Tax Watch website is down

Went to read the new Florida Tax Watch report and found their website is down. Crashed by the thousands of Escambia residents wanting to pore over the report? Kinda doubtful, but we can hope... Hopefully the website will be back up shortly.

Florida Tax Watch Report is up

Florida Tax Watch's report on Improving Transparency and Accountability in Escambia County Government (.pdf warning) is up on the Tax Watch website.

It looks to be about 40 pages long, so I'll have to wait until this weekend to be able to read it, but Rick Outzen notes on his blog that the report "finds that revenue and spending increases since 2000 are 'unsustainable.'" Not shocking.

Good Ideas Abound (not so much here, tho)

Poking around the Florida Tax Watch website looking for the still-elusive report on its analysis of Escambia County's tax and spending practices (I'm equally giddy and apprehensive about the results of that report), I came across their "Notable Practices" report (.pdf warning), which seems like a great resource.

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks like a collection of really good ideas that it would make sense for us to consider here.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there is only one "notable practice" from the Pensacola/Escambia County area, involving "urban infilling," which is described in the report as

us[ing] an urban infill implementation grant and funds from other programs to acquire 12 lots, construct seven homes, and pay for 1,700 overtime hours that were worked by police officers patrolling the urban infill and redevelopment area.

The report states that "[t]hese activities helped encourage private developers to build housing in this area." I'm not sure what project this refers to, but it sounds neato.

Maybe some of our local nabobs should read through some of the ideas coming from other areas in the state? Maybe? Anyone? Bueller?

Hello, TaxWatch? Hi, it's me, Patrick...

I've been sort of half-heartedly following the budgeting process for Escambia County (see Rick Outzen's blog items about the budget here). What I'm really eager to see is this year's TaxWatch report on Escambia County, but for some reason it's been delayed.

Back on February 4th, Florida Tax Watch indicated in a press release (.pdf warning) that the report would be out at the end of March. I sent an e-mail recently, inquiring about the status of the report, and received a reply from Kaye Kendrick, Senior VP for Research, stating that they are "still continuing to work out a few details," and that, although there is no official release date, I should "check back with [TaxWatch] during the second week of June."

Hopefully it will come in time to be considered in the budgeting process.