Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • P2

2 unda ay 2 6, 2 01 3 ampa ay imes PSC ta mpab ay om pinion Over the past year the council has asked property owners to absorb a 14 percent increase in the tax rate a nd higher fees for stree tlights and stormwater management. Expecting its cit- izenr to swallow a new charge for the fire department a well would ha ve been imprudent. A one-size-fits-all ire fee, assigned per parcel rather than according to the value of property and i ts i mprovements, i simply a cost shift. It would push more of the xisting public safety expenses onto the cit poorest homeowners and, potentially non-profits depending on how the ordinance as writ ten. A previous council recognized the unfairness of such a system and voted down a similar lan 1 0 years ago.

he idea resurfaced last week during a council workshop on public safety Council members immediately balked. Good thinking Consider the complicated system put i place in the city of Brooksville. I charges a per-parcel to ser ve fee and a second assessment based on the value of structure on the property ypically elected of fi cials rationalize the ploy as a way to ensure that ever ybody pays fo a share of fire ser vices. Actuall i would ha ve ee unfair to a verage homeowners, but a boon to commercial interests and to the owners of xpen- sive lots, like those along the Pithlachascotee River when compared to traditional ad alorem taxes that produce larger tax bills for properties of higher alues. A per-lot fee also fails to rec- ognize that less than 60 percent of the homes in the city are owner occ upied.

It means the owners of a substantial amount of the residential property i the cit already are paying a so called fair share of public safety costs because they cannot claim homestead xemptions. In the coming months, the council must confront a 4.2 percent decline in its tax rolls, rising personnel costs at ributed to insurance and retirement contributions and a nearly $1 million subsidy to the redevelopmen budget. A presumed windfall from the tilities budget ill help, but dif fic ult choices remain. Fo tunately council members recognized he inancial gim- mickr tied to a ire fee shouldn be one of those choices. Council wise to douse prosed ire safety fee he ancial oes for the city of Ne Po rt ichey continue, but the City Council correctly xtinguished any talk of a regressive fee for safety as a wa to balance its budget Ti me ed itoria ls YO UR OICE COUNT Yo may submit a letter to the editor or possible publication through our website at tampabay.com/letters, or by faxing it to (7 27) 8696233, or by mailing it asco Times 11321 U.S.

19, Po rt Richey, FL 34668. ou must include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited or clarity, taste and length. Last week, commissioners directed their taf to prepare rules for people who want to aise egg-producing hens in residential areas. There is no need to reinvent the coop since similar la already exist in Pinella and ernando counties and the cities of Sarasota and Dade Cit y.

Dade City limits the number of hens to six and prohibits them in multifamily housing He r- nando caps the number of birds at four; requires a county permit and notification of neighbors; and does not allow its ordinance to supersede xisting rules in deed-restricted neighborhoods. But, even with those reasonable safeguards, the commission there had to address objections from Realtors who contended inacc urately that noise and odors from back yard coups Fo wl rules good for residents asco County commissioners agree that agric ulture doesn ha ve to be limited to the rural portions of the count y. would depress residential property values. Nonsense. The rules prohibit roosters, which will ur- tail the noise omplaints, an odors ha ven been problematic in other locales.

Back yard chickens allow people to consume fresh, locally produced eggs. By permit ing them, local overnments are simply mirroring recycling green building mass transit and other strategies for sustainable living udos to Commissioner Kathr yn Starkey for nudging the Pa co board toward a worthwhile ordinance. One of the top om songs for 2013, according to MT V- st le, is Sk Everything is Embarrassing. It certainly reflects the beha vior leading up to the River idge igh School dance last week when a tardy student, obliging teacher rigid principal and strong-willed parent combined for a brouhaha that left a tear y-eyed teenager escorted from the vent. There is plent of blame to around and valuable life lessons for all.

A junior who could not at tend the prom now knows that deadlines mat ter She was left on the outside looking in because she failed to purchase her $75 -per- person ticket before sales ended Ma 10. It led a deputy to bar her from the a 1 7 prom at Lowr Pa rk oo because only ticketed guests were allowed inside. But she isn the only one who could benefit from this teachable moment. rincipal aria Swanson could learn a thing or tw about compassion. She declined to let the tudent buy a post- deadline ticket, in part, because she was peeved that members of the senior class had been tardy in ordering their caps and owns for commencement.

Ne xt i me, she should target her punitive ea- sure at the appropriate audience. eacher ammy Casanova would do well to consider the implications of her beha vior when she invited the teen to at tend as a volunteer and then failed to notify the administration. It not known whether Casanova enu- inely wanted to help the tudent or simply ought to be obstinate Either wa her decision set in motion the vents that led the teenager to be humiliated at the prom when she was escorted of the premises by la enforcement. Casanova, who is retiring also is acc used of allowing a pair of 20 -year-old men one of whom was suspec ted of being intoxicated to at tend the af fair as helpers and to socialize with the high school students. That poor judgment brought a suspension and an ugly end to her areer The actions of the mother Diana Byrnes, are troubling as well.

Rather than emphasizing to her daughter Caroline, the impor tance of purchasing a ticket in a timely manner she badgered school of icials for a week that her child was being treated unfairly he lesson here shouldn be about shifting blame toward others. May be ver yone involved should fer up an a dditiona song to the prom play list. ere a suggestion to add a tune from the hristian punk band, xPx: Responsibility. C. T.

owen is ernando editor of editorials. Edi torial noteboo ow en Life lessons for all in prom iasco Gues column Rao usun uru Calculating health cos A fact, well known for decades, recently made headlines: ospital charges across the nation, state, and ven the same count a re all over th map and always ver high. Actually the same is true with physician charge. edicare used to pay the ospitals depending on basis. he hospitals got reimbursed based on whatever their cost was for buildings, equipment, xpenses and other overhead.

udos to the power of lobbying industr y. Then came DRGs diagnostic related groups in the 1980 to control the escalating health care costs. he payment is fixed depending on the patient diagnosis. The more sick the patient was made to appear or the less the hospital spent on the patient, the more it ot to eep. To assure proper medical care, he government ame up ith the concept of punishment for poor outcomes.

Finally a bright idea, pay for performance Mo st the private insurers started pa ying physicians a certain prenegotiated percentag of what edicare pays. Similarly they make ixed and more ener- ous contracts with the hospitals. Why do hospitals and physicians charge ex cessively and errat icall when they know before hand what they ge paid? Because they are looking to the future. In the past, whenever edicare increased reimbursements for physicians, the new payment would the lesser of three considerations: the amount the physician billed for that ser vice before the increase; the urrent increased reimburse- ent rate or a physician urrent charge. It forced ven the most decent physicians to keep the charges artificially high to prepare fo the future.

Also private insurers, without re-existing contracts with a par tic ular physician or hospital, will pay a certain percentage of he original charge, igh or low ospitals and physicians eep the charges artificially high for ever ybody which also mee ts certain legal requirements. The simply write of a portion of the bill not allowed by the government or private contracts. In most cases, the charge on the original bill is nothing more than a scar high number aggr ava ting enough to send the patient back to the hospital, this time with a heart at tack. What happens to the uninsured poor? ospitals ypically write of a certain percentage of the bill, if the do not qualify for edicaid. herein lies the roblem.

Fo rt percent of the higher original charge is always oing to be considerably more than 40 percent of a reasonable charg what Me icare would allow) or 40 percent of the real cost. Tr ying to collect more from the ver poor that cannot af ord it is most definitely not a fair deal morally responsible beha vior Only time will tell how much the new af fordable care act helps. Stay healthy Prevention, when- ver possible, is still the least expensive option Dr Rao usunuru, a practicing cardiologist, in Bayonet oint, is the immediate past president of the asco County edical Society. Musunuru.