COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Late last spring, as the City of Vero Beach began budgeting for the 2013/2014 fiscal year, Councilwoman Pilar Turner was pushing for steep cuts in spending and services. Unwilling to acknowledge that the City’s budget has already been cut 25 percent from where it peaked in 2008/2009, Turner repeatedly made what she seemed to think was an irresistible argument.  “What organization cannot cut 15 percent from its budget?,” Turner asked.

Well, the answer to Turner’s steely logic might be, “An organization that has already shed one fourth of its expenses.”

The island weekly, which seems devoted to tearing down the City, served up Turner’s talking points this week in a story sensationally headlined to frighten taxpayers.  What the island weekly did not explain is that, largely owning to its utility earnings, the City has one of the lowest tax rates in the state.  And what the island weekly reporters and editors seem incapable of comprehending is the fact that if the annual $5.5 million transfer from the electric utility fund is to be reduced or eliminated, taxes will have to go up.

There is simply no more to be trimmed from the City’s budget, at least not without further impacting services.

Nestled in their island enclave, the island weekly’s editors seem to have embraced Turner’s Tea-Party-style notion that the City of Vero Beach can do no right and should no longer exist as an incorporated municipality.  If they think the people of Vero Beach are going to stand for disincorporation, they are sorely mistaken.

It’s budget time again, so expect the propagandists will be relentless in their attacks on the City and its employees, and all that is at stake is the future of the City.