Melbourne Area Blog

With the upcoming vote for property tax reform, many that oppose it are claiming that the county will have to cut back on basic services such as fire, rescue, police and education. I agree that anything that effects those basic services should be of concern.

However, we should also look at some facts that pertain to the county budget.

Brevard County has not had a balanced budget since the year 2000. Each year, by law, the county can increase the budget a maximum of 10% of the previous year's budget. This has been done for several years in a row. Even in the past two years when the real estate market was slowing down and it was obvious that revenue would be down.

Florida Today wrote a very enlightening article on county spending, noting that expenditures were up40%  in the past 5 years. Twenty departments have at least DOUBLED their spending in the past five years.

Click on the link to view the article:

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/WATCHDOG/705080346/-1/watchdog01