Our View

What a dilemma.

Once again, we find ourselves empathizing and sympathizing with Longboat Key town commissioners over another difficult decision — beach renourishment.

In the end, they shifted last week to a position that makes sense for the time and circumstances — a $16 million bond-issue question that will be placed on the town’s March election ballot.

This was one of those instances when the right answer just didn’t pop out of the Jack-in-the-box.

The fact commissioners rejected Town Manager Bruce St. Denis’ scenario for a beachwide
renourishment and addressing the north-end erosion in two bond issues totaling about $40 million should not suggest St. Denis’ thinking was flawed.

If voters had the luxury of hearing St. Denis’ arguments, they could have been persuaded. We’ll give him this: He is as much of an expert on beach erosion as any town manager in Florida.

Unfortunately, the fact he was talking about bond issues totaling $40 million — twice the cost of the last total renourishment — sent alarms to commissioners and residents alike. The high dollar amounts caused commissioners and residents to say what you would expect: There must be a cheaper, better, more efficient way.

Add to that a feeling of discomfort among many Town Hall watchers that St. Denis has relied too long and too much on one beach engineering firm, Coastal Planning & Engineering Inc.

That set the stage for a lot of second-guessing among commissioners and residents about the wisdom of going forward with two bond questions totaling $40 million. Commissioners wanted second opinions.
St. Denis complied. He brought in two of the leading experts in Florida on beach erosion — professor Robert Dean from the University of Florida, the dean of beach erosion knowledge; and Paden Woodruff, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection official who has monitored beach erosion projects in the state for more than 20 years. Few people could be more expert than they.

Their recommendation? Keep doing what Longboat Key has been doing, which is renourish every seven to eight years and continue to address the Key’s hotspots. Exactly what St. Denis had recommended before their visit.

Still, as we saw, that $40 million price tag was difficult to digest. What’s more, commissioners heard increasing objections around town that beachfront voters — who pay 80% of the renourishment tab — would reject a beachwide renourishment topping $30 million.

So the commissioners shifted in the sand. And thanks to Commissioner Phil Younger, the commission opted for a single bond question on the ballot: $16 million to address the troubled north end (roughly $7 million) and the balance to be used to pour more sand on the Key’s other hotspots.

This is not what St. Denis would do if money were no object. But it’s the approach that often suits government best — a compromise that is palatable to taxpayers.

This was a good outcome. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait several years to see whether it was indeed a wise decision. Let’s hope it will be so.

+ Make all of beach private
Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board member Brad Saivetz has an interesting proposition in his “My View” essay on the accompanying page: He suggests Longboat Key taxpayers get out of the beach renourishment business and return the maintenance of the Key’s beach back to its rightful owners — the beachfront property owners.

Let them take care of their portion of the beach however they see fit — the way they take care of their front yards.

Now that’s laissez-faire thinking!

There is merit to his idea. Perhaps it can become one of the serious topics of discussion at the Longboat Key Public Interest Committee’s public forum on the beach referendum at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, at Longoboat Island Chapel.

CORRELATION: GROWTH, JOBS AND TAXES
+ Recruit in Illinois
Instead of spending Florida taxpayers’ money on subsidizing companies with corporate welfare, Florida Gov. Rick Scott should be spending some of that money in Illinois to recruit companies to come on down and bring jobs.

You can be sure thousands of Illinois business owners are thinking about how they can escape. Not the weather, which is bad enough. No, they’re probably researching as we write this how they will be able to flee from a corporate income tax in Illinois that is slated to rise from 4.8% to 8.4% this year. That’s on top of the federal rate of 35%.

To make matters worse, the Illinois Legislature agreed last week on a plan to raise the individual Illinois income tax rate to 5.25% from 3%.

All of these increases are intended to raise more tax revenue to close Illinois’ $15 billion budget deficit.
But here’s a news flash to Illinois lawmakers: Raising taxes at these rates will have the opposite effect.
And it will induce individuals and businesses to head for the borders.

With that, it should be one of the best times ever to woo Illinois-based companies to Florida:

WHAT WE HAVE
• Great weather
• Beautiful environment
• Lowest housing prices in a decade
• Ample supply of housing
• No personal income tax
• Ample supply of labor
• A new governor and Legislature determined to make Florida’s business climate the best in the world.

WHAT ILLINOIS HAS
• Lousy weather
• Lousy sports teams
• Crooked politicians
• High taxes

This is a no-brainer. Florida’s economic development councils should be rushing to coordinate their efforts, book flights and go door to door.

Let’s get to work!

+ Truism: People vote with their feet
Economist Arthur Laffer and Wall Street Journal editorial writer Stephen Moore have long proven that states with falling tax burdens always outperform states with rising tax burdens.

More recent data bear this out as well.

The accompanying tables show the best- and worst-performing states in 2010 measured by Laffer and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on the basis of 15 criteria, which include such measurements as states’ tax rates, tax progressivity, recent tax changes, minimum wages, debt service and public employees per 1,000 population.

The right-hand table shows the fastest- and slowest-growing states in population growth rates over the past decade as measured by the Census Bureau.

It should be no surprise that six of the ALEC-Laffer worst-performing states are also among the slowest-growing states. Likewise, 11 of the 20 best-performing are among the 20 fastest-growing states in population growth rates.

Once again, you can infer and conclude the old saw that people vote with their feet. Not only do they seek to live in states with pleasant weather, they most certainly go where they keep more of what they earn and where government intervention is less intrusive in their lives.

All the more reason for Florida Gov. Rick Scott to send corporate recruiters and sales teams to Illinois.