TAX REFORM AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

The tax reform package has passed, leaving most of us wondering what all of the months of public hearings, regular session, special session and fuss were about. The average savings in the first part is a whopping $174.

The second part is rife with inherent confusion. Probably the only people who will save anything in the longer run will be those owning lower priced homes or condos. If you sell your home, you'll lose Save Our Homes, even if you've previously chosen to keep it ---if the Constitutional Amendment passes.

That's a big "if." Most people believe that anything done in the kind of super secrecy, the way this Amendment was, can't be trusted. Disturbing details emerge, e.g., Save Our Homes is a goner because when you sell there's no portability. Governments will see huge cuts in revenue for the first several years, so they'll make painful cuts and raise fees that aren't covered by the Amendment. The fees won't be lowered when the rise in property values without Save Our Homes gets to critical mass, which will result in large increases in tax revenue, and we'll be stuck in a briar patch. I predict it won't pass.

The good that should come of this is in the form of audits. Audits can point out waste and save millions. The Broward School Board's internal auditors looked at the Workers' Compensation contracts. By following their direction, the district saved $1.5 million in the first five months alone. It took high political pressure to get the results accepted and followed because entrenched firms donated generously to campaigns.

Broward's auditors have been producing excellent reports showing millions in waste and bungled administration of contracts. Examples are the $247 million loan for the airport unspent, $16 million adminstrators were ready to overspend for buses when the hearing officer pulled the plug, millions spent for lax oversight of airport construction, process "skirted" as a $45 million office deal got the taxpayer stuck paying $110,000/year for 30 years for a "dilapidated" warehouse the County doesn't want, $100,000 in fines over security at the airport, $36 million in uncollected taxes from businesses, officials pushing a no-bid deal at the port for crane maintenance, and instituting lobbyist rules that former Commissioner Ben Graber admitted were a "farce."

County and city auditors need to begin immediately examining every aspect of their governments. Audit the social services taxpayers fund, especially administrative costs. Make sure agencies keep administrative percentages lower than 5%, and define administration as anyone not directly working with clients. Check for duplication of services, ratio of personnel to clients served, and results year to year. It's refreshing to hear the head of the Broward Childrens' Services Council quoted as saying they can deal with a couple of million dollars in cuts.

Require lobbyists to reveal what they're getting paid from the clients they represent. Everything lobbyists get paid and everything they give, whether campaign contributions, junkets, dinners or gifts, gets rolled into the cost of doing business, and taxpayers foot all the bills. Put it all on the County website that's paid for by the taxpayers.

If government doesn't cleanse itself, the taxpayers will do it for them. Several groups are already formed statewide to get Constitutional amendments on the ballot limiting revenue increases to 3% yearly, including special taxing districts.

Government must set a good example to begin to regain the trust from their constituents. Trust is crucial to a representative democracy, especially in light of known fiscal abuses and in the wake of the outrageous attempt to take away the contract for hurricane coverage from WIOD because of partisan politics.