Give Your Student a Civics Lesson - Have Them Watch Part of Today's Pinellas County Commission Workshop

I will give you the Cliff's Notes of the full workshop discussion on the upcoming Pinellas County Commission budgeting process.  This not only gives you a glimpse as to where the County is headed from a spending perspective, but also an indicator of where your freshman commissioners that you just elected stand on budget issues as they approach their first budget.

Let's get the nerd vocabulary out of the way first.  You need to understand the language they use, which is unique to government and not part of the normal person's lexicon.

In common English, when the government talks about "millage rates," they are referring to a tax rate used to calculate property taxes that individuals or businesses owe on their real estate properties, such as homes, land, or commercial buildings.

The term "millage" is derived from the Latin word "millesimum," meaning "thousandth." A millage rate is usually expressed in terms of "mills," where one mill is equal to one-thousandth of a dollar (or one-tenth of a cent). So, when the government discusses millage rates, they are talking about the amount of tax you need to pay for every thousand dollars of assessed property value.

For example, if the millage rate is 10 mills and your property is assessed at $100,000, the calculation would be:

Millage Rate: 10 mills
Assessed Property Value: $100,000

Tax Amount = (Millage Rate / 1000) * Assessed Property Value
Tax Amount = (10 / 1000) * $100,000 = $1,000

So, in this example, you would owe $1,000 in property taxes based on the given millage rate.

Millage rates are set by local governments, such as counties, cities, or school districts, to generate revenue for public services like schools, infrastructure, police, and fire departments. Higher millage rates result in higher property tax bills, while lower millage rates lead to lower tax bills. It's an important factor to consider for property owners because it directly affects how much they need to pay in taxes each year.

These are editorial notes, subject to your independent validation :

• Pre-pandemic, the county commission historically maintained "reserves" in their savings accounts of around 15% of their annual anticipated income.  These rainy day funds are intended to weather unexpected storms (literally and figuratively).
• During the last few budget cycles before the pandemic, the reserves creeped up a bit, to maybe 17%-18%
• While you were under a County Imposed Stay At Home order in 2020, the Pinellas County Commission increased their income by keeping the "millage" rate fixed while home values went up, effectively dramatically increasing net income to the County.
• This took the reserves up from the historic averages of 15% all the way up to 27%.  Note that the County Commission didn't need the extra cash for expenses, and the money was rolled DIRECTLY into reserves.  They moved it from YOUR bank account to their savings account, while you were home under County Ordinance and while your businesses were closed (note :  their pay was never stopped and they continued to receive their full pay and benefits through the entire pandemic.)
• In the most recent budget cycle, they spent down a little bit of the FAT reserves, trimming the reserves to somewhere in the vicinity of 20.8% vs. the historical 15%+.  So they're still gorged on your money, just a bit less than at it's peak.
• Now they have to set the income and expenses for the next year.  We know they're going to spend more (obviously).  So the question is how much of the taxes are they going to give back.  The way they give the money back is by adjusting how much they collect.  They adjust that by adjusting the millage rate.  When you hear them talk about a "rollback" what they mean is rolling back the millage rate to some historic benchmark.
• The staff wants a spending increase and tax collection increase of somewhere around 7%.  They never SAY that number.  You have to speak politician to get there.  
• Some of the increases are coming as a result of State level issues that are being shifted on the Counties.  Gas taxes is one area where the commissioners are being negatively impacted at the State level.  Supervisor of elections has a state mandated increase of 4 full time positions to comply with State regulations.  
• The final budget will be approved in September
• The staff always likes to say that the public agrees with them when they don't hear from the public specifically in opposition
• The sheriff's department is looking for a $42m increase for the next budget year for personnel and equipment

How did the Pinellas County Commissioners respond to the staff proposal, which includes (as always) increasing the amount that the County takes from you, and increasing the amount that the County spends?

Commissioner Brian Scott :  Advocated for a FULL rollback to pre-pandemic rates.  The exact amount isn't clear, but Scott was looking for the largest adjustment possible.  His position carried over from his campaign to a campaign promise kept was fighting for a full rollback.  He wants your taxes adjusted to what they were, on a percentage basis, and wants the county to reign in spending.

Commissioner David Eggers :  Joined commissioner Scott in advocating for a rollback.  Eggers isn't sure of the exact percentages, maybe giving back at least have of the lagresse recognizing the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department has some real needs so it may not be phesible for a 100% rollback but Eggers, who voted for the 2020 budget on an "emergency" basis now believes the right position is to give back at least half of the windfall forced increase.  Interestingly, Eggers has asked for answers to questions and seemingly the staff has not responded to specific investigatory questions.  One idea Eggers has was to freeze hiring of vacant unfilled positions to decrease overall salary expenditures.  

"If we take the empty positions that we have right now and we freeze hiring for 6 months, what does that equal in savings?" - Commissioner Dave Eggers

Commissioner Chris Latvala :  wants the spending decreased, and the tax collection decreased.  He offered to staff, and again in the meeting, a bunch of specific targeted areas to cut.  Trying to not let the staff hide in percentages, Latvala cited specific spending cuts he would be agreeable to in order to slow the increases.  Ultimately, Latvala didn't weigh in specifically on the exact rollback formula but clearly his interest was in challenging the budget, the spending, and the tax collection levels.  Presumably Latvala will be amenable to a budget that takes less, spends less, and taxes less.  Latvala is consistent with his campaign platform to force reductions across the boards, and gave them specific ways to decrease spending including communications and parks operating budgets.  A 20% reduction in the reserve levels is something Latvala is interested in.

"The reserve level could go from 2.5 months to 2 months." - Commissioner Chris Latvala   

Commissioner Janet Long and Charlie Justice are always all in on tax increases.  It's expected that Janet will retire at the end of her current term, and Charlie Justice will face re-election.  He never met a tax increase he didn't like, as the architect of the County Stay-At-Home orders and advocate for the 2020 bloated wealth transfer from you to them.  His comments were predictable.

"I do not think that cutting things that add to the quality of life that our citizens have come to expect is a good way to govern going forward.  I will not support a rollback." - Janet Long, Chairperson of County Commission

Commissioner Rene Flowers stated she felt the pain, as she "stopped the gas pump as she was filling up her (Mercedes Benz) car at $70." The Pinellas County Commission Salary is $115,000 per year plus full benefits.  

"Everyone is suffering, and I stopped the tank at the gas station (for my Benz) at $70."  - Rene Flowers

Most surprising of the meeting was previous watchdog turned boondoggle spending advocate Kathleen Peters.  When she was in the minority, Peters was considered the conservative's advocate, many times railing against a then-liberal commission in a 1-6 vote on behalf of the people.

Selected quotes :  "I'm not on the same mindset as I was the last two years.  We've leveled off.  Our reserves are sound and reasonable.  We spent the reserves down.  If you can find incremental cuts I would support that." - Commissioner Kathleen Peters. 

Listen to her full comments at 1:45 below in context.

Now, given the chance to implement a rollback of the largess, Peters came out swinging against returning ANY of the taxpayer overcharge in the form of a millage rate rollback.  She took a hardline stance standing with the democrats and against what was perceived to be the new majority, indicating she was not ready to support any rollback rates at this time.  She thinks it's a balanced budget because they're spending more, and taking more, but not adding more to the reserves.

One can only wonder what life and experience changes made Ms. Peters flip flop her previous stands in advocating for the citizens.  In fact, she voted AGAINST the increase in the millage rate in 2020, and now she's fighting to keep it.  She was against it before she was for it.  Now she's for it.  We'd like 2020, 2021 and 2022 Kathleen Peters back.  

Here's the video in it's entirety.  You can pick up the budget discussion somewhere around the hour and a half mark.