Email to the Largo Mayor and CommissionersMs. Secretary, please forward this letter to Director Joan Byrne and the Mayor and Commission: CHANGE is coming to Largo! The days of ever increasing home values and sales tax revenue are now history. Largo must adapt to this new reality. Politicians who fail to realize this are doomed to failure. Our elected officials should direct staff to immediately draw up contingency plans to match true revenue with actual spending. The skyrocketing expenditures and declining revenues cannot be sustained. The city would be well advised to resurrect the concept of ZERO Based budgeting. A good place to start would be your Play Magazine, go thru line by line, program by program and determine which programs should be retained and which should be eliminated. To provide some bullet points as example. Turn to page 22 of Play Magazine. Why are Largo tax dollars used to transport gamblers to the Hard Rock Cafe? The Hard Rock Cafe offers the same service without using tax dollars. Private travel agencies arrange tours and cruises without using tax money. Why is the City of Largo competing with private enterprise? Nor should we be in the Restaurant business. Largo's budget for the Recreation & Parks has mushroomed from $9.4 Million in 2005 to $15.1 Million in 2010, plus the new Community Center of $10.3, bringing it to a total of $25.4 Million. (Not including the finance charge of $1.7 Million) The anticipated revenue return of 3.28 Million is less that 13% of the expenditure and maybe grossly optimistic. I think it is time to drop all programs that don't produce of return of a least 50%. If people truly want these programs they will pay for them. They will in effect vote with their $. By comparison the City of Seminole spends a small fraction (1.7 million on Recreation & Parks) of what the City of Largo spends. Could it be that they have a more fiscally responsible commission that was able to balance their budget with a much lower mileage of 2.47 no increase in taxes and much lower user fees? One more point. Why is the Largo Library using tax dollars to compete with Netflix, Blockbuster or DVD rentals? I have no objection to the library loaning DVD's of instructional or educational subjects.
Sincerely,
Your e-mail has been received and is being forwarded to the Mayor and Commission and Ms. Byrne.
Shirley Frick
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