How state affects city

Palm Coast Observer
News

Seeing Florida’s Legislative session through Palm Coast eyes — a conversation with the mayor.

Mayor Jon Netts will tell you there are no unimportant bills in the 2011 session of the Florida Legislature. As far as the city of Palm Coast is concerned, however, there are a few that stand out among the crowd.

“If you’re talking about funding, you’re wasting your time,” Netts said. “The state is facing a (massive) shortfall.” Still, the mayor is traveling this week, to Tallahassee, on Palm Coast’s behalf to lobby for that very thing.

He explained legislation that could most affect Palm Coast in the state’s current session.

Regulation of pill mills
“The ability of Palm Coast to protect its citizens from illegal drug trafficking is dependent on the state Legislature taking action,” said Netts, who believes the unregulated distribution of prescription drugs, such as Vicodin and Oxycodone, is a larger problem than the state thinks.

According to Netts, the greatest numbers of so-called pill mills are in South Florida, but there’s a trickle effect. People might purchase a couple hundred pills at one pain clinic, he said, then walk down the street and do the same at another. Then they market their loot to the rest of the state.

“We need to stop this at its source,” said Netts. That’s a sentiment backed by the passing of Sen. Mike Fasano’s recent pill mill legislation, which enhances penalties for mill operators and holds the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to a higher standard. Senate Bill 818 is now being heard by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

To avoid paper trails, pill mills are typically cash-only businesses, Netts explained — that’s why the state should enforce a database tracking method.

“The state has to provide that basic fundamental tool to allow law enforcement to check out (possible) pill mills,” Netts said. “You need to check how many times (citizen X) fills out a prescription, and conversely, how many times Dr. X writes a prescription.

“It only takes a few rotten apples,” Netts said. “ … We need to be able to protect our citizens.”

No unfunded mandates
“You can go to any county in the state, any city in the state, and you’ll hear the same mantra: no unfunded mandates,” Netts said.

Whenever the state creates new requirements for local governments, the cost of local government increases, according to Netts. But unless funding also increases, other services will suffer.

“Tallahassee tells local governments they can’t raise taxes, even though they raise standards,” he said. “It’s unreasonable to pass legislation that requires (us) to do more, and at the same time say, ‘We’re not going to allow you to fund it.’”

In tough economic times, he added, there is no excess in the budget to trim.

“Tallahassee says, in essence, ‘Tighten your belts.’ Well, tell me where?”Netts said.

Explore water desalination
If Scott is to succeed in strengthening Florida’s economy, Netts said, then certain resources are necessary — namely, water.

In Tallahassee, Netts will seek funding to create onshore ocean water desalination plants.

“If you can believe all of the experts,” Netts said, “everybody who does any kind of long-range planning suggests that … over the next 50 years (Flagler County) will experience growth of 1.5 million new residents and 700,000 new jobs.”

According to Netts, ITT originally projected Palm Coast as being able support 250,000 people — and at the time, the city deemed it had a sustainable amount of water to do so. Currently, there are fewer than 100,000 Palm Coast residents, and because of regulation changes, the state says supplies are running low.

“Water management organizations are saying we can’t grow any more if we don’t get any more,” Netts said.

Years ago, he added, after an agricultural assembly projected Palm Coast as running out of water by 2011, Flagler County and many of its neighbors began conducting desalination studies and cost analyses. After the economy fell, however, most participating counties bailed out.

“If the state wants to grow … then we better be prepared to accept that growth — and that means infrastructure, and that means water,” Netts said.

“If projected growth occurs,” he continued, “we go into crisis mode. And I guarantee you, government in crisis is more expensive than government out of crisis … So either you believe in the future of this region, and you plan for it, or you don’t believe it.”

Enforcement of bed tax
It may not be getting a lot of attention in Tallahassee, Netts said, but the bed tax issue is an important one.

Netts claimed that online travel sites such as Orbitz.com have not been paying their fair share of the bed tax, which is a state levy on hotel-room reservations.

Instead of being taxed based on the price of individual rooms, he continued, a lot of these online middle-men are either only being taxed on the wholesale rates at which they purchased rooms from hotel companies, or not being taxed at all. Some of them even pocket the tax they charge to customers without paying the state any portion of it.

“It just seems fair that everybody ought to pay the same level of taxation for the same level of service,” Netts said. “… Florida has long had a large part of its industry based on tourism … When you don’t enjoy the full collection of (those taxes), you limit your ability to extend yourself.

“It’s a loophole that seems to me would be a good idea to close,” Netts said.

Regional councils
Mayor Netts is all for Gov. Rick Scott’s ambition to cut state spending. But when it comes to scaling down the role of regional councils in state and city planning to do so, he isn’t so on board.

According to Netts, regional councils exist to offer every municipality a voice. By law, all cities and counties must submit a comprehensive land and development plan to Florida’s Department of Community Affairs, which serves as an overseer to any and all development projects.

“The function is to make sure we’re not being disruptive to the region,” Netts said, “working contrary to public interest … Fine.” But along with Gov. Scott’s proposal to reduce the DCA would be an action to remove regional councils from the equation.

“You go from, what I would argue, is an arguably way-too-restrictive plan … into one that is too laissez faire … If you take (regional councils) away, then there’s less attention to regional issues” — and that could lead to disjointed development.

“We’ve got to stop thinking parochially,” Nets continued. “… You cannot just keep allowing growth to occur in an uncontrolled fashion.”

Netts will propose in Tallahassee a diminished role for the DCA, while expanding the role of regional councils.

Florida’s current regional councils budget is $2.5 million.