The collective vs. individual

Elected officials typically gravitate to decisions favoring the collective. But in the case of underground utility lines, each neighborhood should have a choice.

By Matt Walsh
| 3:14 p.m. November 18, 2015

Longboat Key
Opinion

This is the debate that confronts every elected official: the collective versus the individual.

Which is more important? Which takes precedence?

Of course, you know the answer. The right answer is the individual. But invariably, since after the Civil War, the elected let altruism get the better of themselves. They see themselves representing the collective town, the collective county, the collective state. One for all.

Lessons for Obama: His strategy versus that of Sun Tzu

Obama:

“There will be setbacks, and there will be successes. The terrible events in Paris were obviously a terrible and sickening setback.

“There will be an intensification of the strategy that we’ve put forward, but the strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work.

“It will take time.”

Sun Tzu:

Waging War

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull, and their ardor will be damped.

3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been been associated with long delays.

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war who can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.

10. In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Barack Obama is too arrogant and intractable to be teachable or to admit that he is wrong. But for the sake of Americans and the world, he could use a transfusion of the wisdom of Sun Tzu and “The Art of War.” — MW

Certainly not all for the one, for the individual.

So it came as little surprise that the Longboat Key Town Commission members unanimously endorsed last week collectivism and redistribution over the individual.

As the town moves toward a second referendum to fund the conversion of overhead utility lines to underground lines, the commissioners instructed town staff to try to craft a referendum that would require all Longboat Key property owners to pay for everyone’s underground utility lines — even if they already have paid for their own underground lines.

They appear to be favoring another setup like the town’s beach taxing districts. As most property owners know, in 1992, voters narrowly passed a charter amendment that requires residential property owners on the west side of Gulf of Mexico Drive and all commercial property owners to pay 80% of all beach maintenance costs and those on the bay side of Gulf of Mexico Drive to pay 20%.

The thinking at the time of that vote was that everyone’s property values benefit from the beach, so everyone should pay for beach renourishment.

That same thinking is now driving commissioners to try to devise a referendum that shares the cost collectively of underground utility lines in every neighborhood.

It’s a strategy destined for failure and defeat at the polls.

Imagine this: When the Bay Isles Association decided to relandscape Bay Isles Parkway recently, imagine the reaction if it had taxed all Longboat property owners for the cost of the improvements. But after all, won’t all Longboat residents benefit from the improved looks of one of the town’s busiest and most important streets?

Do it again — at 65

Darn. Everyone who attended Saturday evening’s 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the town of Longboat Key was looking forward to the main attraction — the fireworks display.

But it wasn’t to be. Too windy.

A disappointment, yes. But even if the fireworks had gone on, the real highlight of the celebration still would have been the joy that came from Longboaters connecting and reconnecting with one another.

Everyone’s spirits were high. You could feel a strong sense of pride hovering over the grassy outfield at Bayfront Park — people proud, happy and grateful to live in paradise.

Let’s not wait another 10 years to celebrate. Hey, at 65, let’s party again. By then, the town will be a true Longboater: qualified for Social Security and Medicare.

Thanks to all of the sponsors and all who came — all who make Longboat Longboat.

Or what do you think Country Club Shores, Gulf Shore or Bay Isles residents would say if Longbeach Village residents taxed them to help fund a trapper to round up the Village’s peacocks? After all, wouldn’t the collective value of Longboat properties improve if the peacocks were eradicated?

Or what if Country Club Shores residents decide they want extra security on their canals and want to install 24/7 surveillance cameras? Should Village residents be taxed to pay for them? Why not? The cameras would serve to deter crime, improving the overall safety of the Key.

In each of these instances, you can be sure there would be intense protests against making everyone pay for these localized improvements.

So it should be with making everyone — including property owners who already have paid for underground lines — pay for underground power lines in each neighborhood. There should be protests; it’s not the way to go.

Unlike police and fire service or street maintenance, the distribution of electricity is not a town government responsibility. It is not an altruistic venture requiring some Longboaters to support others. Villagers are not responsible for the electrical well-being of Country Club Shores residents and vice versa.

In fact, the distribution of electricity is a contractual arrangement between individuals and a private-sector electric company. Individuals buy and use however much electricity they want.

Likewise, that arrangement extends to how each property owner wants his power delivered — via above-ground wires or below-ground wires. That’s an arrangement between the power company and the individual, or the power company and each neighborhood grid.

Some town commissioners don’t like the idea of every neighborhood acting on its own behalf. They fear the cost of converting will scare off some neighborhoods and result in some streets and neighborhoods with above-ground wires and some with underground wires. But that condition already exists on Longboat today.

What’s more, when you canvass the Key, you can see some neighborhoods and developments where underground lines may not make practical or economic sense — e.g. Twin Shores, Gulf Shore or St. Judes Drive.

When developers and property owners created every neighborhood on the Key, they made choices — on lot sizes, street widths, curbs, sidwalks and utility lines. That’s the American way — freedom to choose, individual preferences. And that’s why Longboat Key has a wide variety of neighborhood styles.

From a practical standpoint, allowing each neighborhood to set up its own taxing district for underground utility lines is and will be complex. But that is the right and fair way to go for every Longboater. Don’t force some to subsidize others. Don’t force some to pay who can’t afford or don’t want the added cost of underground lines. Every neighborhood should make its own individual choice.