Early Halloween: madness in Madeira

Talk of budget cuts by local governments around the Gulf Coast is commonplace this summer as taxable property values continue to decline. (See “Property Tax Pressure” in the July 16 issue of the Review.)

In Madeira Beach (2009 population 4,427), a shrinking Gulf side community in Pinellas County with an $11 million budget, assessed property values have dropped 30% during the last three years. That translates into $165,000 less revenue for the general fund according to the city manager's July 1 proposed budget message.

But talk of budget cuts there by City Commissioner Nancy Oakley may have been the spark that led a vandal — possibly a city employee as Oakley suspects — to smear her gray convertible coup with six colors of paint plus peanut butter.

Fortunately, for Oakley, the mess all came off with a car wash.

More disconcerting, however, according to a “Bay Buzz” story in the St. Pete Times, “The attack ... came just days after Oakley, City Manager W.D. Higginbotham Jr., and two planning board members received anonymous letters threatening political payback for alleged improper or illegal incidents in their past.”

The story quotes Oakley saying, “'I felt sick and violated. Now I am really mad. I can't prove anything, but I feel it is all related to the budget. I think a city employee is involved in all of it.'”

Scary. And Halloween is still three months away.