The City of Key West put four referendums totaling $226,000,000 — almost a quarter billion dollars — on the Nov. 5 ballot. It’s asking residents for approval to issue bonds at some point in the future to pay for major capital projects, like roads and public safety buildings.
I liken bonds to the home equity line of credit I use when I have to do a big project at my house, like replacing the roof. Most of us don’t have cash on hand to pay for major capital projects. So using a line of credit, which I pay back a bit at a time, is a good way to keep my home safe and sound.
In fact, it’s a good idea to keep that credit line handy even when there’s no project on deck. It doesn’t cost me anything until I actually use it. But, man, if my roof blows off in Tropical Storm Milton, that credit line will come to the rescue.
Bonds are complicated things, but when a city needs big cash for big projects, they make as much sense as that home equity loan. Certainly bonds are a financially smarter way to finance, say, a new fire station or a bunch of road rebuilds, than trying to raise taxes.
Key West faces significant big-cost projects over the next few years, especially as it tackles solutions for roads and transportation, public safety, flooding adaptation and other weather-related hardening. We simply can’t ignore our aging 50- to 100-year-old infrastructure.
Last week, holding my nose at the astoundingly detail-free referendums, I voted “yes” on all four and took my mail ballot to the Supervisor of Elections over on Stock Island. Ranger Ed did the same (I think.) So come Nov. 5, when the counting’s done, there will be one and probably two votes for the referendums.
Key West referendums | No agenda yet for new commission
That was on Sept. 30, one day before Hometown!’s candidate forum at the Tennessee Williams Theater. I was one of four panelists who asked questions. By the time the two candidates for Key West City Commission District 6 showed a vague understanding of those referendums, what was in them and how they might be used, I’d reached the “Mary, Joseph and the Wee Donkey” stage.
When neither had knowledge of three major development projects already underway in Key West (Duval Street, Mallory Square and Bayview Park), I wanted to ask Supervisor of Elections Joyce Griffith if I could have my early voting ballot back.
And, by the by, no one from the city showed up at the forum to explain, much less advocate for, the referendums. Andy Griffiths, the near iconic Monroe County School Board member, showed up to explain the two school referendums. That’s a hard “yes” vote for both.
Since then I’ve been telling friends to vote “no” on all four Key West bond referendums. Not because we don’t need them, or because bonds aren’t a good thing, but because we don’t have a clue how this newly constituted City Commission thinks, much less what it considers its priorities for the city and the new administration. Nada. Zip.
Oh, sure, political junkies like me love to read signs and imagine raised eyebrows can signal policy. But until this new commission and new mayor — and new city manager and new pretty much everything — build a comprehensive vision for “their” Key West and then go about implementing it, none of us has an inkling what’s going to happen.
Heaven forbid, if a majority of the new commission is as vague about the bond referendums and existing projects as are the two District 6 candidates. It’s going to take months, if not years, to get everyone up to speed on any sort of intelligent, workable, collaborative future for the city.
I know it sounds like I’m picking on District 6, but the fact is, everyone else was elected without opposition or by a landslide. They didn’t face the public questioning that District 6 candidates had to. In that kind of accountability vacuum, I can only hope District 6 is an anomaly and whoever wins there was just having a bad night at the Hometown! forum. A girl can hope, right?
In the meantime, this is one time when it might be OK to vote against the four referendums. If the new commission gets its act in gear, it can always come back to us voters and ask for those bonds again. We need them. Just not like this.
Learn more
Additional referendum details from the City of Key West: The City recently created a website with additional details on the four referendums. Don’t look for much in the way of specifics. Pretty generalized info.
Read the actual wording for the bond referendums
0 Comments