Last week was an eventful one in a number of areas crucial to the financial well being of Martin County Taxpayers. The most relevant was one that our Association has been advocating for several years, the continuing effort to meld the Stuart Fire/EMS and the Martin County Fire/EMS into one countywide organization.

The reason this is so critical is that these organizations offer what many residents of our aging society arguably consider the most valuable service provided by our local governments. Unfortunately, given the twin realities of excessive costs and the projected current/future budget shortfalls, current levels of service cannot be maintained without changes. We believe the only way that the current County wide 6-minute response time by adequately trained and equipped Fire and EMS professionals can be sustained is by the efficiencies that could result from a restructured system. This is especially true for the next few years as our governments deal with falling revenues, rising personnel and energy costs and State mandated tax reform.

The short-term cost reductions would come from closing at least one station, reducing senior management positions and controlling overtime by redistributing personnel. Longer-term advantages would result from having less duplicative equipment, incorporating common maintenance procedures and, hopefully, reduced personnel cost through more oversight of union negotiations.

We also believe that a Commission made up of elected representatives from each of the Counties’ governments, overseeing a countywide Fire/EMS service funded by an equitable countywide tax may be the best way to get control of this expensive, but necessary service. In addition, this Commission could work closely with nearby county governments/commissions to help resist the ratcheting up of salaries and benefits by “competing” contracts. We will be working closely with all concerned to help achieve an equitable and sustainable result.

We were disappointed to see that the Governor signed into law the revamped Citizens’ Insurance package we disparaged on these pages early last month. Our major point was that the State was assuming more and more liability while actively “taxing” all residents with commercial home and automobile policies. The new law not only continued the process, but increased the inequities by freezing rates for a third year in a row, and raising the maximum coverage to homes valued up to 2 million dollars.

For those not familiar with the Citizens, Florida Statute created it in 2002 to be the insurer of last resort for Floridians. The bill was sponsored by representatives from southeastern Florida including Key West, Miami Beach and Palm Beach – coastal areas subject to catastrophic hurricanes with expensive properties at risk.

In theory the State should be writing as few policies as are absolutely necessary and not be competitive with normal insurance companies. Citizens’ premiums should therefore be greater than commercial rates and set high enough to discourage customers and cover the increased losses that are inevitable. Obviously this is not the case. In the 6 years since its inception coverage has grown to more than 1,223,000 policies in force as of April 2008. This new legislation will only serve to increase the cost to millions of responsible home and business owners who are already subsidizing Citizens’ and will substantially increase the liability for all Florida residents. All of you that have private auto or home insurance should look at your policy. You will most likely be unpleasantly surprised at the items listed as “FHCF surcharge”, “FL Surcharge”, or just “FHCF”. In 2007 they added nearly $250 to the average private homeowner policy and a smaller amount to each auto policy.

According to the State’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink: “The legislature chose to increase the risk” and completely ignored her plea to trim $3 billion from Florida’s current $28 billion risk exposure. The Florida Insurance Council was more succinct: “They ignored the real crisis.” We agree!

A third major event was release of the Sheriff’s draft 2009 budget. While there were several positive aspects to his draft, it is difficult to support even the nominal 1% ($500,000) increase over his actual $59.5 million 2008 budget when his deputies are receiving an 8% salary increase and his civilian employees up to a 7% raise.

We value the effective law enforcement he and his personnel provide and understand the personal risks they undertake. We are also aware of the tremendous impact of raising energy cost on his operations and appreciate his efforts to reduce personnel costs through attrition, buyouts, sick leave policy changes and the zero increase for senior management. However, we believe more can be done to recover the cost of allowing deputies to drive their assigned vehicles to and from work, especially those living outside Martin County, and these salary increases could be trimmed in this very difficult financial year.

In short, the Sheriff’s increase comes directly out of the County Administration’s revenue and adds to the budget shortfall that is already down by some $20 million. Both the Sheriff and Fire/EMS unions should seriously consider voluntarily waiving at least a portion of the salary increases already included in their contracts for 2009. This is especially true for the Fire/EMS personnel who have had across the board increases that averaged 9.25% per year compounded for the last 8 years. This has more than doubled their income since 2001 – and they have yet another 10% increase due this October.