Tax Collector Fasano presents $3.6 million check

51:53Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Thank you very much for giving me this time to come before you. Such a joy to come to you in October. Nice weather out there and uh Today I bring you some good news and I also ask you for a for an ask if you will. Good news, excellent. But I think we're all on the same

52:14page already. Yeah.

52:16As you know every year, uh I try and Actually my staff tries very hard to Do a good job by providing services to our customers. Uh we average between fifty and sixty thousand customers per month in our five offices. We are in the process of uh purchasing some new property there in the uh in the Angeline community. to build another office. Uh so we can accommodate the growth that we have here in Pasco. Um Like many of you, you've lived here most of your life,

52:46if not all of it. I've been here fifty-two years and we've seen that growth. Uh with growth of course comes need this the needed services. I want to commend you all for doing a great job and uh for making our county second to none in the state of Florida and I thank you for that. So today uh uh you know when we when we do our budget every year we uh Uh we try and come up with a figure of what we think we're gonna be able to save and give back to you. Give back to our CDDs and other taxing entities that we have

53:16on our tax notices each year. So uh we had proposed uh that we'd give you back about $2.4 million. Uh we're giving you back today $3.6 million. And so um

53:41In the buckets, the bells go off. Um and so uh it's nice to that that we're bringing you money and your your bell's going off here and I thank you for that.

53:49I didn't know we had a bell. You gonna ring my bell?

53:52So in fact, The last 10 years, uh, we've been successful in giving you back $24 million, $84,000. $24 million. And um But today I come for you with an ask. Uh uh I think what you've done is uh uh great for our county, uh fiscally responsible, trying to help our taxpayers. I think what you've done just now. and and going to do to help our seniors. We have so many seniors in this community that call us.

54:23And that they can't pay their bill. Uh they hear that their neighbor in another county getting that additional fifty thousand dollar homestead is it available for me? I tell them it will be one day. We've got a commission that's gonna work h diligently for you, making sure you get it. And now they're gonna get it in in a couple of years.

54:42One of the other things that that I cherish as a constitutional officer is the great relationship I have With our other constitutional officers, with our clerk of the court, with our sheriff. uh with our property appraiser, with our uh uh supervisor election, and you can even include our superintendent of schools, although not a constitutional officer, Kurt Browning. Each of them of course have to put a budget together and rely on what they thought they were going to get and hope they were going to get based on uh what they need.

55:13We have a sheriff that's trying to make certain that protects our community as it grows. Public safety is should always be number one. We have a supervisor election that does provide the best the best service when it comes time for elections. You know, when when the elections come in at night, where does everybody look, the first one, Pasco County, to see what direction Florida is going? There used to be a saying, Jeb Bush, you say, uh, where Pasco goes, the rest of the nation goes on on a night that it was being elected for a president of the United

55:43States. Um we have a clerk of the court, uh uh like like the tax collectors see thousands of people each month. Um You know, since we're giving you over a million dollars more than we anticipated, we work diligent to do that. I would ask that you would consider right now, right now. Uh to make those three constitutional officers whole. Um I know that you had to take dollars away from them as you did with your budget, but here's some extra dollars now that

56:13you didn't expect to make sure that the sheriff can hire those three additional deputies to make uh making sort certain that our community is safe. That Brian Crawley can put those dollars back to what he expected to have in the budget originally to make sure that he can provide the best service as next year comes about with so many elections coming up. And our clerk, who's already hurting for dollars, not only that, this office, the clerk's office, but throughout the state. can make certain that uh she has those dollars to give the best service that she's

56:43always provided in the past. So I present this check to you with an ask and hopefully it may be with a with a motion. And a second. Uh to use some of these dollars to make those uh those constitutional officers wholes as you did yourselves. So with here I'll present the clerk with the check and also some documents. And hopefully before I go back to the po podium I'll hear a motion.

57:07I would I would make that motion to um accept the check and to use this as a uh payment to cover the

57:18all of our losses. Yeah. And the rollback. Okay.

57:21Yeah I I've happily accepted Second it and uh thank you Senator for being a fiscal watchdog and bringing bringing some good news to us today. Pleasure. And uh proud to ring the bell in your honor today. Thank you very much. So second.

57:35Thank you. Um so I have a motion and a second uh roll call vote.

57:41District One, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.

57:50Aye.

57:50District five, Chairman Mariano.

57:52Okay, motion passes. Bless you all. Thank you very much. Thank you for all you do. Yes, sir.

57:57Mr. Chairman Mariano.

58:01May I say something? Yes. Um Senator Fasano, I w just wanted to say um um I guess we have uh another constitutional here, but on behalf of the constitutionals, thank you for putting that forward. I I I greatly appreciate it. We will be able to be able to put that to good use to serve the the the citizens of Pasco. I greatly appreciate it. And I'm

58:19welcome. I want

58:20to thank the Senate. I will buy you lunch. My treat.

58:29Yeah, I think I'll take the

58:29whole

58:30board out. Thank you too to the Board of County Commissioners.

58:35Okay, we got oh we got next one. And now is it uh Lil Crownie? Yeah.

58:47Is it forty forty nine?

58:51Yeah.