Last week we indicated that Martin County needed to become more business friendly in order to attract new industry and jobs to support the local economy. Several comments we received indicate that some of you perceive this as an unwanted deviation from our traditional low tax, anti-spend positions. It is not. We continue to push for low taxes and have a large number of items on our spending hit list. However, we recognize that there are things that cannot be changed in the short run, such as the Firefighter/EMS 10% across the board pay increase already in their union contract for 2008-09. These and other unjustified anomalies brought on by years of excess spending are going to take years to bring back into line with private employment – assuming there is the political will to do so.

A by-product of this situation is going to be severe cutbacks in other less protected government services and there is a finite limit to how much can be cut without a serious negative impact to the lives of our residents. That does not mean that there are not areas where spending cuts are still needed. As an example, there is a problem in the Parks Department. Their management suggests closing 14 Martin County Parks to cut costs. The cost savings were calculated to be $48,406 per year. Closing or dual use of some parks may be warranted, but we see the ability to save a lot more than that by cutting back on the Department’s management. We need boots on the ground not seats in the chairs.

We also see great savings in combining the multitude of maintenance departments the County now operates. Combine parks, roads, sidewalks and ditch cleaning crews. Eliminate some supervisors and get rid of some vehicles. And speaking of vehicles, why do we have so many Martin County owned vehicles filling up our parking lots? A couple of our Board members make it a point to count the number of idle vehicles parked behind the Administration Building and Blake Library every work day time they are in the area. It has never been less than 20 and ranges to a high of 38 (31 was the latest count) over the last couple of years. If we have that many idle at any one time couldn’t the number be reduced. These are not specialty vehicles; they are almost all cars or pick-up trucks.

  Another vehicle-laden operation, Community Coach, needs an honest appraisal of its needs and benefits. It is not uncommon to pass many empty Coaches each day. There are dozens of them sitting idle at the airport every weekend. If we have a public transit need is it only five days a week? This system is broken. It costs too much and provides a little used but necessary service. A voucher system would certainly be cheaper and probably more responsive than maintaining these busses, drivers, facilities and management.

Building permits have been declining in Martin County for the last five years. This will mean far less growth for the foreseeable future and leads to the question; do we really need that great big, beautiful, expensive new Building Department Building? Are permits being issued more efficiently and faster now that we have that building? Do we need the same number of building inspectors? Could building inspectors be converted to code enforcement officers? Could that building house other Departments?

  And speaking of Departments, a couple of years ago we strongly counseled against setting up a separate new Department to oversee the Community Redevelopment Areas. How much planning does this CRA Department have to do? We see a real opportunity to cut staff and save money by collapsing that Department into another unit.

  Two years ago our voters were asked to approve a ½ cent sales tax increase to obtain preserve land and build a new community pool. We were told that the School Board would close the County’s only public pool to help offset the cost. We voted to raise our taxes and now we are told that there is no money for the new pool. We are also told that the School Board removed the old pool at Martin High from their FY 2009 budget and will close our only pool next year. A community pool is a needed asset for many youth groups. The School Superintendent told your Taxpayers Association that she would gladly lease the existing pool to the County. We see an opportunity here. It may not be the perfect solution, but using some of those sales tax dollars to keep our swimmers and divers in competition until the tax generates enough funds to build the new facility may be the answer.

  Our County, City and Schools Administrators are feeling the pinch and we know many are working on a number of these suggestions. Let our elected officials know that you not only support their efforts, but demand them. As we said last week, the best way to generate the funds to maintain services at the necessary level is to grow the tax base by attracting environmentally friendly industry and jobs. Doing that and insisting that our elected officials learn to be conscientious with our tax dollars are the actions needed to overcome these challenges.