Michelle Lincoln, Monroe County Commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Final decisions for the budget occurred last week.
Lincoln said, “This budget season was eye opening, and it was painful in lots of ways, having to cut staff, which are our families, is never easy to do, but we needed to reduce the size of our county government, and we had to let 45 of our employees go as we reduce the size of our government as we consolidated different departments. We consolidated emergency services and emergency management, we consolidated Veterans Affairs and social services, we consolidated facility maintenance and project management, also that we could streamline and be more efficient with the taxpayers’ money. So that was really important for us to do. We reduced our budget this year, which, again, was very important to us, and it was interesting because in the summer, when we set our tentative millage rate, we cannot go above that rate, but we can go below it. So over the summer, it gave us an opportunity to really look at how we could maybe save more money and get down to a lower millage rate than what we had tentatively set. It was important for us to put money in reserves, so we were able to add an additional 2 million in reserves. We walked into the budget hearing on Wednesday night thinking we were going to be putting 4 million into reserves, and as we started discussing it, we opted just to put the 2 million in to reduce our millage rate, to make it flat, so that it equaled what last year’s millage rate was. So I think that was commissioner Holly Rashein made that motion, and I immediately seconded. The discussion was, yeah, we have only about 20% of our residents are homesteaded houses, so the effect of raising our millage rate really affects our small businesses, which don’t receive that homestead reduction, and yet, some of our businesses are hanging on by a thread, making ends meet, especially during slow season, and that big bump we had during COVID is gone, so we’re back to normal ebb and flow of tourists as they come and go in our county. We thought that this would help our small businesses, as well as all of the homes that are rented long term for our workforce that also don’t receive a benefit of a homesteading reduction. So I think at the end of the day, we all felt good with leaving with a flat millage rate instead of increasing it.”
The tone this year for budgeting seemed to be efficiency.
Lincoln said, “Yet, at the same time, we’re already looking at what we can do to augment our social services, our human services, community services, and adding more transportation for our elderly and those in need of help, and so that’s getting beefed up. We entered into a contract with the Guidance Care Center, who was the state appointed transportation services for those in need, and we are really bumping that up. Same with meal augmentations. I know that we just approved a contract to get additional funding for services like congregate meals and for Meals on Wheels type programs where we actually deliver food into people’s homes who need help. I know that the Department of Health is also stepping up. Dr. Carla Fry, in fact, she’s meeting with all of the different commissioners and seeing what the Department of Health can do to maybe augment funding that was lost, that was going to some of the medical services that are not for profit, what maybe the Department of Health can do to step in. So whenever we lose the funding source, immediately others start to pop up. That’s what I love about our community. It was interesting, because at our county commission meeting, we always started off with presentations and awards and recognitions. We actually recognized Baptist Health South Florida because they donated $20,000 in a sponsorship to our children’s camp program. But it was interesting, when they were up talking to us, they wanted the not for profit communities to know that they have additional funding available for grants or sponsorships that these not for profits can apply for to get some funding. So like I said, our community always steps up when there is a need.”
The commissioners also decided not to move forward in widening US 1.
Lincoln said, “The commissioners can only talk to each other about things we’re going to vote on when we’re in a commission meeting, when we’re sitting up on that dais. So it’s so much different when you’re in your own neighborhood and you chit chat with your neighbors, you can do an exchange back and forth. The only opportunity that we get is when we’re sitting up there. So several months ago, while we were all up there and we were talking, when the commissioners, I think it might have been Mayor Scholl, said, hey, while we’re at this point thinking we’re going to be building new bridges, at that point, FDOT said that they were going to be replacing the Seven Mile Bridge and the Long Key Bridge and he made the comment of, well, we ought to four lane it, if this is our opportunity to rebuild. We kind of were, like, all in agreement. Then we started talking about, well, we’re going to do that, why aren’t we looking at where we could possibly four lane different areas of the Keys to keep traffic flowing better? So that was the conversation. That’s all we get when we’re talking. So then we’re like, we asked staff, well, look into it, and so that starts that slow process of looking into it and what we found was FDOT would not even consider doing a study on the feasibility of four lanes or where it would make sense to put in four lanes, unless we changed our comp plan. Don’t we all want more knowledge? But the caveat was we would then be relinquishing control, and then if FDOT wanted to add the four lanes, we’d have no say in it. I think that’s what kind of gave everyone a big pause. But we’d still given like all of our head nods on, yeah, let’s look into it. But looking into something and then changing your comp plan are two different things, and this was our opportunity. We were gathering our information. It was so interesting, because, as I said on the dais, and I led the conversation off, I wanted to be the first to speak on this to let the other Commissioners know what my feelings were, because they were strong, in that in meeting with people in my district that no one wanted four lanes. The business owners did not want four lanes. The residents didn’t want the four lanes. My district is all of the lower Keys and the most affected by four lanes would have been in my district, and so I had to lead off the conversation by telling everyone, I’m not going to support this, and all the other Commissioners must have been hearing from the same people I was hearing from on no, this isn’t a good idea, and it was refreshing to hear from people who I normally don’t hear from, who just wanted to give me a call on a Sunday and chat with me about it. So I got the perspective of a lot of different people, and was very confident in my ability to stand with the community and say, no, this one, even though it might be great, it’s not going to be doable and what we really are pressuring FDOT to do is complete that study on ferries, a ferry from Miami to Key West and that would jump from island to island. That would take traffic off the road, and also getting FDOT to put in the turn lanes where they make sense, and to do what they can do that way without impacting a four lane construction project, which, again, would probably not even take place for 10 to 15 years from now.”