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AMENDMENT ONE: Maxcy, Cool Come Out Strong Against

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: January 25, 2008

Updated: 01/25/2008 08:58 am

SEBRING –– Highlands County's two longest serving public officials, one elected and the other appointed, are speaking out strongly against Amendment 1 on Tuesday's primary election ballot.

"It doesn't fix the problem; it is not tax reform for the long term ... and it's just a Band Aid when what we need is complete major surgery on the way in which we tax property in Florida," said Guy Maxcy.

With 16 years and counting on the county commission, he is by far the longest serving current county commissioner.

"I am going to vote 'no' on this proposed state amendment because the amendment, as Commissioner Maxcy put it, is an attempt to take some options away from local government," said Carl Cool. "And, all of the inequities in the current property tax situation, this amendment would only increase and expand those inequities."

With 17 years and counting as the Highlands County administrator, the top executive of county government, Cool is not only the longest serving county administrator here, but also one of the longest serving in the state.

Maxcy said the Legislature and the governor submitted an issue to voters that is being sold as "tax reform" when it doesn't begin to provide any meaningful "reform."

"It's not a long-term fix, and that's what we need in this state," Maxcy said.

"And it's not fair because of the inequities in the way different groups of people are treated," he added.

Maxcy also said he's against this issue because it probably will be followed by House Speaker Marco Rubio's tax reform plan, which Maxcy calls ill conceived and unfair. Combined with Amendment 1, he said, the two tax issues "would hit this county with a 'double whammy.'"

Maxcy said Rubio should have gotten his tax reform plan on the ballot along with Amendment One so that voters could consider them as one package at one time.

"If I had my way, I'd say, 'OK, hit me with a hand grenade,'" Maxcy said. "But hitting me with a grenade twice, that's rough."

Cool said the county's office of budget and management estimates that passage of Amendment One will chop $5 million from county tax revenues. Maxcy said Rubio's plan, if passed, would chop another $4 million to $8 million from county services.

Because the county budget was cut substantially last fiscal year due to state tax reform, an additional $5 million in cuts would mean lay-offs of county personnel and cuts in essential services, Cool said.

No essential services were cut and there were no lay-offs in last fiscal year's budget cutting, Cool said, but that won't be possible if the state takes another $5 million per year away.

The answer to bad state tax policies, Maxcy said, is to get more county commissioners elected to the legislature. Maxcy briefly entered a race for state representative two years ago but pulled out because his insurance business took a new direction and he couldn't afford to spend half a year in Tallahassee.

Maxcy said the state legislators representing Highlands County are doing a good job, but that is not the case for the majority of the legislature.

"We need more county commissioners running for the legislature, because they understand the local problems," Maxcy said. "And they understand that you shouldn't balance the state's budget problems on the counties' backs."

This week, the county commissioner passed a resolution and sent it to Gov. Charlie Crist. It officially requested that the governor's office give Highlands County the $5 million that Amendment One takes away if Amendment One passes on Tuesday.

The resolution reminds the governor and the legislature that in Senate Bill 4-D, which put Amendment One on the ballot, the legislature and governor promised that any tax revenues taken away from certain counties by this issue would be reimbursed to the counties by the state.

There are six of those counties, designated as "fiscally constrained," and Highlands County is in the heart of Florida's "fiscally constrained" region. In addition to Highlands County, the other such counties are the surrounding counties of Hardee, Okeechobee, Desoto, Glades and Hendry.

"We want to make sure nobody forgets about that law," Cool said. "We're crossing the t's and dotting the i's and trusting that the state will fund (this promise) if Amendment One passes," Cool said.

Under the law that put Amendment One on the ballot, the "fiscally constrained" counties have to make an official application to the governor's office for reimbursement of revenues lost due to Amendment One.

Highlands County applied before the vote on the issue, Cool said, to make sure that the promised state financial aid, if needed, comes in time for setting the next budget, which has to be done in June and July.

Asked if the state legislature could pass a new law to revoke its promise to the "fiscally constrained" counties, Cool said the legislature is much more powerful than a county and could possibly do that.

But, he said, "I believe that the people in the state legislature who voted this state law in place will make sure that the state law is followed."

Asked if he was so sure of that that he would bet something of financial value to himself on the legislature keeping its word, Cool answered immediately.

"I don't bet on anything," he added.

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