In the last few years your Martin County Taxpayers’ Association has written many articles about excessive spending by local governments and schools. We have condemned projects we deemed wasteful or unaffordable. We criticized personnel policies that have produced public service incomes and benefits much greater than those given by private employers. Even though a number of steps have been initiated by those governments to reduce this spending, it has been too little, too late and Martin County continues toward a financial crisis.

In January the voters overwhelmingly approved Property Tax Amendment One and even more “help” in reducing ad valorum taxes appears inevitable from the Florida Legislature. For those interested in how we got here, there are years of articles on our web site http://www.mctaxpayers.org/ covering the subject. However, it is time to quit pointing fingers and concentrate on how to solve these financial problems without harming our schools, reducing necessary levels of service, or further degrading the local economy.

With spending coming under tighter and tighter control the steps required to “fix” the problem now have to shift toward the “income” side of the tax-spend “equation”. Property values and home sales have fallen, sales tax, and gas tax receipts are down, service based and impact fees are down, unemployment is up and our total population may even be decreasing. These sources produce the revenues that provide nearly all of our public services.

The best way to increase necessary government income is by growing and diversifying the local economy. We need to become a magnet for clean environmentally friendly industry rather than depend on the classic marine and residential building trades. This means creating high paying non-government jobs by helping existing local businesses and industry prosper and attracting new ones to the area. Unfortunately, there is a knee jerk negative reaction to virtually any growth by many Martin County citizens. This has created a myopic response from elected officials that flows down to many of those charged with evaluating and approving projects. This negative attitude discourages almost any growth, including new business and industry.

We hear many stories of opportunities lost, or businesses disheartened by this type of response. Recently a manufacturer of light single engine seaplanes wanted to locate at Witham Field. It would have provided up to 200 highly skilled jobs with an $8 million payroll. After discussions to locate at Witham were unsuccessful they proceeded to Palm Beach County’s North Field. There is another aviation company wanting to expand their aircraft seat manufacturing that is currently awaiting settlement of the Witham controversy.

The latest experience of another small business owner is indicative of the syndrome. This entrepreneur wanted to open two ice crème shops, one in Palm City and the other in Port St. Lucie. It took almost 5 months to get the utility, health and environmental approvals in Martin County. In St. Lucie County it took 24 hours for the proper paperwork, along with an extra copy for his records, to be hand-delivered. Do we want Martin County to mirror the expansion seen in St. Lucie? NO! - But a timelier and business friendly attitude would be very helpful, even when accompanied by strict controls and tight regulation.

Martin County grew by only about a half percent last year, 1.5% in 2006 and has had a stable long-term average of around 2% a year. Even though you hear and read about “unbridled growth” and a “pro-growth Commission”, we have the second lowest growth rate in all of Florida, and far lower than that of any other “desirable” coastal area. We need to be very careful that a no growth mindset and newfound selective thriftiness does not lead to stagnation. Ironically this scenario is exactly what caused Broward County to explode in the 50’s & 60’s. We must diversify our economy and pursue low, but desirable and sustainable growth to insure that Martin County does not decay from a wonderful to a very unpleasant place to live.