IN YOUR CORNER

The Martin County Taxpayers Association does not endorse candidates for public office. We do not participate in political campaigns either. That does not mean that we have no interest in candidates. As some wise person once said, “An American claiming to be uninterested in politics is like a drowning person not being interested in water.” Perhaps it is better stated that we are concerned with the qualifications of those that seek office. We are especially concerned with the impacts of the election of single-issue candidates. Being against every development proposal or being in favor of every development issue does not make one qualified to decide on budgets totaling $400,000,000 per year. There are serious consequences attached to the responsibility of spending more than $1,000,000 – YES ONE MILLION DOLLARS – per day. We understand that everyone has the equal right to seek public office. The public has the responsibility to determine the qualifications of the candidates before voting. We believe it has become the responsibility of the Taxpayers Association to raise issues of fiscal responsibility and financial qualification.

In order to meet our responsibilities your Taxpayers Association will insist on a County budget process that allows for comparison, projection and analysis of the spending of public money. We will insist on a budget process that is clear in its direction and purpose and is not subject to changing political whim. An example of this would be the construction of a second crossing of the St Lucie River allowing access to Palm City and Western Martin County residents to schools, churches, hospitals and commercial services and evacuation to those in Eastern Martin County in an emergency situation such as we recently experienced in two back-to-back hurricanes. The choice of crossing was made to be at Indian Street, the delay of construction has cost our County, State and Federal (read ALL of us) taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, dollars that could have gone to solve other problems. Our point is, “Where do we want to go with Martin County, how do we get there and how much will it cost?”

Which brings up another question that concerns your Taxpayers Association. We want a financial impact analysis of County Commission decisions. How much is the real cost of public projects? Including long term maintenance and liability costs. How much does new development really cost the existing taxpayers? How much do the retrofits of older existing neighborhoods really cost our new taxpayers? How much do public employees really cost and are we better off contracting for private service providers?

Like a lot of citizens, we wish that we had choices among our brightest and best to hold public office. Since we can not be sure of that, we would like some sort of means to determine qualifications of those willing to serve. We will continue to investigate alternate forms of governing ourselves, including adoption of a County Charter that spells out clearly the definition of duties and responsibilities of public office holders and limits their ability to alter adopted changes in the direction of our County. We continue to believe in our Comprehensive Plan and will continue to point out the need to keep our Plan current. Ignoring the direction of our Plan is as dangerous to the future of Martin County as any amendment.

The Martin County Taxpayers Association recognizes it responsibilities and accepts its duty to keep taxpayers informed. It is our intention to be more pro-active and aggressive in the future. We welcome comments, suggestions and ideas from our membership and encourage every Martin County taxpayer to join us.