Administrator isn't shy with scissors

Ed Hunzeker might finally be a trendsetter after 43 years of working in county government administration.

Unfortunately for Hunzeker, the Manatee County administrator, the trend is in showing other county government leaders how to cut a budget. “We continue to downsize the government every opportunity we get,” Hunzeker tells Coffee Talk. “Everything is on the table. Nothing is a sacred cow.”

Hunzeker recently rankled some local residents when he merely mentioned budgets and public libraries in the same sentence. But he has stuck to his mantra of cut anywhere because budget planners forecasted a $12 million to $14 million property tax reduction for the upcoming fiscal year. It's the type of reduction being felt in every other Gulf Coast county.