You Got It

Sheriff Benton was quoted in Highlands Today dated July 16 when defending the huge increase in the sheriff's budget. "You folks asked for it, you got it," the sheriff asserted, indicating that she had given citizens what they wanted in terms of services.

I think the sheriff is wrong; citizens did not want a huge increase in crime: murders, burglaries, robberies and auto thefts have increased dramatically since the sheriff took office in 2005. Citizens did not want evidence from the sheriff's evidence storage facility that imperils the criminal prosecution of murderers, burglars, rapists and drug dealers. Citizens did not want drug related school resource officers to cover our schools.

Citizens did not ask for a $9 million increase in the sheriff's budget, which is a 50 percent increase from $18 million to over $27 million in less than three years. Citizens did not ask for a bloated governmental bureaucracy of unnecessary administrative positions and citizens did not ask the sheriff to propose a $12 million new office building that will do nothing to make neighborhoods any safer, but will cost taxpayers dearly for years to come if this project isn't stopped or scaled back.

Also, citizens did not ask the sheriff to spend their tax money by giving every employee in the sheriff's office a $3,000 bonus at the same time granting salary increases which cost taxpayers more than $1 million.

What I believe citizens want and deserve is less crime, safer neighborhoods, and a more efficient and less expensive government.

Gary Puckett
Sebring