Give taxpayers their money back

It’s always the newcomers who challenge the status quo — only to have the veterans put them in their place.

Take the case of Joel Schleicher, Sarasota-Charlotte’s new representative on the Southwest Florida Water Management District Board of Governors. 

At the board’s July meeting, the district’s investment adviser reported the status of the district’s investment funds. Good news: He told the board it had $493 million in reserves, and that it’s investment returns were improving, averaging 1.17% annual returns. This increase in returns, he reported, would contribute at least more than $4 million more to the district’s investment balances.

For Schleicher, that didn’t sound all that swell, prompting him to comment: “We’re sitting on nearly a half a billion dollars … We’re getting a return, which might be good, of 1.17%, which is lower than the inflation rate. So we’re losing purchasing power every day that we’re sitting on these dollars. 

“At some point in time, maybe during the upcoming budgeting process, we have to significantly look at the amount of dollars that we’re sitting on … and consider giving back those dollars to taxpayers because it is their money, and it’s earning a substandard rate relative to inflation.

“… I would also point out that … many of us business people  would never sit on this amount of money in our own business. So I’m not sure why we’re doing this if we’re running this district as a business, which we should …”

For the next 10 minutes, three veteran board members politely schooled Schleicher on why the district needed to sit on so much cash. 

But there was another board member, Mark Taylor, also among the newer members, who echoed Schleicher’s concern. Taylor urged the board to examine at its August meeting why it needed to hold on to so much cash. In fact, he told board members to bring their “pajamas and energy drinks” because he, too, wanted to know why the district holds on to so much of a taxpayers’ money.