IN YOUR CORNER

In a recent letter to county management, the Martin County Administrator

asked that they obtain savings in an amount equal to seven percent of

each program's operating budget. This is being done in anticipation of

predicted shortfalls of funds from both the state and local sales tax

revenues.

The first item targeted for savings was Travel, where certain restraints

were suggested for the various levels of management.

The Taxpayer's Association has long been concerned with achieving a

healthy balance between necessary training and the situation where

travel, training, and entertainment (there is no such county account)

become a perk or benefit. We'll state some numbers, and the readers can

decide for themselves whether or not this may be the case.

We totaled Per Diem Travel Memberships, Tuition and Education for the

various programs from the proposed 2002 Budgets, as all seemed to be

related, and the total came to an astonishing six hundred thousand

dollars ($690,000), which equates to more than $800.00 for every

full-time county employee!

We have not explored just how many employees benefit from these

accounts, but would project that most of the expenses are incurred by

the supervisory and technical employees.

The amount expended per employee for travel, training and related

expenses varied widely from department to department, and range from a

low of approximately $350 to a high of more than $6,600.00! The

taxpayer observers noted that, in their corporate experiences, travel

would be totally stopped or restricted to approval by the CEO, only if

justified, in times requiring fiscal restraint. We only hope that the

county administrator's directive is strong enough to result in the

desired savings, an we will report results in the future.

**

It has been a year now that some parents of children enrolled in the

Hidden Oaks Middle School have been fighting the school board for some

relief from the overcrowding at that school. They have delivered signed

petitions and made presentations before the board, asking them to act

upon their request for redistricting. Their argument has been

reinforced with statistics that show they have done their homework well,

and we have noted that time and again they have proposed a savings to

the school district in their transportation expenditures should their

recommendations be followed.

So far, this great effort has fallen on deaf ears. The school board has

decided to use scare tactics, threatening to redistrict the entire

county, and not just the school where a slight change would create the

greatest benefit. The other middle schools in Martin County are under

capacity, and therefore, the threat of the entire county needing to be

redistricted seems totally unnecessary. It appears to us that

children. would be best served being bussed to the closest school.

Also, it is quite obvious that transportation costs would diminish.

With the recent shortfall in funding due to the recession, we again urge

the school board to examine this issue and make a timely decision, at

least for the next school year.

**

The Taxpayers' Association has long been a proponent of wetland

mitigation, which is giving a landowner the option, under strict

guidelines, of restoring, creating or purchasing viable wetlands often

as part of a larger preserve system in exchange for being able to fill

in areas of their property. While we all see a great value in preserving

viable wetlands, there are some land features that are called "wetlands"

which are in actually fact not viable wetland habitats, but due to

surrounding development and/or invasion of exotic species are merely

poorly located low spots filled with nuisances plants. We welcome the

Commission's action in allowing mitigation for county projects. This can

save the taxpayers significant money while providing better service and

improving the quality of our deteriorating wetlands We also applaud

their upholding of the Comp Plan through placing public projects in the

Urban Services District. As the Urban Services District infills, it is

becoming increasing difficult to find larger tracts of property in which

to locate government buildings of all types., and mitigation will allow

the County to due so efficiently. Good Work!

**

County taxpayers should be pleased in the recent news that voter

approved sales tax monies are being spent in conjunction with the water

management district to purchase Allapattah Ranch Property. This will

provide land for the creation of filtering marshes to clean runoff

before it reaches the St. Lucie River. We must note that this important

project will require some wetland mitigation.