Survey Participants Tell Pasco To Raise Taxes, Cut Services

Pare down Pasco County’s cooperative extension program. Make cuts to animal services. Trim public transportation.

These are the top suggestions Pasco County residents offered when asked in an online survey what services should be shaved from the county's fiscal year 2011-12 budget. 

More than 1,310 Pasco County residents completed the online survey, which was made available April 7 –May 8. Another 273 residents gave their opinions on county issues in town hall-style stakeholder meetings in New Port Richey or Dade City.

 The county faces a budget deficit projected to reach $5.6 million. The survey gave residents the chance to express what services were a priority, what services could be cut and how the county could fill its budget hole.

On May 19, when the commissioners discussed the survey results, commissioners chose to ask department heads to cut their spending plans by 4.5 percent.

The decision comes at a time when fewer Pasco residents are feeling excellent or good about the quality of life in their county and the county’s economic development.  The survey shows a little more than 70 percent of respondents said they felt good or excellent about the quality of life in Pasco in 2009, the first year the survey was offered. This year, about 60 percent of respondents felt that way.

How do residents suggest plugging the deficit? About 55 percent who participated in the survey and stakeholder meetings said the best way to address the deficit was to raise taxes.

Sixty percent of respondents to the online survey support or strongly support cutting cooperative extension services, which provide horticultural and agricultural assistance and other services via a partnership between county commissioners, the University of Florida and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Thirty percent of respondents say they would use the cooperative extension once a year if they had to pay for them.

More than 47 percent of respondents supported or strongly supported cutting animal services, which include operating shelters, enforcing county ordinances and offering humane traps.

More than 46 percent of respondents strongly supported or supported cutting public transportation.

Commissioner Pat Mulieri was taken aback by the news. She said she hears the opposite in her district, where there is no Pasco County Public Transportation bus route.

“In Central Pasco,” she said. “That’s all we hear: We want more public transportation.”

Here is a breakdown of the survey findings:

• Respondents who felt good or excellent about the county’s  economic development dropped from 30 percent in 2009 to 20 percent in 2011
• 43 percent of respondents said they would cut human and social services. 42 percent said they would cut library services.
• More than 31 percent of survey respondents and more than 35 percent of participants in stakeholder meetings said raising taxes was the best way to address the budget deficient
• Fewer respondents than in 2009 felt good or excellent about the county’s overall image or reputation or the direction it is taking, their neighborhoods as a lace to live 
• Fewer respondents than in 2010 felt good or excellent about the overall impression of the county or the values of services provided for their tax dollars
• More than 10 percent fewer respondents than in 2009 felt that Pasco was a good or excellent place to retire. Seventy percent of respondents felt good or excellent about it in 2009. About 55 percent feel good or excellent about it now.
• Respondents who felt excellent or good about Pasco Sheriff’s Office stayed at 70 percent  or above between 2009 and 2011.
• Respondents who felt excellent or good about fire, emergency services and fire prevention services stayed about the same since 2009, in the 70-80 percent ranges.
• The highest priority for people who completed the online survey or participated in stakeholder meetings was the overall quality of county services.
• 28 percent of survey respondents and 24 percent of people who responded in stake holder meetings placed fiscal responsibility as a priority.

For more results, visit the county's website at pascocountyfl.net.