Mike Wiggins is a nice guy. Nearly everyone, including the supporters of Ashton Hayward, will tell you that. He is the perfect mayor…for the old form of city government—the city manager form in which the mayor was the council chair and ceremonial.
That weak mayor form of government worked for 70+ years – when life was simple. Pensacola was the grand dame of Northwest Florida, a political and economic force that was a powerhouse in Tallahassee. Pensacola – a historic city that was Florida’s first capital, a city that was the cultural superstar with its own symphony, opera, Saenger Theatre, Civic Center, community theater troupe and art museum, a city that had the headquarters of Gulf Power, regional office of BellSouth and had Fortune 500 industries – St. Regis, Armstrong, Monsanto and a booming shipbuilding industry. People wanted to live in Pensacola.
A caretaker type of government worked……then.
But those days are gone. Pensacola’s population has decreased. The political and economic power has shifted east to Okaloosa and Bay counties. The area struggles to fund its cultural organizations. Gulf Power remains, but BellSouth is now AT&T. St. Regis-International Paper and Monsanto-Solutia….and those latter three companies and Armstrong are no longer major players in the community.
Property taxes soared in the last decade – 70+ percent. It wasn’t until a constitutional amendment passed did the city have a significant rollback of its tax rates—–but meanwhile it added a stormwater tax and business tax that are costing taxpayers nearly $3 million annually. Gas rates and franchise fees were used to cover the tax cuts….government didn’t shrink much and taxpayers saw little overall relief.
Hundreds of thousands were spent to study the issues, citizen advisory committees formed, town hall meetings held, but rarely were the problems dealt with. Citizens were promised a new downtown library in 1997….the city will break ground on it next month. The Port of Pensacola is under its fourth or fifth “vision” plan in the past 15 years. Poverty has grown and the disparities have been studied repeatedly with no plan. No, there is one plan – West Side Development Plan that the City Council passed in 2007 after seven years of consultants, community meetings and studies….but it has never been funded and sits on a shelf. And the city pensions soak up $13 million of city revenue.
All this happened under Mike Wiggins’ watch…from the time he was appointed to the City Council in 1995 to when he was elected a At-Large councilman to his 2008 election as mayor.
And having listened to Wiggins at two Chamber forums and met with him one-on-one several times in the past few months, it is very apparent the same style of government (even though its form has changed) will control City Hall if he is elected. The players won’t change. Yes, Wiggins will have the big office, but the decision-making process and execution will be the same. Last year’s charter vote will be meaningless—-except Wiggins will get a bigger pension when he finally retires in 2014….2020….2024….?
Wiggins made it clear the budget is set. He wants travel money to visit corporations interested in relocating here, but there are no funds for the West Side plan. He can’t rollback the property tax. He has called it foolish.
The current management team and Wiggins can’t do it—-they have been looking at the same set of numbers too long……but I believe that others—without the bias of the past—can figure out how to cut taxes and still maintain service levels.
While Wiggins says that he will do a nationwide search for Al Coby’s replacement, he made it clear that he isn’t in any hurry.
I can’t see anything changing – which means Pensacola will fall further behind during this decade if he is elected. What we have gotten from Mike Wiggins and the city government is what we will continue to get under a Wiggins administration.
A Wiggins administration will be pleasant, but little else.