Nothing makes the average person's eyes glaze over faster than talk about government budgets. Unfortunately, budgets are what determine a government's ability to function, and as the old saying goes, "the devil is in the details."
Right now Key West City departments are preparing for the City Commission's budget process, which begins in July. As they do each year, department heads are making wish lists of projects, training and equipment they would like in the coming year. And as also happens each year, the City Commission is likely to deny most of these urgent requests in order to maintain an illusion of fiscal responsibility.
The Commission regularly begins the process by sending department heads back to cut their proposed budgets by a given percentage, before even considering the merit of their requests. As a result, underpaid city employees often lack the equipment and training to do their jobs, and essential City needs go unmet.
A favorite cry of our City officials is that "government should be run like a business." Well, they should take a look around to see how successful businesses operate. Successful business people know the importance of having a happy, proficient workforce, so they don't skimp on things like salaries, benefits and training. And they understand that to keep their customers coming back, they must invest in improving their product.
In contrast, the City makes its employees struggle without the equipment and training they need
to do their jobs. For years, the commission has considered proposals to upgrade the City's archives and
put public documents online— improvements that would expand citizen access to public records, end
the troublesome disappearance of
City documents and reduce the time staff spends digging through piles of paper. But each year this
urgent priority ends up on the budgetary chopping block, leaving Key West government in the
technological dark ages.
And the City certainly isn't investing money in improvements to keep its customers, both locals and tourists, happy. Our disgraceful, often non-existent sidewalks are a formidable barrier to people in wheelchairs, parents pushing baby strollers and anyone who resents being forced to walk in the street.
The floods that follow every storm present another hazard to pedestrians, who must often walk in the middle of dangerous streets to stay dry. But again, the commission declined to spend the money necessary to address these serious problems.
This shortsighted approach to City government takes a heavy toll on both the quality of life of residents and the vacation experience of tourists. And if we can't afford to take care of these important things now, when Key West is at its most affluent, then when will we?
Clearly, we must make better use of existing city assets and aggressively seek out additional sources of revenue. Making better use of our existing assets could involve getting fair rents for city-owned properties like those occupied by the Key West Chamber of Commerce and the Key West Yacht Club— which respectively pay $120 and $1 in rent per year.
Cruise ship disembarkation fees are a major potential source of revenue that remains untapped. Key West charges just $6.50 per cruise ship passenger, compared to $18 in Jamaica and $60 in Bermuda. The commission approved this ridiculously low amount on the advice of paid consultants, who were later revealed to be closely tied to the cruise ship industry. That single decision alone has lost the city millions of dollars in revenue.
Now is the time when we need to come forward to let our elected representatives know which issues are the most important to us. That way both the City and County commissioners know where the priorities lie for our community and can decide how to best use our taxes and other revenues to achieve those goals in the upcoming fiscal year.