County property tax revenues in Florida increased 78 percent in the six years between 1999 and 2006. Most Florida taxpayers seem to believe that local government officials have been behaving like drunken sailors with that money, and that may be one reason why in January they approved Amendment 1, which increased homestead exemptions and allowed for homestead portability.

Dominic Calabro, who heads up Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit organization that’s been keeping track of state and local taxes for almost 30 years, is one of those who contend that county governments have taken advantage of easy money from property taxes and, until recently, haven’t felt any pressure to stay lean. “County government or the county school boards are now the largest employers in the state,” he says. “It means they’re really big. This [spending spree] went on for five or six years. Voters don’t feel the pain of the cost of government because of Save Our Homes, so non-voters are voting with their feet and leaving the state.”

Florida TaxWatch says Florida has gone from a low-cost state to a high-cost state in the last six years and, according to its latest “How Florida Compares” report, we now rank 26th per capita in our tax burden relative to other states—lower than the national average, but rising steadily in the last several years. When you look at local government “own-source revenues”—the local taxes and fees we pay—Florida is the fourth-highest per capita. And our tax burden continues to grow. “Any time government grows faster than the economy, it’s unsustainable and unhealthy,” says Calabro.

But a study by Florida economist Hank Fishkind of Fishkind & Associates takes issue with the conventional wisdom.

In his 2007 “Where Did the Money Go?” study for the Florida Association of Counties, Fishkind concluded that population growth and the increased costs of fuel, insurance and government pensions were responsible for the increased spending of Florida’s 67 counties. For the most part, government did not add new programs or staff just because they had the money to do so.

Fishkind says Florida’s population grew 17 percent during those years, and county government costs increased 58 percent, which absorbed most of the 78 percent increase in property tax collections. Government expenses like fuel and insurance are triple the Consumer Price Index, he says.

Local governments in Sarasota and Manatee fit that pattern as well, although Fishkind does think we have a little more fat in our budgets than other Florida counties. Where? Mostly in our spending for fire and Emergency Medical Services, he says. He blames unions. “If you were [Sarasota County administrator] Jim Ley you’d decide it’s much easier to increase parking fees and reduce library hours than wrangle with the union,” he says.—Susan Burns

Five Questions
Building a Case
HBA prez David Langhout on the region’s home building market.

David Langhout was vice president of land acquisitions for Taylor Woodrow (now Taylor Morrison) before starting his own company, DBL Capital Advisors, and becoming president of the Home Builders Association of Sarasota County.

How is the HBA helping builders?
We’re trying to get people to adjust to reality. We’re back to [the way things were in] 2002-2003, and people need to wrap their minds around that in terms of their expectations about how many homes they can sell in a year, and for how much. The number of homes sold in this county doubled from 2002-2003 until the peak of 2005 at prices that weren’t justifiable to people’s incomes or their ability to afford homes. Home builders need to realize that those days aren’t coming back; that they’re going to sell 12-18 homes in a subdivision each year instead of the 40-50 they were selling between 2003 and 2005. Builders also need to reset their overhead and staffing. That’s a challenge we have in the HBA; every one of our members is trying to shrink and adjust, and business is that much more difficult when it’s tougher to carry overhead.

What are your members asking for?
Regulatory relief from the county and the cities, which need to break down some of the economic barriers in terms of what it takes to get things approved and processed. Home builders are struggling enough to attract buyers and keep their costs down. When the county continues, from a regulatory standpoint, to build these barriers and keep impact fees where they are, it’s really hard to get prices to where they need to be.

What is the HBA’s major focus for 2008?
We are in dialogue with county commissioners and staff regarding the impact fees they increased last year, and many of our members are volunteering to serve on advisory boards so that the legislators hear our concerns. We’re also looking at the 2008 election as the opportunity for candidates at the local and state level to demonstrate that they hear our concerns and are going to listen to our needs. We want to raise our political involvement and awareness.