County commission discusses budget cuts
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

A standing room only crowd attended the Santa Rosa County Commission budget hearing Sept. 10, with many teen and pre-teen athletes from Pace sitting in the floor along the walls of the meeting room. Their parents and coaches brought them to the meeting not to hear about the county's financial balancing act, but to ask commissioners to rethink their decision to stop paying the utilities for the county's recreation parks next year.

Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker opened the meeting by showing a quick graph of what the county was facing in budget cutbacks for next year's budget. "Last year our budget was $117,600,129. But for this next budget we are looking at $115,933,0220. That's because of a few factors, including our tax funds down almost 3 percent and property taxes down almost $2 million. Our sales tax receipts from the state are also down about 11 percent," Walker explained. "And last year we were levying a millage rate at the same level as the past five or six years, of 6.6175. But for this next budget the state has rolled us back, only allowing us to levy a millage rate of 6.0953.

The floor was opened to the public for question and comment, and the subject quickly turned to the cut backs in the parks and recreation department. The commissioners had cut from their budget the cost of paying utilities at the county's recreation parks, which includes all the youth sports fields. Residents first asked commissioners to do some research into the benefits of having green belts and recreation fields, especially the economic impact. But commissioners were quick to shoot back. Commissioner Bob Cole said, "This board and the one before us built many of the fields you are now using. We had people question why we were doing it. I have said many times, as other commissioners here have said, that we would rather build recreation fields and programs now than build more jails later for our youth."

Pace representatives thanked the commission for what they had built, but said that if the utilities were not covered for county parks in the next budget that they would need to raise their fees from $50 - $60 per athlete to play next year. They said that would cut some people out.

Commissioner Gordon Goodin disagreed that they would need to pass the cost of the utilities on to the athletes and their parents. "Prior to the construction of East Milton and Tiger Point recreation facilities, Holley-Navarre and Pace had to always pay their own utilities. But when we did the contract for East Milton, and they said they could not pay utilities, then we thought it only fair to pick up the cost of utilities at all the recreation parks. I checked the bill for the utilities on one Pace park from last October through June, and it came to about $28,000. You told us about how your tournaments are very successful. You had one there a few weeks ago that had 100 teams involved from all over the southeast, you said. If you collected one dollar from every person who attended a tournament, and you had three or four tournaments a year, you could more than cover the cost of your utilities."

Goodin said that the recreation programs really should pay their own utilities, anyway. "The taxpayers of this county have spent millions to build the sports parks. The landlords are only asking you to pay the utilities."

Commission Chair Tom Stewart added, "We only cut $100,000 from our next year's recreation budget. We thought having the recreation parks pay their own utilities was the easiest way to cut. We are still paying over $1 million for maintenance of all the sports and recreation parks in the county."

Goodin said he realized with volunteers it could be difficult to take on extra tournaments. "I am a member of the county's Tourist Development Council. We talked about this very thing. They offered to have one of their staff work with you to help promote and organize any number of tournaments any sports program wants to have. That is what they do, and it definitely promotes tourism in the county, and has a positive economic impact. So if any community wants to start hosting more fundraising tournaments, they will help. And you can reap the benefits."