Monroe County Commissioner Holly Merrill Raschein joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The commissioners have taken a hard look at spending recently.
Raschein said, “We’ve been having several robust discussions and we had a very thoughtful meeting on Wednesday. We’ve got a bunch of tough decisions to make and trying to make sure that we balance the needs. The number one priority is obviously public safety. That’s where we spend the lion’s share of our resources and then obviously, maintaining operations of the county. We’ve unfortunately had to downsize our workforce. Therefore, perhaps affecting, our level of service. I think we’ve been very thoughtful in the cuts. No department was really spared. All our department heads have had to go through this exercise and dig really deep and all of us around the county are going through this exercise. We’re not alone. Counties all over our state are trying and working on different improvements to become more efficient and we’re being driven by efforts above us, obviously at the state, the new creation of the Department of Government Efficiency has really laid out a pretty clear path on how they want to see local governments operate and use taxpayer dollars. So it has been super interesting, very different from any other years in terms of crafting our budget, and that’s what we’ve been working on.”
Some of the guidelines from the state aren’t terribly clear on issues like what an essential service actually is.
Raschein said, “It is kind of hard to move forward if you don’t have a clear vision, or a clear ask. I think that this is a pretty uncommon exercise, and I call it an exercise because it is just that. We don’t know what the firm policy is going to be, because the legislature will get together obviously, next year during session. A report is due from the governor to the legislative bodies on the findings that DOGE has come up with. I bet you we will see some legislation filed that will impact us, and on top of that, and I know a lot of our folks down here don’t necessarily, get exposed to all the statewide news and things that are going on behind the scenes up in Tallahassee, but there’s also a property tax Task Force, or special committee that has been meeting. So we’ve got things swirling around us at many different levels. People are also unsure of this topic, but what’s going to become of FEMA and making sure that we’re putting ourselves in the proper posture to be prepared to put our community back together on our own. That’s a possibility. Will it be this year? No, next year will we really need to be thoughtful about that, probably. But that’s something else that we don’t know either. But I think maybe over preparing is a good suggestion at this point, and moving forward, we can adjust and make adjustments, but I think we’re really being conservative here and making sure that we’re putting our county in the best position possible, that it can be in. Again, our finance department is, gold star, and they have been incredible. At the same time they’ve had to craft our entire budget, and respond to these efforts to the state. So it’s so interesting.”
There’s a lot of talk in advance of next year’s legislative session already about ad valorem tax reform.
Raschein said, “We saw that issue come up this last legislative session where the governor wanted to give a big savings to property owners across Florida, maybe a refund, so to speak. Then you saw the Speaker of the House want to tinker with sales tax. There was a big, big policy debate up there, but that issue is still very much on the front burner. Speaker Perez has formed a committee to really take a deep dive into property taxes and how they’re spent across the state, how counties utilize these resources? Obviously, I think most of them use the lion’s share for public safety, but I’m sure there’s specific areas that they want to target, obviously, kind of similar to the DOGE efforts, any kind of waste, superfluous spending, memberships, things like that, nonprofit spending, what is a core service? We may even see definitions of those come out, maybe of this property tax committee, or ultimately, out of the legislature, we may be given direction. You’ve got to spend this portion. You’ve got to give this portion back. So that means less services that we may be able to provide. So it is something that we’re watching extremely closely because the state kind of directs us, it’s just sort of the food chain. It will be interesting. I’m glad that we are very active members of the Florida Association of Counties, because you know that they’ll be on this and bird dogging it. So it’s not the Wild Wild West, but it’s certainly new times. We’ve kind of got a we don’t want to wait and see. We’re obviously preparing, but I think we’re going to see even more shifts come in the future.”
It kind of feels like the state is following the federal lead on the cutbacks.
Raschein said, “It’s not surprising. I’m not super surprised. I do see a little erosion of that local control, a little, maybe a lot, in some instances where we’ve seen with the crosswalks and things like that. Should we be spending our energy on things like that? That’s debatable when there’s so many other things that need attention and leadership and governing. It’s a debate that’s going to continue, and we can just be as strong as we can and stand up for our islands and try to make sure we’re at the table.”
Could US 1 see an increase in lanes?
Raschein said, “Our marks aren’t always super high on our arterial study results and we’re constantly looking for ideas and areas and projects and working alongside DOT to try to improve that timing and our level of service is always a top priority. I think historically, we’ve had a strong relationship with DOT. They work with our different teams up and down the Keys to identify these areas. We have a work plan that we consistently update year after year. I think the discussion was brought up, a couple months ago, I guess this is the next step that could we give DOT any more tools in their toolbox to help us out with this congestion, improve our level of service? And so the thought, and my understanding is that this gives them, where there could be an option to perhaps add a turn lane, or maybe there’s a bridge, I always love to go over that Bahia Honda bridge, because it’s two lanes and you can pass perhaps somebody. I’m reading some of the concern, the emails that we’re getting, and they talk about environmental impacts and things like that. I wonder if they’re thinking more cars or like the actual road work to the environmental impacts, but we’re talking about a state agency that is held to the highest standard for all of those things. There has to be environmental impact studies and planning, and public meetings. This isn’t going to happen overnight. I think again, it just provides more tools, again, in the toolbox to try to combat the congestion. I don’t think that people are going to wake up one morning and go, oh my gosh, there’s an extra lane. We’ve got to go down to the Keys, we’ve got to fill that road. I don’t think the aim is to bring more cars. I think it’s to help with the flow that we have now, obviously we’ve got a few more homes that are going to be coming online. Maybe where there’s a bottleneck at a turn lane, we can relieve some of those little areas, especially in Islamorada, again, very, very limited areas where there can even be a turn lane. It’s literally impossible. So I don’t think that it is as scary, it’s not really the boogeyman that people think that it’s going to be. Again, I think the process is going to be very open. DOT is very conservative in terms of anytime they change up a traffic pattern or plan. I’m interested to listen, but I really do feel that this is going to be an improvement, and we’re leaving it up to the experts, and this is their road. It is a State Road.”