BY MARK SCHUMANN

When one non-profit agency providing affordable independent living for low-income seniors, and a second offering after school programs, approached the Indian River County Commission with a request to lease county property in order to expand their services, Glenn Heran, speaking on behalf of the Taxpayers Association, was there to object.

There was a time when the Taxpayers Association stood for responsible government.  Now the organization’s mantra sounds more Libertarian than it does traditionally conservative.  The group seems to be calling, not for better, more efficient government, but simply for less of it.

Heran told the County Commission this week the 3.8 acres of unused county property on 17^th Avenue adjacent to the Boys and Girls Club and to St. Francis Manor should not be leased to these organizations for $1 a year, but should instead be sold, with the proceeds going into county coffers.

Letting these organizations use the land would amount to “the strong arm of government reaching into our pockets,” Hearn said, suggesting that leasing public land for $1-a-year amounts to redistributing the wealth.

That is an interesting argument, especially given that the Riverside Theatre and the Vero Beach Museum of Art both sit on land leased from the city for $1 a year.

More forward-looking thinkers point out that public support for programs like those offered by the Boys & Girls Club are a wise up-front investment in improving the lives of young people, some of whom might otherwise grow up troubled and at odds with the law.  “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” wrote Frederick Douglass.

The Boys and Girls Club’s programs are in so many ways not only socially responsible, but also less expensive than intervention programs, many of which have frighteningly low success rates.

Time and time again it has been shown that it is less expensive to society to raise children who are physically and emotionally healthy than it is to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents.

As I listened to Heran present the Taxpayers Association’s objections to the county leasing the old jail property to St. Francis Manor and the Boys & Girls Club, I couldn’t help but think of how ironic it is for that same organization to remain silent about what appears to be serious flaws in the proposed purchase and sale agreement between the city and Florida Power & Light.

Why does it not concern the Taxpayers Association that the city seems ready to commit to paying the Orlando Utility Commission $20 million to terminate a wholesale power agreement in late 2016, when that same price has been set for ending the agreement on 2014?

The City Council appears willing to give FPL fee simple title to land worth at least $1.5 million for use as a substation.  At least two other acceptable parcels of land worth approximately $500,000 each are also available.  So, why is the Taxpayers Association not challenging this irresponsible decision?

The list of ways the proposed purchase and sale agreement is not the best deal that can be had for the taxpayers of Vero Beach goes on.  Anyone interested in learning more might consider attending the Finance Commission meeting Jan. 31 at 2 p.m.

The challenge for the current members of the Finance Commission will be to render a thoughtful, independent assessment of the proposed terms of the sale of Vero Electric without getting yanked from the commission.

The last time members of the Utility Commission and the Finance Commission failed to echo the wishes of Councilmembers Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner, those members were sacked.

It is by no means clear the Council troika wants the Utility Commission and the Finance Commission to do anything more echo their preconceived ideas about the urgency of getting out of the electric business on whatever terms FPL is willing to offer.

If the Taxpayers Association is anything more than an affiliate of the local Tea Party, then the group should do more than simply advocate for limited government.  After all, the Tea Party is already making that case, often with compelling arguments.

What the Taxpayers Association has traditionally done well is to act as a watchdog, with a focus on holding government accountable for how it spends tax dollars.  This is, of course, a somewhat different focus than simply arguing that government should do no more than provide one group’s notion of what constitutes “essential” services.

Those who advocate a strict, literal, fundamentalist interpretation of the Constitution might remember that the first word in our nation’s founding document is not “me” but “we.”