County should fix school budget gap
I think that with the Hernando County Commission's failed attempt to tie its half-cent sales tax to the school district's half-cent sales tax renewal on the last ballot, over the objections of the school district, the county should be responsible for closing the school district's budget gap.
The commission realized that their half-cent sales tax would not be approved. So, in effect, they sank the school tax renewal. Now the commission is whining about the costs of maintaining older vehicles, and they want to replace them with new vehicles. I have a solution: Cut the vehicles and do without. The schools have to chop their budget; the commission should chop its own budget, plus give money to the schools.
The hard choice the commission doesn't want to face is to raise taxes. You can't spend money if you don't raise taxes. Then, who do you raise taxes on? The voters, or the people with money?
William Gilbert, Weeki Wachee