IN YOUR CORNER

by the Martin County Taxpayers' Association 06/20/99

The county commission, by a predictable 3-2 vote, has adopted new wetlands rules. While the ordinance has been approved, it has not been written yet; that will be done this week. Certainly enough time has been spent discussing these rules, but we don't think anyone can say the public was properly informed or given a chance to comment. We hope that after the ordinance has been written in its final form, there will be additional time given for an informed public to comment. Passing an ordinance not yet in final form seems a questionable procedure to us, particularly when the ordinance in question will affect almost every person living in Martin County.

Additional comment is needed because the rules as they seem to be at this time are imprecise to put it kindly. What happens to the 300' buffer, around a nest if the nesting bird moves during the review process? Wetlands of Special Concern include the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Intracoastal Waterway includes the canal connecting Lake Okeechobee with the St. Lucie River. Does that make the canal of Special Concern? There are many other problems not precisely addressed.

In order to deprive a landowner of the use of his property, any political body must demonstrate that the benefit to the public as a whole will be sufficient to justify the economic damage to the individual. If there is no proven benefit to support an action, and there is none to support the 300' buffer, this is hard to prove other than by going to court. We are concerned about the monetary damage to individual taxpayers and about numerous lawsuits, which the taxpayers will have to pay to defend. We have not seen any comment from the county attorney on how litigation-proof this ordinance is. We would expect the commissioners to take an interest in this facet of the proceedings.

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English is now the worldwide language of business and commerce, in large part because it is a very precise language. Instructions properly written in English leave no room from interpretation. Now a Martin County commissioner thinks that writing a perfectly understandable plan is an unrealistic goal. If the instructions for any plan are open to interpretation, any affected taxpayer can disagree and the only resort is to a court of law and additional spending of taxpayer money. Martin County has entirely too many poorly written documents. Let us not make the wetlands ordinance another. One poorly written part of the comprehensive plan did result in a very expensive lawsuit against the county. The county ultimately won, but the whole affair was expensive and unnecessary. If an ordinance cannot be written precisely, it probably should not be written.

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Our income is spent primarily on mailings to members, our annual meeting, public forums, and our executive secretary, who is far more valuable than her pay indicates. We would like to subscribe to a rather expensive research publication that would enable us to monitor county actions more closely and thus better serve taxpayers. To do this, we need 79 new $25 annual members. If you think our efforts are beneficial to taxpayers, please consider offering this support.

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During the next few years the school district will spend about $80 million, exclusive of land costs, on new schools. A large portion of these expenditures come from our local property taxes and all of it comes from our pockets. The school district has a Long-Range Planning Committee to "provide input from district staff, parents, and community members" on this expenditure. Currently, according to some members, the committee is ineffective, politically divided, and largely ignored. Since $80 million is at stake, we hope the school district and the commissioners will recognize the problem and take steps to form a more useful committee and provide them with better guidelines and timely information. The guidelines in St Lucie County run seven pages, in Martin County, one page.

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For many years, the school district has transferred funds from the capitol projects account, which builds schools, to the operating account to cover operating expenses. In the past, these transfers have amounted to several million dollars each year. This type of borrowing robs the future to pay for the present and we have complained about it in the past.

The present school administration has improved efficiency in operations to the point where a surplus is expected in operating expenses, but a transfer of $1 million from the capitol fund to operations is still shown on the current, preliminary budget. This might be considered a security blanket to cover possible inefficiency in operations and we hope the budget will be changed to eliminate this transfer. This could promote still more efficiency in operations and might even lead to a tax reduction.

W e encourage your comments, criticisms, ideas, or any questions about how your taxes work; call or fax 288-0474 or write to us at PO Box 741, Stuart, FL 34995 or e-mail us at admin@mctaxpayers.org or visit our WEB site, mctaxpayers.org.