Evening of Change

The preview event Friday night of Government Gone Wild, titled "An Evening of Change" at Silverthorn was filled to capacity with business owners who had been beckoned there by the Hernando County Chamber of Commerce, along with the chairwoman of the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee, via a flurry of emails sent out early last week. Upon entering the facility, the business owners were met with a directional sign that said, "Lower Hernando Taxes" this way. As you may recall, the organizer of this group being promoted with Internet registration.

Len Tria, the liaison for the Hernando County Chamber of Commerce, the Hernando Realtors Association and the Hernando Builder's Association, served as master of ceremonies to introduce Blaise Ingoglia who gave a Power Point presentation using figures from the county budget. Mr. Ingoglia used an example, titled Government 101, and then cherry-picked figures from the county budget for his presentation. Some of these figures were used out of context to intensify the drama of his presentation, like the average wage of a Hernando County employee. Mr. Ingoglia cited as "the average earning of a government worker to be $46,843 and then later stated this figure to be $40,467 in his presentation which included the salaries of the department heads. This analogy did not seem quite fair to lump in the county administrator's salary of $131,000 with the blue collar workers averaging $10 to $12 dollars per hour.

Examples of "large profits" were cited by Mr. Ingoglia in the Utilities and Development Department. The profits that he spoke about were actually the reserve accounts for these departments. The speaker did not go into detail about these self-sufficient, operational budgets of the Utilities and Development Department which are classified as Enterprise Funds that do not use any Ad Valorem revenue. Mr. Ingoglia should have phoned the director of the development department to get a clear understanding on how this department manages its budget. Grant Tolbert was able to continue operations at the same level, with minimal lay-offs in his department, even in the downturn in building permits because of good management practices.

The whopping $43.7 million in profit Mr. Ingogolia spoke of for the Utilities Department is another example of the "drama factor" built into this presentation. The $43.7 million for the Utilities Department is in their reserve accounts, some of which will be used to complete their long term capital improvements. A portion of this $43.7 million figure is necessary to be in secured accounts to insure the continued A+ bond rating for their bonding projects. This A+ bonding rate insures Hernando County receives the best available interest on their long term bonds.

This seminar had an undercurrent that "local government" was the whipping post for the all business down turn in this county. Mr. Ingoglia stated in his seminar that Hernando County business associations are losing memberships due to the hard economic times. He also stated that companies are going out of business, or laying people off, with his perception that problems lie at the doorstep of Hernando County government. A basic understanding of business principals would clear up any misconception that local government had that much authority over local business. Market trends, based on supply and demand, drive the economy for private business, not the other way around with the perception of local government in the driver seat.

This "Evening of Change" could have been the opportunity of a life time to perk up the appetite of the apathetic business owners in Hernando County if more research had been done using down-to-earth facts about the numerous excesses in Hernando County government's budget instead of the skewed analysis of this presentation. Shame on the Hernando County Chamber of Commerce director for not thoroughly reviewing this presentation before calling out businesses for a seminar that only appeared to be a pep rally to incite the masses for the September 13th Hernando County budget hearing.