Largo Budget Progress Awaits Key Action by County Boardby Leo Coughlin LARGO - Largo's budget for fiscal year 2008 is in a state of suspended animation, pending action by the County Commission September 4 before Largo commissioners can define what cuts, if any, they will make in spending. Commissioner Gigi Arntzen, who had a sharp pencil, was ready to share some suggested cuts with her colleagues at last week's work session meeting, but was squelched by the smugness of Mayor Pat Gerard, who through a fog of giggles seemed to think that largesse was going to come from the county. Of course, there is fat in the initial budget as presented; there always is. One hopes that the commission will forever scrub the foolish expenditure of $60,000 for a Martin Luther King memorial. And, of course, the recreation and arts budget should be an obvious target for trimming. Where is it written that the City of Largo needs to be in the entertainment business? One obvious expenditure that is bleeding the city white is the $10,000 a week (A WEEK!) that is dribbled away on the Cultural Center. For what? citizens ask. One amusing sidelight of the August 14 workshop meeting, where the commission heard from various departments and also from the Finance Advisory Board which is the equivalent of having an invisible person show up and submit a blank sheet of paper, was the pronouncement from Commissioner Rodney Woods that the commission needed to find a way to give Largonians all the services and cut taxes, too. He's from Louisiana, so maybe he derives special powers from examining chicken bones and the entrails of a porker. The magic to issue from county action stems from a contract on medical emergency services. So you get the picture - county commissioners could pull Largo's fat out of the fire. But that decision, first scheduled for the day before yesterday, is now going to take place a week from next Tuesday, two weeks later than had been expected. Of course, as one experience hand pointed out, any sensible approach in Largo would have been to go ahead with a budget, make cuts if necessary and then, if the county comes through (as it is expected to do) reconcile things then. But we are talking about amateurs here as anyone present at Largo commission meetings or tuning in on Channel 15 knows. A great sidelight of the show is the mayor's inappropriate giggling and body language (what a story that tells!). If things with the county go as Largo officials hope (word is that they have been using their kneeling pads full-time), Largo would get almost $3.5 million which is almost a million dollars (actually $800,000) according to Henry Schubert, assistant city manager. The good news is that there appears to be a green light on the county coming through. But the verdict won't be in for 12 days so there will be come collective breath holding. In the meantime, the Largo budget is not on its proper time track and the clock is running. The commission has already used its super-majority power to assess a millage rate that exceeds the Legislature's dictum to reduce tax revenue by 9 percent. One suggestion for cutting expenses was to have the mayor (who currently gets $18,931) and the commissioners (who get $12,621) do without a 4 percent raise. Most observers think that is not a good idea. Serving on the commission takes a lot of work in most cases (there is one notable and glaring exception) and if anything commission members are underpaid. Another move was to cut the $17,500 earmarked for travel in half. An example of that boondoggle spending is the $3,000-plus Gerard and Woods will spend for a National League of Cities extravaganza in New Orleans, a city, some believe, with dens of iniquity that were smitten by the hand of God by way of a storm called Katrina.
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