up and demand answers in person.

Some may agree and some may disagree with some or all of the points I've tried to make here, so be it, but don't complain here, go to the meeting and let your voice be heard loud and clear. I'm a fiscal conservative and a businessman and try to always think in the real world and not just live here in our little bubble.

They do not expect a public turnout for these meetings, a show of residents will let them know that they've been screwing up for the last 15 years and we're not going to stand for it any longer.

See you at the meetings.