On February 12th, the Board of County Commissioners will decide whether to pursue an RFP (Request For Proposal) to obtain consolidated debt service funding of $45 million.
In the overall enormity of the County budget, it is not a large amount. When you must borrow this amount of money, it may show the weakness in the County’s fiscal condition. Most of the projects are new or rehabilitated fire/rescue stations and training facilities. There is a previously approved Golf Course expense of $5.5 million plus $6 million for the first phase and relocation of a public works and general services complex.
It is very unfortunate that the sales tax was not approved last year to deal with these issues. At that time the BOCC did not adequately justify its legitimate needs to the voters resulting in a defeat for the referendum. The Commissioners who thought it was a good idea to decorate the sales tax Christmas tree of County Government with pretty projects ended up not being able to fund anything. The good projects they should have been touting such as the needed infrastructure outlined above (except for the golf course) were sacrificed for the Commission’s grandiosity to favored constituencies. It rightfully blew up in their faces. The same Board will now need to fund these projects from general revenue through financing.
It may be tempting for residents to tell this Commission to only build what they can afford to pay for in any one year (and I am tempted to say that,) but it would prove a disservice for the taxpayer in the long run. There are two reasons not to take that track.
The first are construction costs are rising. Each year it becomes more expensive to build a project. Therefore, it would make economic sense even when factoring the cost of borrowing to do the work as soon as possible. The second reason is that most of these projects can no longer be put on hold to some future date…especially the fire stations which should have been addressed years ago.
While I am endorsing the County in its RFP for debt services, I believe that the voters and taxpayers need to hold the Commissioners responsible for the situation that we find ourselves in today. I want to make it quite clear this is not a staff problem but the policy that has been promulgated by the elected officials. There is no excuse to acquire new parks or facilities without making sure that the ones we already own are maintained. There is no excuse to allow our fire/stations to deteriorate to this degree where they need expensive replacement and rehabilitation.
Each dollar spent for a glamorous shiny thing is one dollar less to be spent for un-glamorous upkeep of an existing structure. As voters, we should be tracking how the Commission spends our tax dollars, how they seek tax increases, and how they do the work of governing instead of pandering to the crowd. I have heard far too often from elected bodies, “this is what the residents want.” A few of the residents may want any one thing, but all the residents want nothing more than good prudent fiscally responsible government.
This County Commission has not been fiscally prudent. That does not mean that the capital outlays in the agenda item should not be accomplished through borrowing. While this is not quite a Hobbesian choice, Martin County is left with few other options.