The audacity of pork: Hillsborough County’s out-of-whack budget priorities
July 15, 2009 at 9:20 am by Kelly Cornelius
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Hillsborough County pork thinks it should be fed before basic public safety services, before public parks, before important public agencies like the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), The Planning Commission and before voter-approved programs such as ELAPP [the county's environmental land buying program]. Hillsborough pork even thinks it should be in line in front the homeless. Why? Because under Pat Bean’s administration, evidently, that is how it works. Hillsborough pork knows no boundaries and has no ethics. Who thinks it is time for a little visit to the butcher?
As I wrote about in this earlier post, I was appalled to see Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean’s proposed budget cuts to programs such as public parks while still forking over millions to the pet pork hoofing it up to the county trough. Bean’s pork-filled budget comes on the heels of her huge raises to a few of her faves (while proposing to cut 900 jobs). More research revealed that she suggests cuts that would absolutely cripple agencies that the public has made clear they are in favor of keeping, such as wetlands protection in the EPC and one of my favorite agencies, The Planning Commission. Bean’s budget cuts have even prompted the normally Mr. Rogers-like Executive Director of the EPC to finally stand up (hey, is that I spine I see sprouting on Dr. Garrity?)
On top of her proposed cuts, Bean even had the nerve to suggest to County Commissioners (who have the final say on her budget) that they might make ends meet by increasing a tax user fee to all cell phone users. She had the gall to attribute this to the voter approved continuation of the ELAPP. What she didn’t say was that if they cut other areas (like pork) that they wouldn’t need to increase any taxes. Commissioner Rose Ferlita asked staff to clear this up, and Bean was later proven wrong about the need for another tax “user fee” to support ELAPP. Bean can’t even hide her disdain of this successful program that is overseen by a citizen volunteer committee, but to use it as an excuse to increase taxes is unbelievable… even for her.
In Bean’s budget, she proposes to shower the Sports Commission (a private organization run with your tax dollars) with a fortune and send millions to the Tampa Sports Authority (so Commissioner Norman can feast in style at games), and yet she had the audacity to suggest closing many public parks two days a week, and one of my favorite ones, at that, The Flatwoods.
The Flatwoods is located in northeast portion of Hillsborough County, so why would a NIMBY from Lithia (over in the south central part of the county, for those non-Hillsborough types) be concerned about a park so far from where I live? Well, ever since the county allowed a developer to extend a once rural road into their massive subdivision, my favorite road biking route no longer feels safe. The Flatwoods offers a seven-mile paved trail for not only road bikers but runners, rollerbladers, and walkers. The property also has off-road trails for hikers and mountain bikers, and just up the road a portion of the Wilderness Park has a kayak/canoe launch on the Hillsborough River.
For you nature lovers on any given day you can see alligators, turkeys, deer, hogs, snakes, a wide variety of birds, and gopher tortoises (and that is just what I have seen from the paved trail). I was out at the Flatwoods recently trying to pedal off some of my own pork and I spoke to many people at the park that day about the proposed cuts. Everyone I spoke to was not only aware of the cuts, they were opposed (and the parking lot was full).
I also stopped by the local bike shop in Brandon, AJs Bikes and Boards and they were certainly doing their part in making local bikers aware of the proposed budget cuts by sending out informative emails.
Recall that initially County Parks Director Mark Thornton told me he expected to save $483,390 by closing the Flatwoods two days a week and also relayed that the total cost per year is 1,691,867. I am not a math major but seems to me like he just took the total cost per yer and got a cost per day and then added up the days closed to get those savings. Hmmmm, seemed to me that the majority of the savings would be from decreased staff time yet the dollars listed were from total operational costs. So, I voiced my concerns about this to Thornton and asked him for a complete breakdown of where every dollar he expected to save by closing the Flatwoods was coming from. Thornton indicated that 75 percent to 80 percent of total operational costs were attributed to staffing. I said I wasn’t a math major but I did pass math! So I took 75 percent to 80 percent of the total operational costs that made up his savings and that leaves us at $362,543 – $386,712 (that is $96,768 – $120,847) less than his estimate so where does the rest of the savings come from? Well, Thornton had his finance guy, Chuck Kuntz, contact me who provided me with a few more numbers and this is what Kuntz provided to help enlighten me. He was quick to point out that their expected savings were only estimates and that the park would be more expensive to run this year (his numbers were from 2008).
Kuntz relayed that $215,761 per year was attributed to fuel, fleet replacement and fleet maintenance (I broke that down to a daily cost of $591) and added up the days saved by closing the park to get $61,477. He also indicated that the park spent $44,544 on utilities per year so using that same formula I can up with $12, 688 dollars in savings from the 2 day a week closing bringing the grand total of possible savings closer to $436,708- $460,877. That is $22,513 – $46, 682 less savings than Thornton’s estimate. I would challenge that the park still needs to be maintained the same whether it is open 5 or 7 days a week. Sorry to be a pain boys but if you are throwing claims of such huge savings around then be prepared to account for every dollar to show to the public. Lets not forget that same Mark Thornton supported Commissioner Norman’s $40 million vanity park idea.
You know what else is hard to chew? Bean is proposing to cut $2.5 million in total from parks and there are many parks on the chopping block not just the Flatwoods. Your favorite park or program could be on the list too. To put that in perspective do you recall how much the very questionable and very controversial Lithia-Pinecrest study cost you? $2.5 million and it was approved without discussion on the board’s Consent Agenda, and designed by the same firm that brought you the cracking reservoir. That same cracking reservoir now costing taxpayers a fortune.
I again offer you this FIELD report that the Planning Commission had done showing that because of the past developer welfare practices in this county we are billions behind in what they could have charged developers for impact fees (which fund roads, parks, fire and rescue and schools). Recall many of our Commissioners are heavily funded by developers. Looks like that is decreasing this year but their past practices have caught up with them. The Tampa Bay area is the 11th worst in the country for traffic thanks in part to the massive give-aways to developers. Had they been charging developers appropriately all along with reasonable impact fees instead of give-aways their reserves might even be over-flowing.
I contend that even in bad times Commissioners could afford to fully fund all of our basic public safety services, public parks, The Planning Commission, The EPC and other deserving causes if they only had the guts to cut the millions doled out to pork. The only pigs left standing should be the wild ones that live in those parks!
Wanna see which Commissioners go kosher and say no to the pork and maybe even the Beans? Wanna speak out to save public parks or any other budget items? The local bike community is organizing and SWFBUD has organized a ride to pedal down to the public hearing this Thursday evening. Please note that the meeting is NO LONGER AT COUNTY CENTER…………they have moved the meeting to the All People’s Life Center at 6pm. You can find directions here.
Can’t make the meeting in person? Well, you can call in and tell them what you think on their budget hotline 813-307-8337 or send them an email during the meeting here. You can also contact your Commissioners here.
Photo Credit: shawnzam at Flickr.com
July 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
You are correct to bring up the porcine dimensions of the taxpayers’ money going to Sports Authority and Sports Commission…both pork projects enjoyed by Jim Norman. And Pat Bean needs to be run out of the county for her clandestine raises to her buds.
Pork and Beans, don’t let the door hit you in the hamhocks as you leave the county!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Great post, Kelly. I believe these sports entities are in the business of making money, so maybe they should just make their own to support themselves.
I also want to know why we are giving taxpayer dollars to the various Chambers of Commerce. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Chambers made up of businesses in the respective areas? Why do they need taxpayer money? Don’t they pay dues or something? Isn’t the reason they form these associations to make more money and promote their businesses? Aren’t the Chambers also involved in lobbying efforts? Why would our government pay lobbyists to lobby them? Yep, I know, lots of questions, but someone’s got to ask.
July 15th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
OK, OK, let me make sure I understand how the PORK system works.
Hillsborough gives hundreds of thousands of our dollars each year to the county’s many Chambers of Commerce so they can make sure that their business interests are well served. OK, so in the case of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce they receive some of the money to help run their chamber. They, in turn, use their resources to lobby the Hillsborough governemnt for the Lithia Pinecrest road expansion. With pressure coming from them, the county funds a feasibility study for the road expansion and the study alone costs $2.5M. The road expansion itself costs 100’s of millions which we have to pay for along with the cost of the study, all because the Brandon chamber pushed the idea.
Oh, now it all makes sense. We fund non-profits that, in turn, push us to build things that we, in turn, pay for to appease them, and then their member businesses make money as a result of the growth and expansion.
The PORK system is ingenious!!!