Local governments and constitutional officers are in for a difficult budget season as revenue from growth has slowed, revenue from existing taxable values has stalled, and a proposed constitutional amendment to eventually scrap homesteaded property taxes for all governments but schools is headed for the November ballot.
Some of those difficulties were on display this afternoon as the Flagler County Commission conducted a quick overview of its constitutional officers’ budgets, which it must approve. Those are the budgets of the sheriff, the clerk of court, the property appraiser, the tax collector and the elections supervisor. Some of the constitutional officers had an easier time than others as they appeared before the board.
“This is not going to be a good year, and we’re going to have to say no,” Commissioner Kim Carney said.
Clerk of Court Tom Bexley was at the lectern, presenting his budget overview, which calls for a nominal increase of $502,000 in a $5.9 million budget, or 9.3 percent. Included in the increase are two new positions, a 3 percent inflation increase and a 2 percent merit increase.
“A cola is not a bonus, it is a tool of equality. It is what we all use to try to keep our people equal, reflecting the changes in the economy and inflation,” Bexley said. Cola is short for cost of living adjustment reflective of inflation. He is also proposing a 2 percent merit increase. “A merit increase should not be a participation trophy, it should be earned, and it would be my intention that if we are funded for this, it would be awarded for meritorious service above and beyond your normal job, whatever that may be,” he said.
“I think a 3 percent cola is not going to happen,” Carney said. “So, if you want two new people and cola and merit, you’re going to have to decide between two, because there’s just no money there to do a $500,000 increase.” She added: “When we start talking privately, I’m going to ask for a moratorium on hiring.”
“You know, it’s the people that make you successful, right?” Bexley told Carney.
“You know what,” Carney replied, “don’t do the bleeding heart thing with me. I get it. You also have to understand that 80 to 90 percent of all the cash that goes out of here goes into people. We’re subsidizing our medical insurance by a million dollars this year for our people, so please, please don’t. Please don’t. But you want to come back with a two-FTE justification on why you need them, what their positions are going to be, how many hours they’re going to work.” FTE is the acronym for full-time equivalent employees.
It was difficult not to read the bold print between Carney’s lines: she was asking, without saying it, about the job created at the clerk’s office for former County Administrator Heidi Petito, whom Carney had all but driven out of the county administration. (Superintendent LaShakia Moore had also courted Petito.)
“Justification is big for me. You’re the boss, but I’m the boss that tells you if you can have them or not, and I can’t do it,” Carney said, using the kind of blunt language constitutional officers don’t expect to hear. They’re in an odd position. As constitutional officers, they are their own operations, independent of all other governments. Yet because they have no autonomous taxing authority, as does the county, their budgets fall under the purview of the County Commission, which ultimately has the authority to approve or not approve them. Commissioners are accountable for the tax rate that pays for the constitutionals’ budgets. Constitutional officers are not.
“I appreciate that, boss,” Bexley replied, the word boss clearly enunciated. The ironic effect was not lost. “And I’m sure that we’ll talk more in the future. You guys have tough decisions to make. You’re going to have a finite amount of money, you get to decide how you want to spend it. I mean, it’s nothing personal. We’ll get through it. We do every year. You’re reasonable, I’m reasonable. Life is good. So let’s figure out what those numbers are going to be. I’m sure there’ll be a lot more discussions between now and then, and we’ll see what happens.”
Commission Chair Leann Pennington had been displeased with the clerk’s budget, too. She’d researched several counties’ budgets in preparation for today’s meeting. “It just seemed like we were way out of line with our peers,” she told Bexley, citing a 181 percent growth in the clerk’s budget in six years. “It just seems like we’re excessive compared to all of those counties.”
Pennington’s criticism echoed at least with the thematic ring of Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia’s criticism of the growth in Flagler County’s budget over the past five years, a criticism that, however dubious even in commissioners’ eyes, has stung the commissioners and led them to seek retorts, explanations and, as was the case today, shifts in spotlights to the constitutionals’ budgets. Bexley cautioned against broad-brush comparisons that may not account for local differences–the cautions commissioners themselves had spoken when Ingoglia broadbrushed Flagler County’s budget increases, ignoring, for example, the huge increase in the county’s reserves.
Property Appraiser Jay Gardner had only a slightly less difficult time when his budget was challenged, too, for including a request for a 3 percent cost of living and 2 percent merit raise, assuming the county were giving its employees the same raises. That still didn’t please Carney.
“Because if we have a merit that looks like an elephant, and they have a merit that looks like a pig,” Carney said, “our staffs are going to be talking amongst each other, so do we ask them to line up their merit with our merit? Or do we just leave them alone on the merit?”
County Attorney Michael Rodriguez said it’s up to the constitutionals to devise their own budget allocations. The county can’t tell them how to do it. As it stands, the property appraiser’s budget would increase less than 2 percent–less than the rate of inflation.
“We basically wait to see what you do, and then I do what you do. So it’s up to you,” Gardner told Carney.
“But we’re implementing a whole new policy,” Carney said. “If you say you’re doing 3 percent and 2 percent, that’s what I put down, because I’m not doing less than you and looking bad. All you got to do is lower yours and I’ll lower mine. In other words, I’m not trying to be a problem, I’m following what y’all do.”
The sheriff had a much easier time even though nominally the Sheriff’s Office accounts for the largest share by far of the constitutional budgets. Sheriff’s Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge presented the numbers: a $68.3 million budget increasing $6.7 million over the previous year, or 10.8 percent. The figure includes the Palm Coast and school board contracts, which add up to $15.5 million, and the jail budget of just under $16 million. The sheriff is requesting nine additional deputies for Palm Coast and four for the county, as he has in each of the previous two years.
Strobridge drew a few questions, most notably from Commissioner Andy Dance who wanted to see a clearer breakdown of the coming costs of the sheriff’s new helicopter, beyond the $250,000 annual cost projected in the budget, and an explanation for the increase in the number of employees, to 382, after the department lost 28 positions when the 911 division was shifted to the county. The public never hears most of the commissioners’ questions. Those are posed and answered in individual sessions behind closed doors, and with an enormous budget book that commissioners get, but that doesn’t get posted to the web, as does a more summary report.
Tax Collector Shelly Edmonson and Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart drew barely any questions, other than Carney questioning why early voting lasts 13 days. It almost always has in this county, Lenhart said–and could last up to 14 days by state law.
Pennington, the commission chair, left Acting Administrator Adam Mengel with a significant task, renewing the request for what a budget with across-the-board 10 percent cuts would look like, and what the proposed constitutional amendment’s consequences on the budget would be should homesteaded property tax revenue be reduced by $35 million next year and $62 million the following year, as current projections stand. Pennington expects those scenarios later this month.
The afternoon workshop drew not a single public comment, an indication–yet again–that while voters may well approve the homesteaded tax cut, which would amount to free money, they are not clamoring for it by any means. But the governments responsible for parceling out the revenue are panicking.
Leave a Reply