County asked to cut spending

By John Labriola - After five and a half hours of discussion on the county budget, Citrus County Commissioners last week voted to set the maximum tax millages for 2025-26 at the current year's rates for each of the county’s various departments. 

That means tax rates can be lowered at either of the commission’s two September budget hearings, but they can’t be increased. However, because property values rose this year, keeping millage rates the same will mean raising residents’ taxes. 

The commission directed staff to increase road resurfacing funding, which was cut by several million dollars in the proposed budget from the current year despite being many years behind schedule, and to fund the county’s $1.3 million match for a federal COPS grant requested by Sheriff David Vincent to add 20 more deputies. Commissioners asked county department heads to reduce their budgets across the board so the savings can be reinvested in road resurfacing and new deputies rather than in a tax rate cut. 

Commissioner Diana Finegan agreed funding in those areas should be increased but said it was time to roll back the library system's millage rate, since library funds are separate and can't be reinvested in other areas. The rollback rate is the millage that would keep the amount of taxes collected for the system the same. 

The proposed library budget of nearly $5.6 million is more than $1 million higher than what was actually spent last year, Finegan said.

"I just don't see how from last year actual to now that I can tell the taxpayers that it's OK for us to get another over 1 million dollars from them," Finegan said. "So for this library budget, I would want to roll this millage back." 

The commission chamber was mostly empty of regular citizens, but most of those who did show up wanted to speak about the library budget, which includes a $322,570 line item to purchase 1,300 books a month for the library system while removing an equal number of books every month to make room for them.

Mike O'Connell of Floral City said that's a waste of money and asked commissioners to cut that spending.

"We're asking the county to sacrifice. The taxpayers have been sacrificing for years. The burden has been going on citizens constantly, nonstop, and we have to draw a line," O'Connell said.

Last year, O'Connell challenged the book "Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)," an LGBT novel that was shelved in the teen section. The book was removed from circulation after Finegan obtained excerpts of the novel and shared them with other commissioners, who agreed the book was pornographic. 

But not reducing book purchases means other pornographic materials could slip into the system unvetted.

The proposed library budget also includes a $3,300 annual subscription to the magazine BookPage. A woke monthly publication with multiple copies available at each library, BookPage specializes in recommending books with LGBT, DEI, CRT and witchcraft themes.

"It's California values, it's not Citrus County values. It's offensive, actually, to read it," O'Connell said.

The Library Advisory Board will make its own recommendations on the library budget after listening to residents at its next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 9 a.m. in Room 166 of the Lecanto Government Building, 3600 W Sovereign Path, Lecanto, FL 34461.