BCC 7/20 – Sherry Lee

My name is Sherry Lee. I am a homeowner, a small business owner, member of Lower Taxes now and the TAB Coalition, and I am a concerned citizen.

Taxpayers have been sending a clear message to government at every level. We want lower taxes. Somehow PBC has not gotten this message. The spending cuts currently being discussed are minuscule. The county budget became wildly over-inflated during the housing boom and the BCC is trying to maintain it at the expense of struggling homeowners, businesses and the overall economy. Foreclosures and unemployment will continue to ravage our community unless and until we make deeper cuts.

First, we need a sunset review ordinance. The process would routinely and automatically review previously approved programs and projects to see what can be reduced or eliminated.

Next, we need engineering staff to give a detailed list of the capital projects budget and priority rank all previously authorized projects that are not under contract, including anything newly approved for 2011. Some projects should be reduced or eliminated.

The Taxpayer Action Board will work closely with staff and commissioners over the next several weeks to implement these changes.

We pay the TAB and we are keeping TABS on you.

BCC 7/20 – Iris Scheibl

My name is Iris Scheibl and I live in Palm Beach Gardens.

I am a member of South Florida 912, South Florida Tea Party, other civic organizations and I’m now a member of the TAB coalition.

Several of our TAB members have mentioned focus areas where spending can be cut dramatically. It is our hope that the County and Constitutional Officers are open and transparent with requests for information and make a concrete effort to further reduce the size of our County government.

Upon reviewing the presentations by Administrator Weisman and Property Appraiser Nikolits last week, it was clear that the rate of growth in spending on Public Safety (the Sheriff and Fire/Rescue) far exceeds that of the County or of the other Constitutional Offices. While some of that can probably be accounted for by increase in scope, there must be ways to streamline operations that haven’t been explored. We would expect that as stewards of the citizens’ tax dollar the various Constitutional Officers would work with the County to eliminate duplication of services – but this doesn’t seem to be the case.

It is also clear that the Constitutional Officers are not voluntarily coming under the jurisdiction of the Office of Inspector General – whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

At last week’s Budget Workshop, Commissioner Taylor asked about the County government organization. Palm Beach County, as a charter government since 1984 – has a structure that can be modified. The County can initiate a re-organization, but citizens can also initiate such a change using petitions and gaining the support of at least 7 percent of voters qualified to vote in the last general election.

We, as TAB, intend to explore which structures have worked and which haven’t in other counties across the state. Perhaps the time has come, after 26 years to pursue an Amendment to Palm Beach County’s Charter to bring some or all of the Constitutional Offices under the County.

Over the summer PBC Taxpayer Action Board will work to come back with specifics on these and other recommendations in time for the September Public Hearings.

We’re paying the TAB and we’re keeping TABs on YOU.

BCC, 7/20 – Fred Scheibl

Good Morning, my name is Fred Scheibl. I live in Palm Beach Gardens and am a member of South Florida 912, and the TAB coalition.

Having observed the budget process, I’ve noticed several themes:

  • While there is a genuine attempt to cut spending in this difficult year, the cuts are modest. The sum total of all the line items on the “blue” and “green” pages is a few percent of the total budget.
  • Little detail is provided for the parts of the budget with rapid growth – Sheriff and Fire/Rescue.
  • Part of the budget process is theater. A program with a vocal constituency (such as the county pools) is placed on the chopping block as a straw man, and then a large group of concerned users of the program (sometimes known as “astro turf”) is bussed in to a budget meeting, letting the Commission then “save the day”. This is called in some circles, the “squeeky wheel method of government”.

    Well, the time has come for the taxpayer to become the “squeeky wheel”. Those who fund all these county programs should have as much (if not more) of a say then those who benefit from them.

    During the discussion around the Fire/Rescue sales tax proposal, many of us in the community who were opposed to it found that there were lots of like-minded people, and we came together to form the nonewsalestax coalition.

    Now, many of these groups have come together again to present resistance to the 2011 budget. The coalition is called TAB – the “Taxpayer Action Board”, and consists of grassroots groups, as well as business and civic organizations. Some of the members of TAB are with us today, others will be working on projects with us in the coming months. The website is pbctab.org.

    The mission of TAB is public education – let’s shine some light on the way our money is being spent, point out excesses where they exist, and counter what we believe is a lack of sensitivity by the Commission to the concerns of the average taxpayer. We will propose specific spending cuts and build a political constituency to make them happen.

    TAB is to keep “tabs” on you, and to make it known that it is we who pay the “tab”.

    Shortly, you will hear from some other members of the TAB coalition, each talking about their particular focus.

    Specifically, TAB would like to see you:

    • Retain the millage rate unchanged from last year at 4.344
    • Not deplete reserves to maintain elevated spending levels

    Longer term we seek:

    • Significant privatization of county services
    • Compensation parity with the private sector
    • Sustainability guidelines for union contracts
    • A yearly sunset review of all county programs
    • Charter changes to open the silos that are the constitutional offices

    In closing I would like to say it is our desire to cooperate with the Commission and staff. We sense that some of you sincerely desire to control spending, and we hope to provide you with a measure of political cover to do just that. There are many in the community on the “paying” side of the budget that you probably do not hear from too often – we hope to change that and we hope you will help us in this effort. A county that spends responsibly is a county where everybody wins.

    We’re paying the tab and we’re keeping tabs on you.

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