MARTIN COUNTY — Deputy response times would suffer here if property-tax reform, in the form of Amendment 3, is passed by voters Nov. 3, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek told TCPalm.
Nearly $110 million of the sheriff’s $128 million budget goes toward personnel, he said. He’ll fight to avoid even estimating how many employees — deputies and others — would be laid off if Amendment 3 passes.
“I’m going to fight not to reduce” personnel, he said. “I don’t think we can.”
Martin County is growing, and it needs more deputies to keep pace with the growth, he said. Budensiek sees few places where he could cut spending and no place to offset the funding he might lose. Any delay in spending for certain items would save less than $1 million.
Martin County’s population, including seasonal residents and visitors, is expected to grow by more than 20,000 by 2050, according to county estimates.
If Budensiek maintains the current number of deputies, public safety is moving backwards, he said.
Budensiek the taxpayer
As a taxpayer, Budensiek pays a lot of property taxes, he said.
“So, I understand the angst that our voters have or the people that are paying property taxes have with the amount of money they’re paying,” he said.
“And I agree that there needs to be some type of tax reform to give tax relief to our citizens, not just in Martin County, but the entire state,” the sheriff said.
His goal in talking about Amendment 3 is to educate voters on the potential impacts, which he is fighting three ways.
Fighting the potential impacts
The sheriff has been in touch with state representatives, he said, who can craft language that implements the amendment if it passes. That language could protect law enforcement from cuts, he said.
Secondly, Budensiek said, he has been in touch with state leaders such as gubernatorial candidate and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who could play a role next year to amend Amendment 3, if it passes, to protect law enforcement.
Failing those efforts, Budensiek would stick by his guns and argue the proposal says law enforcement is a priority.
“And I would just push to say that if we don’t have law-and-order and public safety in Martin County, everything else will go by the wayside, he said.
Other county leaders
One county leader, though, wonders if public safety will get away unscathed in the wake of Amendment 3 passing, while another aims to maintain funding.
“We’re public servants and we will honor the will of the voters and do our best to work under either scenario, whether the referendum passes or whether it doesn’t,” County Commissioner Blake Capps said.
“But we do have concerns about the depth of the cuts involved on public safety and on other core functions of county spending, because they do seem to be very deep cuts,” Capps added.
Besides law enforcement, public safety includes Fire Rescue, which was the focus of Capps’ comments when he spoke to TCPalm.
Like Capps, County Commission Vice Chair Ed Ciampi said, “I and the county will do whatever the voters of Florida want us to do.”
If Amendment 3 passes, Ciampi said, every municipality will have to reinvent itself to a degree, but he is in favor of maintaining public safety funding.
“In regard to Fire Rescue or public safety in general, I have said all along that the first dollar that our residents spend in taxes, they expect to go to public safety,” he said.
“There are only a few categories,” he added, “that literally become matters of life and death.”
Keith Burbank is TCPalm’s watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida sheriff ready to fight impacts of Amendment 3
Reporting by Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
