Newsflash: if you increase the property tax millage rate, you are in fact raising taxes.

Sounds obvious, right? Not according to Florida Statue, several of our sitting County Commissioners and the editorial board of the Florida Today.

Florida’s Truth in Millage Law defines a tax increase as any tax rate that generates more revenue than the prior year as a tax increase. This definition is deeply flawed for a couple of reasons, and if applied to other tax mechanisms would leave taxpayers open to crushing tax increases across the board to maintain the size of government regardless of what is happening in the economy.

Several of our Commissioners and the Editorial Board of the Florida Today gleefully point to the Truth in Millage statute as proof the County and School Board have not raised taxes. Matt Reid just wrote about it here.

In addition to referencing the state statute, Commissioners Fisher and Nelson have repeatedly pointed out that because *not everyone’s* tax bill will increase as a result of the millage increase, rolling back the millage rate to maintain last year’s revenue isn’t actually a tax increase.

Here’s the twisted logic put forth by Commissioners Fisher at the July 21st budget workshop meeting:

Every living organism faces the fundamental alternative of life or death. Every private sector business faces the fundamental alternative of being profitable or going out of business. This pleasure/pain mechanism is what guides the actions and decisions of both individuals and companies – do the right things you succeed and thrive; do the wrong things you fail and die.

There are only two categories of entities that are immune to this basic law of causality: inanimate objects and government.

As we just witnessed with the federal budget compromise of 2011, no matter how badly government fails, and no matter how loudly we yell and threaten our elected officials with removal, government lumbers on, immune to economic reality and impervious to the will of the people.

Why is this? Simple – timing is everything.

If the cause and effect relationship between the actions taken by our elected officials and the economic devastation those actions resulted in were immediate and obvious, they would be recalled or voted out in the very next cycle, and the bad policies quickly repealed and/or replaced.

Unfortunately, the government and economy are so large, it takes years for the damage to become tangible, and by then people don’t remember which official voted for what, or how the damage occurred in the first place.

The impending government shutdown last Friday was an opportunity for the federal government to finally experience in full, concrete fashion the existence/non-existence alternative the rest of us live with on a daily basis in our personal and business lives. 

For the first time in almost two decades the government would have been shut down – partially, anyway – thus allowing our elected officials and bureaucrats to experience some real pain; politically speaking, at least. This was an opportunity to make a profound difference on the course our country is taking, not next month, next year or next election cycle, but right now. Sadly, the Republicans have again failed us.

In spite of being swept into the majority by Americans who are terrified by the fiscal insanity they are witnessing in Washington, DC, the Republicans chose to condone and sanction said insanity by compromising on numbers that – quite literally – don’t amount to more than spitting in the ocean.

By choosing to do so, Speaker Boehner and the Republicans abdicated their most basic responsibility and function in the House: to pass fiscally sound spending legislation. Worse still for the Republican Party, they have given serious fodder to those who advocate for the rise of a third party. This is bad news, because the laws on the books are written to protect and favor the two major parties.

So where does the Tea Party go from here? Is it really hopeless? Do we take our toys and go home? While it may look that way at first glance, my answer is: HELL NO! We must double down and run every one of those who voted for this spending out of office.

Stay the course – it’s always darkest before the dawn.

A new report published by the Brevard County Audit Committee shows a dramatic increase in Brevard County spending relative to population growth since 1999. The report confirms what Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis and several Conservative citizen groups have been saying since 2005: county spending expanded to consume all the available revenue generated by property taxes during the real estate boom.

The report uses 1999 as a baseline. The population increase calculated by the auditors for the ten year period is 19%, yet the report finds the following :

Sheriff - The Sheriff’s office has grown from 806 FTE in 1999 to 1,145 FTE in 2009, which is an increase of 339 FTE or 42%. Both the Sheriff’s total expenditures and General Fund allocation increased 129% over this same ten year period. In the past ten years, the County has transferred General Fund of approximately $596 million to the Sheriff. The report makes no mention of numbers of whether or not the number of calls responded to has increased from 1999 to present day.

Fire Rescue - In 1999, Fire Rescue had 354 FTE. By 2009, FTE had increased 53% to 541. The total budget for that Department increased from $28 million in 1999 to $57 million (116%) in 2009.
Staffing spiked in 2000 through 2003 primarily due to changes from a two person basic life support engine to three person advanced life support engines. Other major expenditures included: 911 ambulance crew and equipment for a new station, Advanced Life Support fire engine, 800 mega hertz radios, new fire engines, mobile data terminals for twenty-one engines and a new fire rescue unit and equipment. The report makes no mention of the number of calls responded to in 1999 or current day.

Parks & Recreation – Full time equivalents up from just under 300 to 495 – an increase of 53%. General fund transfers increased from ~$9.6 million in 1999 to $17.5 million in 2009, an 82% increase.

Here is the actual report:

Brevard County Ten Year Expenditure Analysis

As I emerge from the whirlwind of my failed campaign for the District 4 County Commission seat I am forced to wonder if the pundits are right:  have we actually reached the tipping point in Brevard County where even the Republicans want more government, more spending and higher taxes?

While I enjoyed tremendous grassroots support for which I am extremely grateful, there are many things I could have done better, or was unable to do for lack of funding. Given what I’ve analyzed so far, I’m not willing to concede the majority of Brevard Republicans really want more government, spending and taxes.

If they did, Commissioner Bolin wouldn’t have campaigned as a Conservative on her web site and mail pieces, claiming to have cut $80 million in spending. Recall how raising taxes was "not an option" for her in the Florida Today Voter Guide.

If the board were proud of its tax and spend policies, it wouldn’t have taken the month of June off,  canceled the second of only two budget workshops in August (scheduled just days before the election), or used the phrase “rollback” to describe the tentative millage rate increase, thus conjuring the notion of lower prices ala Wal-Mart. As recently as last Thursday the editorial board of the Florida Today was still careful to call the millage increases tax "moves” instead of tax "increases".

Finally, we have the fact TRIM notices were mailed on August 24^th – the 55^th and absolute last day allowed by statute – so they would hit property owner mailboxes the day AFTER the election. If people really wanted more taxes to pay for county services why not let property owners see their new, higher tax bills before, or on, election day? I think you know the answer.

All of these maneuvers suggest exactly the opposite of what we are now told by the pundits. The incumbents and editorial board of the Florida Today know that taxpayers are suffering through a deep recession, and are tired of government spending and taxes. Rather than proudly proclaim they wanted to continue spending and raise taxes, the incumbents did everything they could to conceal their true nature from the voting public. They succeeded, and they won. Now we all will pay.

There is a lot of anger and frustration in the Tea Party movement. I am the first to admit it is difficult to focus the attention and energy on local government because the abuses taking place in Washington are so outrageous. While the Tea Party may have failed to carry Mr. Thodey and myself to victory, I don’t think the failure was an ideological one; rather it was a logistical one.

We didn’t get the truth out, and I believe many of the Republicans that voted were ill-informed on local races. My job as the organizer of the Brevard Tea Party is to ensure that doesn’t happen again. My renewed personal mission is to increase awareness of, and participation in, local government. See you in 2012!