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.
County budget talks are coming up and they could be tricky if the state legislature hasn’t reached an agreement yet.
Raschein said, “We’re all kind of in a holding pattern, which is fine, it’s part of a legislative process. We’ve seen this before. We’ve been to the dance. It’s a big year, it’s an election year. So I know folks want to get their business done in Tallahassee so they can get back in and be in their communities. So sending some good vibes to the House and the Senate, our state representative, Jim Mooney, is doing an amazing job, and as is our senator, and they know our priorities, I think, with the Stewardship funds. But I think the looming question is, other than redistricting, is the property tax reform. I know our our budget team on the county side, they’re putting preliminary numbers together so that when we get to go we can move forward and get our work done.”
What about the state DOGE efforts?
Raschein said, “We saw our CFO Blaise Ingoglia said property tax reforms like the governor is supporting, and people are talking about, may not happen, maybe too much, too late. The thoughtful process that we all want to see in Tallahassee, that may not flesh out. If I were up there, I’d prefer to wait, but that may not be the case. But again, we are down here. We’re able to bob and weave. We did some really hard work last year on our finances locally, I’m sure there’s some areas that we could improve. We’ve got to talk about essential services, and talk about an ad valorem tax, it’s the flexible money, those precious taxpayer dollars that we use to fix our parks and beaches, our things like that. I would not call our spending wasteful whatsoever. We are actually a lean, mean fighting machine. Our department heads are doing as much as they can, working hard, trying to crunch those numbers. We’ve got a fantastic team of people who work for our county, and we don’t want to hurt our own economy by not having those people serve our community, so we have to be very careful and very deliberative on those decisions.”
The last spring free tire recycling event happens this Saturday at the Key Largo transfer station, Long Key transfer station, Cudjoe Transfer station from 8 a.m. to noon.
Raschein said, “I hope that everybody will take advantage of that. Those tires, they’re an eyesore, they’re also a collector of water and mosquito larvae. So let’s get rid of those.”
How is the changeover of Higgs Beach going?
Raschein said, “I wanted to thank the city of Key West, and our county team, we were able to convey Higgs Beach to the city, and I think that was a good move. I hope they’ll be proud to own that beautiful piece of property. And it’s just kind of funny, back in the day, things are done a little differently in the Keys, in Florida, wherever, and we really honed in on I just kind of wanted to highlight our relationships with the municipalities and how proud I am that we are able to work together make sure that everybody is comfortable with the arrangement, whether it’s Higgs Beach or something else. I hope that we’re going to see a lot more collaboration and communication amongst our municipalities in the future. Again, the landscape of government and governing is changing. We see that. That happens all the time anyways, but really seeing it in a big way now, and I hope that partnership will grow stronger and continue. It makes me so proud that we all want the same thing. We want the best for the Florida Keys. We may have different ideas how we get there, but I think at the end of the day, all of us public servants want what our residents want, and they want the best for the Florida Keys. And as long as we can have open dialog and discussions, and again, we’re not always going to agree, we’re all going to be a lot better off.”
The Municipal Tax Benefit Unit has also been a topic of discussion.
Raschein said, “We are moving forward in that process. The last commission meeting, we spoke about financial hardships. How do we handle our residents that may be lower on the income scale, they may be seniors, they may be disabled veterans? How do we make sure that they are still served, while at the same time not being too burdensome on the rest of their neighbors, the rest of the residents? So that has been a really, really cool discussion. Of course, government kind of moves at the pace of molasses, unfortunately, and it is going to take a while. We’ve got to notice it and have public hearings and things like that, and that’s part of the process. But I’m very, very eager to move forward with that process. So I’m hoping we’ll be able to get that off the ground sooner than later.”