Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

About This Blog:

The Jax Files is an interactive, quick-hitting blog devoted to any and all things Pasco, whether whole-heartedly, tangentially or merely psychologically.

Tom Jackson:

Tom Jackson is in a 12-step program for recovering sports writers; as part of his rehabilitation, he writes a column centered on the people, politics, passions and peculiarities of Pasco County. Email

Pasco County Links:

Most Recent Entries

Monthly Archives

The Jax Files: With Tom Jackson in Pasco

Pasco County News | Breaking News

A question of perpetual care

Posted Jan 24, 2011 by Tom Jackson

Updated Jan 24, 2011 at 05:34 PM

Alert reader Joseph Hamel asks, in the wake of Sunday’s column – “Finances redefine priorities” – a question that is simultaneously provocative, insightful and appropriate (as all good questions are).

I wonder if the hundred or so palm trees that have been planted in Zephyrhills are needs or wants. Maybe we should ask Mr. Weatherford. I have no idea who or what funded these things.

An e-mail to the likely suspects produced this quick response from Zephyrhills City Manager Steve Spina:

The palm trees were a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation – enhancement/beautification grant. The grant was for $80,000. The city will have to maintain the trees and right of way where they are planted.

I would probably say they are a “want” rather than a “need,” although trees, beautification, landscaping, etc. are all important aspects of public lands, rights of way, downtowns, etc.

While we agree with Spina that nothing says Florida beautification quite line a grove of palms, what happens to them after they’re planted got us thinking about the nature of government programs, especially how, after they are created, they tend toward self-perpetuation. Consider the palms of Zephyrhills. Taxpayer dollars purchased them and paid to have them installed. Now even more taxpayer dollars will be spent on maintaining them.

Perhaps this is as it should be – public dollars being spent to maintain public dollars invested in a perishable product.

But the new government austerity referred to in Sunday’s column ought to encourage thinking that is slightly outside the proverbial box.

If I were directing public policy in Zephyrhills, however, I’d find out whether it made sense to invite private sector entities to adopt and tend some or all of the new palms. We imagine a line of companies, not limited to landscapers, and civic clubs, vying for opportunities to strut their stuff.

In exchange for performing maintenance (in accordance with state and local mandates), the volunteers would post modest signs that declare (for purposes of advertising and assigning responsibility – the old carrot-and-stick approach) who’s looking after this particular patch of palms.

Everybody wins. Thanks to alert reader Joseph Hamel for provoking this helpful thought experiment.