ECSO RELEASES RESPONSE TO TAXWATCH SPECIAL REPORT
Pensacola, Fla — The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has released a response to a 2009 Special Taxwatch Center for Local Government Studies Report that identified potential cost reductions for the ECSO between $12.3 and $27.3 million in comparison with peer counties.
The response discounts the comparisons used in the report and also points to a number of inaccuracies.
Highlights of the material presented in the response include:
The Taxwatch Report, in comparing Escambia and Leon counties, claims that the ECSO does not provide services to City of Pensacola residents, while the Leon County Sheriff’s Office does serve the City of Tallahassee. This is an inaccuracy, as the ECSO does provide services within the city. The response breaks down those services.
To make a more accurate assessment of the ECSO, the response was broadened to include eight counties for the purpose of comparison, rather than just two. It also provides further research into to extenuating circumstances and irregularities that would make comparisons inaccurate.
While the Taxwatch report used only two points of comparison, the ECSO response addressed twenty two different standards of comparison
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Leon County Sheriffs Department only responds to a small neighborhood that is located on the outer limits of the City of Tallahassee.
[...] Sheriff responds to TaxWatch report. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has responded to recent criticisms by the TaxWatch organisation with an attractive PowerPoint presentation defending its budget. [...]
The Taxwatch Report, while comparing residents, does not include the huge numbers of visitors to Leon County that occur from the legislative session and visits by others with business or sporting interests. It would be best to compare the mean resident and transient numbers and see what effect they have on S.O. services in both populations to see if we are getting the level of services Escambia County suggests with their response. One way to save money is to reduce holding rates by utilizing ankle bracelets or by introducing alternative sentencing.