Outside of the Monroe County Sheriff, most county residents don’t know what commissioners annually spend hundred of millions of tax dollars on:
- Are commissioners addressing real citizen problems like the dangerous and always jammed US1?
- Are they stopping large housing developments that just compound traffic problems?
- Are they quashing large commercial projects like an unwanted monster Publix in Tavernier?
- Are slowing the destruction of the heritage and beauty of the Keys?
- Are commissioners addressing small, fixable neighborhood problems or are they only interested in the mega million/billion dollar projects?
Commissioners are expanding existing bureaucracies and creating new ones like the Sustainability Department and a Department of Transportation with only one employee so far, a high paid director. The boundless growth of Monroe County government spending over the last decade has led to ever increasing power for county commissioners and bureaucrats and a diminished voice for county
taxpayers.
More money does not create better government. Here’s a recent headline in the local papers: “State Attorney Seeks Grand Jury on Tourist Development Council.” The TDC spends $150 million annually to put “more heads in beds,” while the actual results are “more cars on US1,” and perhaps indictments by the Grand Jury.
County Commissioners never propose downsizing county government. Everything is big projects, big money and more bureaucrats to administer them. There’s no discussion of lower taxes, elimination of unnecessary programs, or single member districts that would make commissioners more responsive to their local communities.
Trying to turn left onto US 1 tells you all you need to know about county priorities.