Check Budget, But Don't Dismantle Our County's Services

Highlands County commissioners said they would take one last look at more possible cuts in the county's proposed budget for next year. And all but one constitutional officer said that if they must make cuts, they will. But the harm these cuts would have on our county would far surpass any supposed benefits they would bring.

Vocal critics of the county's budget say taxes are devastating some people, and sending them out of the area to live. The folks facing the greatest hardships are people without homestead exemptions.

Of course, Highlands County government has nothing to do with the state's homestead exemption, and just about everyone agrees that it's the most unfair property tax system in the United States. That said, who wants to give it up? No one, of course, so unless the same critics who were in the budget hearing recently can get the legislature to toss the homestead exemption, there's nothing local politicians can do about it.

What the critics want, though, is for the county budget to have "draconian" cuts. Commissioner Don Bates said that isn't going to happen because of the devastation it would have on county services. He's absolutely right.

Highlands County runs a tight ship, regardless of what critics say. We aren't repairing half the roads we need to repair right now just to keep costs low. But our county is not throwing money around for the fun of it. We don't have departments of self-esteem or other silly bureaucracies where taxpayer money is being wasted. Our money is being spent on essential items that keep our quality of life above Third World standards.

We can cut all day, and make a few people happy, but are we willing to live with what we have left? Fewer EMS crews, fewer deputies on patrol, more impassable roads, rundown recreational areas, inadequate garbage service and many other crippled services would be the result if more cuts are made. That's not the kind of a county most of us want to live in. And it certainly isn't the kind of county outsiders would consider living in or where new businesses would want to locate.

County officials should take one last look, but before they lower our already low taxes compared to just about anywhere else in the nation, they must consider what it would do to our county and its citizens. Saving our county by destroying it is a poor idea.

Sometimes we just have to realize that these are very difficult economic times due to a housing bubble, over development, sub-prime mortgage scandals, war, high oil prices and inflation. Dismantling local government does nothing to improve any of those things.