BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — A more tentative budget may have never been approved than that adopted by the Bradford County Commission during its first budget hearing on Sept. 16.
Calling for more information as well as cuts, commissioners might not have approved the $70 million budget at all had their attorney not told them they were required to vote on something.
The tentative budget includes increasing property taxes to the 10-mill cap, a necessary hike to balance the budget without depleting general fund reserves.
But commissioners have scheduled a special meeting for Thursday, Sept. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the courthouse to go over the spending plan in more detail and see what the budget looks like if all unnecessary increases are cut back to this year’s numbers. They will also get a clearer look at the bottom line without the inclusion of millions of dollars in grant funding that is inflating the budget, in particular the road department.
For a better look at how money is being spent, Commissioner Carolyn Spooner repeated her call for the constitutional officers to divulge the details of their budget requests in full detail. As of the prior meeting, only Supervisor of Elections Amanda Seyfang had done so. Spooner asked for the others, including the clerk of court, sheriff, property appraiser and tax collector to do the same. By Sept. 16, only Clerk Denny Thompson had complied.
The commission fully supported Spooner’s motion that the board not approve a final budget until those numbers were revealed.
An invitation from the other officers to come to their offices and discuss the numbers was not sufficient. Spooner wanted them in writing. She said commissioners weren’t requesting more of the constitutional officers than they were of their own department heads. This vital information includes details about salaries, taxes, liability insurance, retirement and other benefits, as well as operational costs such as consultants, travel, maintenance, supplies and new equipment purchases.
“It is my opinion that this board cannot make an informed decision regarding the funding of our constitutional offices without this basic level of information,” Spooner said. “We’re reminded all the time at all of our meetings about the needs the county faces and the things that we cannot afford at this time. There are roads that need repair and paving and infrastructure improvements, and things that we can’t do. Our fire rescue needs funding. Our employees have not received a cost-of-living adjustment in six years. We are literally in the middle of making a very difficult budget decision, just as we speak. Now. But we’re being asked to fund these offices without the background or the detail concerning where the funds will go and upon which they will be spent.”
Commissioner Danny Riddick followed up Spooner’s successful motion for more information with one of his own, asking that finance produce a version of the budget that rolls back new spending to this year’s levels and sets aside grants such as the $13 million inflating the road department budget so they have a clearer picture of their true costs.
Riddick said year after year they are approached with funding requests that are approved, and every time they do, they chip away at the county’s financial health. They also make it harder to improve their workers’ salaries.
“I know those employees sit back and they look, every year, we grant every request that comes before this board, but we never give them a 3% raise,” he said. “That’s one of the things out of this whole budget that’s really been bugging me. It started with the firefighters and EMTs, and I appreciate the conversations we had, but at the same time, we can’t continue down this path.”
Commission Chairman Chris Dougherty made the point that if they don’t make cuts now, the future cuts necessary will be even harder to take.
“If we don’t start making some cuts somewhere very soon, whether it’s right now, or whether it’s during the next fiscal year, we’re going to be a position to where we’re going to have to make some really hard cuts. And those cuts are going to come in large numbers, very large numbers, rather than doing it now, and trying to live within the means of our budget. And that’s just the way we need to operate,” he said.
Dougherty said the county cannot continue spending more money than it generates.
The additional meeting Riddick called for will take place Thursday night, before the final public hearing, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 27. Commissioner Diane Andrews asked that the constitutional officers be in attendance.
More to consider
At 10 mills, property taxes are expected to generate an additional $1.5 million, for a total of $10.7 million, according to Finance Director Dana LaFollette. The $70 million tentative budget includes $17 million in general fund expenses that cover most of the board’s departments as well as its contributions to the constitutional officers, apart from the tax collector, who generates her own fees.
It also includes a $5.58 million revenue transfer to the $11.6 million fines and forfeitures fund. The $2.6 million from the optional 1 cent sales tax also goes toward this purpose, and the fund contains more than $2.7 million in revenue generated by housing out-of-county inmates.
The fines and forfeitures fund includes the sheriff’s $4.4 million budget request for law enforcement and $2.56 million request for jail operations. The remaining amount covers other court costs, and more than $1 million for the sheriff’s employees’ life and health insurance and workers’ compensation costs.
The transportation budget of $18.6 million, included more than $13 million in state grants. Those funds, and other grants, including nearly $800,000 for economic development at the airport, do make the county’s overall expenses seem higher than they are.
Spending for public safety is up, however, including the $7.4 million for emergency services. Ambulance fees only generate $3.1 million to cover those costs. A nearly $790,000 grant for public safety is included. The county must transfer in nearly $3.5 million to make up the difference of funding Bradford County Fire Rescue.
Asking too much?
While calls for service have undoubtedly exploded, taxable value (including real and tangible property) in the county has not. After the economic downturn in 2008, when taxable value fell to around $855 million, values continued to fall until 2013 where they bottomed out at $817 million. By 2020, they had climbed to more than $1.03 billion, and in 2021, they are up to $1.04 billion. That’s up 24% from 2013’s low, but only 3.5% from last year. Meanwhile the request from emergency services is up more than 8% from last year, and the sheriff’s request is up more than 7%. (See related story.)
Population hasn’t exploded either. According to the most recent census, the county’s population is in decline, even including the thousands of nonresidents counted in the prison system. The 2020 census counted 28,303 people. Nearly one-fifth of those counted are over 65 years of age, and another fifth are under 18.
Based on estimates between 2015 and 2019, there are only 9,115 households in Bradford, with 2.57 being the average household size. Less than 10% of those 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Twenty-one percent of the county lives in poverty, with the median household income being just under $46,000. The national average is around $17,000 higher. Per capita income, the mean income computed for every man, woman and child in Bradford, is just over $20,500.
This goes to a point made to the commission by citizen Billy Rehberg during the Sept. 16 commission meeting.
“You cannot tax and grow. You’ve got to grow and tax,” Rehberg said. “We’ve got to realistically look at it. We can’t be like Clay County. We’re not Duval County.”
Marshall Clayton Rawson stood up against an increase in the county’s property tax rate.
“No year is a good year to raise taxes on hard-working Floridians, and especially a year that has been marred by a pandemic, extreme social unrest and inflation,” Rawson said.
He called on the commissioners to freeze or cut the budget instead of imposing a greater financial burden on their constituents.
“Most all of us have had to tighten our belt this year, and this commission can do the same,” Rawson said.
Finally, Diane Green asked commissioner during the public hearing how they could possibly consider raising taxes, especially in her neighborhood where there have been no improvements and she cannot even sell her home.
