COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

During yesterday’s Council budget workshop, Councilwoman Pilar Turner again reasoned that by approving the sale of the electric system voters also agreed to deep cuts in city services.

Despite what Turner might wish were true, there is no logical connection between the public’s desire for lower electric rates and her assertion that there is now wide-spread support for slashing city services.

Turner is forever citing benchmark studies comparing Vero Beach to comparable-size cities.  She never mentions, though, that the city’s tax rate is merely half that of  many Florida cities.

The Council’s most strident budget cutter is also unwilling to acknowledge that the power deal was sold to the public on the premise that the savings in electric rates would more than offset tax increases needed to maintain city government.

In fact, if the city were to increase its tax rate by the $2 million Turner is proposing to cut from the budget in the coming fiscal year, the average taxpayer would see an overall increase of just five percent in their property tax bill.

Set against the projected electric savings of some $10 million for city residents alone, a $2 million tax increase seems to many a fair and reasonable trade off.  It is certainly an approach much less distasteful than leaving beaches unguarded, and parks untended, and little league fields darkened.

To be sure, none of the proponents of the electric sale, not even Turner, admitted to the public they planned to use the sale as a pretext for eviscerating city services.  Rather, they assured voters any nominal tax increase would be dwarfed by savings on electric bills.

Given the rationale upon which the sale of Vero Electric was presented to the public, if anything, voter approval of the deal can reasonably be interpreted as a green light to raise taxes in order to maintain excellent city services.

No one is arguing for perpetuating inefficiencies, and no one is suggesting that the best government is bloated government.  At the same time, it is at best disingenuous to now claim that in approving the sale voters were assenting to Turner’s plan to take a meat cleaver to city services.

The growing public outcry against the proposed deep budget cuts seems to have caught City Manager Jim O’Connor by surprise.  What he and Turner are both learning is that Vero Beach has a long history of investing in the kind of quality municipal services that have helped to make possible a unique way of life.  O’Connor and Turner will also come to realize that the community is not about to surrender what makes Vero Beach special just because a few Libertarian extremists have commandeered the local Tea Party and Taxpayers Association.

The Council budget workshop resumes this morning at 9.  Next on the chopping block is the Police Department, and up for consideration is a foolhardy plan to shut down the dispatch unit.  Concerned residents should consider attending the workshop to show support for these dedicated public safety employees.