Here a Tax, There a Tax, Everywhere a Tax

Work on the City Budget drones on as various groups stoke up on how they will try to affect the process. The Peoples Budget Review seems to be off to a good start. They are collecting a lot of information in their survey, and I am sure as long as the information backs up the City administration's plan it will be considered valuable.

The special interest groups, like the arts council, the social service groups and neighborhoods are just staring to ramp up. So things are moving along at about the anticipated speed. The real yelling and screaming will start in a few weeks.

It seems for the moment that the Mayor's center piece to solve the budget dilemma, is to raise the millage rate. Preliminary results from the Peoples Budget Review Survey seem to indicate that the people are ready to consider a tax increase to stop the erosion of services. I think they are just tired of listing to the Mayor and council members whine.

The tendency in government is make the cuts where they have the most direct affect on the public. The theory is "let's put the pain where THEY feel it". You know, stop mowing the grass in the park, reduce the library hours, cut back on senior services... the stuff the public really feels. Share the pain. Problem is the only people who get a share of that pain are you.

Before you whiz through that survey magnanimously offering to have your millage rate increased to "save" the City, think about this: the County wants to increase the EMS tax, the School Board is trying with all their might to hold on to an outdated property tax, St. Pete wants to raise your property tax, and there are probably a few others we haven't heard from yet. You could get a real surprise in the mail come September.

One more thing. Never in the history of this County has a City government willing reduced its size or limited its spending. That is until the recession came along and the money dried up. Oh sure they want you to feel the cuts so you will do just what you're doing, agree to give them more money to spend.

Try getting them to tie that millage increase to specifically keeping the libraries open, all the pools open, arts fully funded and some other specifics and see where that goes.

It might not be that bad an idea to just let the boys at City Hall work this little budget problem out on their own. First, there is all that money in those reserve funds they are carefully protecting. For what?

Then, there is still some room to cut over at Engineering, out at Storm Water, Economic Development, Business Assistance, we could use a little less management at PD, and the list goes on.

But then YOU probably won't feel much of that pain.

The opportunity to get City government downsized is right now. As the economy improves the opportunity will be lost. If you're willing to throw some more money at the current system, they are more than willing to take it and spend it.

e-mail doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net

Four St. Pete Budget Cuts that Don't' Touch the Parks, Libraries or other City Amenities

 
The Mayor is trying to drum up support for a millage increase. Before we do that let's take a look at some possible budget reduction opportunities.

Here are four specific budget cut suggestions:

The Business Assistance Services Department
The 2012 Budget is $880,000. Eliminate Business Assistance completely and pass responsibility to the Chamber of Commerce.

The Economic Development Department
The 2012 Budget is $684,000. Eliminate Economic Development completely and pass responsibility to Chamber of Commerce or a citizens committee

Engineering Department
If you look at the detailed budget for the Engineering Department, you will see millions of dollars in salaries and other costs offset by something called "Burden Capital Costs". This approach is a clever way of hiding costs in an over bloated less than effective department by getting the revenue from capital projects. It just shifts the cost from one bucket to another. Let's get $750,000 to $1 million dollars out of the Engineering department by reducing costs and staff. Trust me as one who has been a recipient of their services, no one will miss what's cut and we can out source what may be needed.

The Police Communications Center
The 2012 budget is about $ 6.8 Million. Outsource this effort to Sheriff, eliminate one assistant chief, put the remaining civilians under Chief's office. Conservative estimate of the actual annual savings would be $2.75 to $3.25 million.
Using the conservative numbers, right there in four City departments is over $5 million dollars in savings or almost half of the short fall and we have not touched a library, park, pool or other amenity. In fact we have probably improved service to the organization and the public in several areas.

There is more to be found, a lot more.

These must be genuine budget cuts where the people are removed from the payroll and costs eliminated. No changing titles, no shuffling around no cutting unfilled positions, real cuts that produce real recurring savings.

These are tough decisions and they require courage and leadership, things that are in short supply at City Hall.

e-mail doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net





 

Is Light Rail Really the Answer?

What we are now calling Light Rail has a rich history in the United states dating back to 1832.

The basic form is a small gauge railway, placed in public right of way and on private property often by easement. The Light Rail system runs from point A to point B often with branches and numerous stops along the way.

The question coming to the table is simply "is Light Rail a viable mass transit alternative for Pinellas County"?

Let's look at some issues. First, Light rail is big business. What is big about it is its design, procurement, right of way deals and construction. Looking around, you find that the only people who ever got rich from Light Rail were the realtors who cut the land deals, the politicians who helped them, the company who sold the train and track and the construction company that installed the system.

Notice who is missing here? The government or authority that is stuck running the system. That government by the way is you.

Politicians love Light Rail. It is a one stop simple answer to all of those complaints about roads and traffic. It provides a lot of places for plaques with their names on them, and a good source of campaign contributions while the thing is being approved and built. And if they or someone close to them just happens to have property along the right of way, then that's just gravy.

Pinellas County is the most densely populated County in Florida. We are built low, dense and spread out with multiple concentrations of commerce, retail, tourism and entertainment. Light Rail cannot directly serve all of those centers of interest, so by default the system becomes intermodal. That means we must use busses or some form of ground transportation to feed the Light Rail system.

So ask yourself this question. Will you go somewhere to get on buss, to ride to a train, to take you to some station, where you will in all likelihood have to get on another buss to get where you want to go? Then repeat that process to get back home? People do it every day in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, but the real question is will they do it in Pinellas County? It will take some serious retraining, and the reason a lot of people retire here is to get away from just that kind of hassle.

Once built there will be never ending pressure to acquire more property, build more miles expanding cost and operating expenses.

The politicians and Light Rail supporters say commerce will redevelop around the Light Rail routes and stations. That will take decades to happen in this County, and if your business is not located on or near the rail line how does that work for you?

The proponents say we are building for the future, the problem is we have to pay for Light Rail in the present, and it is a long shot at best. Before we start a tax that will never end and spend a lot of time and money studying, analyzing and trying to sell Light Rail to the public, we should look at some alternatives.

Hillsboro County got it right.



e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net

Where was the St. Pete PD Command Staff

Sunday, Bubba the Love Sponge and his foundation hosted their 4th motorcycle ride to support law enforcement injured or killed in the line of duty. The event started and ended at Jim's Harley Davison in St. Petersburg.

Over 600 hundred or so riders showed up, the Pinellas County Sheriff showed up, couple of the surrounding County Sheriffs had staff representatives there, the Lakeland Police Chief was there, even Mayor Foster showed up.

Who did not show up? Not a single command staff representative of the St. Petersburg Police Department. Not the Chief, not an assistant Chief, not a Major, no one.

The Motorcycle Unit was there along with several others to lead the ride. Patrol helped with traffic, a couple of officers who regularly ride in these events were there as was one guy from the PD building maintenance Department.

I don't know about everyone else, but as someone who just retired from the PD, and was there when we lost three officers, I thought it was a bit of a snub, and downright embarrassing.

The boys on the third floor at the PD didn't have any trouble snuggling up to Bubba a couple of years ago when they had a need, but now not so much. Let's hope they don't need Bubba's help any time soon, but then I think Bubba's heart is a lot bigger than his memory is long.

This is typical of the Harmon, Williams, Gordon, DeKay mentality, it's all about me and the moment. Nice day for golf, church, hanging with some friends, who would want to hang around with a bunch of bikers when you don't need them?

Alone on the stage Mayor Foster made some very appropriate comments, but did not once mention the St. Petersburg Police Department by name. If it bothered him it did not show, but he has been covering for the poor leadership at the PD for a while now. It has to be wearing thin.

e-mail doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net

Public Safety No longer Job #1

With Mayor Foster backing away from a new public safety facility, he has resoundingly indicated public safety is NOT job #1. It is obviously way down on the Mayor's priority list.

Since no one at the Police Department will speak up for fear of their jobs, and Chief Harmon is unlikely to step into the spot light and say what needs to be said about the current facility, let me take a shot.

I returned to the City in 2006 for a five year run at completing the technical implementation of the Police Department's Dispatch and Record Management Systems.

Shortly after settling in I noticed plaster foaming away on inside exterior wall, the roof leaked in the secure computer room. My area supporting 13 people, an open work space with cubicles, was cobbled together with cube walls of different colors from different manufactures purchased used from an office supply house. They were held together in some cases with cable ties.

It was necessary to remove several dead rats from the overhead dropped ceiling.

Electrical outlets were supplemented with power cords, often several linked together.

The equipment closets located throughout the building are not aligned vertically making wiring and adding facilities difficult and costly. Bundles of abandoned wire hang from pipes and lay in dropped ceilings because it is to costly to remove.

The data center air-conditioning was 17 years old, beyond its useful life, it was replaced with a commercial (not data center grade) system with a life expectancy of on only 7 years for cost purposes and in anticipation of a new facility.

We added a third small auxiliary generator to back up one of the primary generators, since it had become unreliable, and the other primary generator was leaking oil.

The Communications Center on the 4th floor frequently suffered from roof leaks as did Chief Harmon's own office, until extensive roof repairs were made. There were roof issues every spring I was there.

The Building Security system, now at least 15 years old is not reliable.

Elevators are old and require significant repair. It is not uncommon for civilian employees coming to work to find themselves on an elevator with a handcuffed juvenile subject. Very unnerving.

The facility consists of two buildings one constructed in 1950s and the second in 1970s. They are not aligned , so wiring and plumbing are expensive to install and maintain.

The 80 year old Annex across the street, given a true inspection could easily be deemed unfit for human habitation.

No one at the PD is looking for a monument to Law enforcement, they just want a decent and safe place to work. What the City needs is a new Public Safety facility.... Not a new Pier.

Setting Up the St. Pete Property Tax Increase

You tee up the golf ball, you serve the tennis ball and, the Mayor Foster's favorite, you pitch the baseball. Well, that's what happened Thursday at the Budget Finance and Tax Committee meeting.

A while back the budget shortfall was $10 million, then $12 million, then $18 million and before the meeting was over a whopping $22 million was mentioned.

Where did all that come from? Reduced property taxes, falling sales tax revenue on and on. Costs are up, pensions are up - the perfect storm.

You have probably had this experience. You go into a store looking for the advertised item, the sales person immediately walks you the most expensive model, and before you know it you buy something in the middle. They call that trading up, by trading down. Or if you prefer, bait and switch. You did not buy the advertised model, you spent a few dollars more.

Foster is teeing up, serving or pitching, pick your metaphor, the high end number to set up City Council for a property tax increase. Go for the big number and work backwards.

Faced with these staggering numbers and no other place to go is it time to look at the millage rate?

Why the problem, as it seems things are getting better?

In local government, revenue flow usually trails the economy by 18 to 24 months. What that means is, when things get worse, it takes government that long to feel it so they keep spending, and when things get better it takes and equal amount of time for local government revenue flow to catch up so they are in crisis mode longer. It's mostly due to the way tax levels are set and actual taxes are collected.

Smarter people than me predict that 2013 will be down year for local government revenue, 2014 will be slightly down to flat, and in 2015 revenue flow should begin to slowly grow.

While the public may not like it, a revenue neutral millage rate increase for St. Pete might not be a bad idea, if it includes a sunset clause. That would mean the tax rate (millage) would go up, but you would pay no more St. Pete property tax that paid last year, and the millage increase would go away in a specific time period say two years.

But before we even go there, the City needs to look at the survey results from The Peoples Budget Review, and take another hard look at the top end organizational structure, administrators, directors and assistant directors and managers giving carefully consideration to options like moving the Police Department Communications Center responsibilities to the County. There are still a lot of opportunities to fine tune City operations to save significant amounts of money while delivering quality public service and public safety.

City Council should not be overwhelmed by the numbers, they should get the facts, listen to the public input and make sound decisions. Most all don't buy the bait and switch or in this case entice and tax.