The official general election ballot in Hillsborough County is topped by the (all too) familiar names of high-profile, big-budget, gubernatorial mud slingers Rick Scott and Charlie Crist. At the other end of the ballot we find the benignly low-profile, campaign-free candidates for soil and water conservation districts.
Which brings us to the candidacy of A.J. Brent, one of two S&W board candidates for Group 1. Call him A.J. Blunt. He says such boards “do not do much of anything.” And if he’s elected, his position will be that the Board “should request that Hillsborough County eliminate funding of the Board.” Next Fiscal Year’s budget recommendation is $265,510. Of that amount, says Brent, $244,211 is for “personnel services” and only $21,309 for operating expenses, which could “surely be raised through donations.”
And, yes, Board members serve without compensation. According to Brent, they can continue to meet, discuss issues and even conduct (school) contests “using private funding” as do some other S&W boards that have already relinquished their county funding.
“Soil and water districts across the country are bureaucracies in search of a mission,” says Brent. “Until they are eliminated, their funding should be withdrawn and applied to essential services or returned to taxpayers.”