In the last few years your Martin County Taxpayers’ Association has written many articles about excessive spending by various local governments and schools. We have condemned projects we deemed wasteful or unaffordable and criticized the personnel policies that have produced public service salaries and benefits (the single biggest cost of government) far greater than those given by private employers. Our position papers and articles advocating specific changes are archived on our web site http://www.mctaxpayers.org/.

Fortunately, our County’s governments and schools are finally addressing many of these suggestions, mostly because they are being forced by dwindling tax receipts and recent legislative action from Tallahassee. Unfortunately, most of the current efforts to reduce spending come too late to keep them from adversely affecting levels of service, some of which are critical to our safety and lifestyle. While we applauded these efforts, many of which we have advocated for years, Martin County is continuing to slide toward a financial crisis. As of today the County Administrator is looking at a $20+ million shortfall for 2009, the County’s Schools are down at least $4 million for next year, and the various city/municipal governments are struggling with their budgets.

There are few positive signs of relief for the immediate future. The Tax Assessor’s office recently declared that the total value of Martin County’s real property was down 7% last year. This will have the interesting affect of lowering the tax on businesses and non-homesteaded properties while almost all homesteaded properties will still go up by 3% since they were already legally “undervalued”. However, the net result will be a decrease in 2009 property tax income for both governments and schools, and these property values are forecast to continue to decline this year and next. As for other sources of income, for the 1 st quarter of this year Impact Fees are down by almost 70%. Sales taxes are down 13 %, fuel taxes are down 6% and tourism tax is down 2.7%. With the projected 2009 opening of the new mall at “Tradition” in St. Lucie County these point-of-sale taxes were already likely to decrease next year, even without an economic downturn.

Looking at these figures, it is time to quit pointing fingers and concentrate on how to solve the County’s financial problems without degrading our schools, reducing necessary levels of service, or further eroding the local economy. The best way to do that is to increase the governments’ income by growing and diversifying the local economy. This means creating high paying non-government jobs by helping existing local businesses and industry prosper while attracting new, environmentally friendly companies to the County.

There is a negative knee jerk reaction to virtually any kind of growth by many Martin County leaders that has long been a discouragement to companies wanting to move to the area. The perception fostered by many in that group is that “unbridled growth” has caused the traffic congestion and economic problems the County now suffers. To a point that is correct, but it is the unbridled growth of Government and the salaries and benefits of its workers, not growth of industry or even population that is the problem. Over the last 10 years the population has gone up less that 2% a year, from approximately 120,000 residents in 1997/8 to 143,000 last year (19.1%), by far the lowest of any coastal county in Florida. This could have been a good thing but, during the same period, the County’s budget grew from $165 million ($1,375 per resident) to a high of $412 million (up 250% to $2,840 per resident) in 2007. These funds were generated almost entirely by the soaring real-estate value of businesses and homes of part-time residents. Had it been efficiently spent on necessary infrastructure, or returned to residents, there would be little problem with sustaining our economy today. Unfortunately it was not and many businesses have gone under. We believe even our total population may well decease this year. The efforts to promote “slow/no growth” under the rationale “maintain our desirable lifestyle” may well have contributed to a stagnant economy, which can be just as bad too rapid growth.

Smart growth that recognizes and maintains the unique characteristics of Martin County while improving the economy should be the goal. There is an Economic Stimulus Program currently under consideration by the Martin County Board of County Commissioners that could become an important tool for increasing our tax base, which is necessary to return economic vitality and eventually provide additional services to the citizens of Martin County. This program could be part of a comprehensive strategy to encourage economic development and create high value jobs for our residents.

One essential component is the establishment of an expedited permits review process for specific value-based industries. The County will thereby proactively encourage local business expansion and facilitate the location of desirable economic development projects that offer new, high wage jobs for our residents. The key is to reduce the time and paperwork involved for locating targeted companies, while maintaining the substantive permitting standards that protect our natural resources, environment, and quality of life.

We encourage the Commission to make an unbiased, thoughtful evaluation and adopt the program with whatever reasonable safeguards are needed to protect our County from undesirable growth.