Citizens often ask me if there are ways to lower Leon County's tax burden on homeowners and property owners. Unfortunately, much of the time it isn't possible.

More than 46 percent of all the property in Leon County is off the tax rolls because of the extensive ownership of land by the universities and by local, state and federal governments. That creates a tighter tax burden for the rest of the property owners in Leon County, like you and me.

In spite of this, or maybe because of it, most people don't realize that Leon County's government is one of the leanest, meanest operations in the state - with a significantly lower rate than any of our neighboring counties.

Some politicians have said in public - wrongly - that there is "fat" in the county budget that could be trimmed. But the truth is that county government is trimmed to the bone already, giving more bang for the taxpayer buck than 62 of Florida's 66 other counties.

Nevertheless, I'm always on the lookout for ways to lower our tax burden. Just because our tax rates are comparatively low doesn't mean we can't find ways to make them even lower. Unfortunately, the emergency medical services crisis may mean higher taxation for Leon County citizens this year and for many years to come.

To pay for the takeover of ambulance services from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, and to upgrade and modernize these services, the county will have to impose a special Municipal Services Taxing Unit of one-half of a mill. That means, for example, that citizens who own property valued at $100,000 would have to pay an additional $37.50 in taxes each year. (Residents claiming the additional senior homestead exemption would only pay an extra $25 per year.)

Wouldn't it be nice if we could eliminate or significantly reduce the added EMS tax in only one year? After all, a tax is a tax. If we can pay for the transfer of EMS responsibility in just one year of additional taxation, with the upgrades in equipment that are long overdue, isn't that preferable to a recurring tax that our citizens pay year in and year out?

I think so. That's why I've proposed to my County Commission colleagues to use $1.75 million in the county's reserve fund toward EMS transfer costs and thereby eliminate or greatly reduce the new ambulance tax next year. After only one year!

But there's a catch. In politics there's always a catch. The additional $1.75 million would have to be transferred in the county's budget from the new, palatial northwest and east-side branch libraries to the EMS fund.

I've always been a supporter of our public library system, and have backed the county's satellite branch libraries in the past. But the fact is there are already existing storefront branch libraries in the northwest and east side that are convenient and serve those areas well.

It is not unexpected that the district commissioners from those areas would fight hard for the new, $2.7 million library facilities in their districts, and we can all respect that impulse. But as an at-large county commissioner responsible for the economic health of all Leon County, I believe it is fiscally prudent to put off building these two Taj Mahals, at least for a while, so that we can pay for EMS service today and reduce or even eliminate the new EMS property tax after just one year.

As of now, no one has even tried to come up with a plan to find the tens of thousands of additional public dollars we will need to build these two facilities, let alone the annual $400,000 in operating costs that each new branch library would require.

In the end, the only good tax is a tax we don't have to pay anymore. By just tightening our belts on new libraries for a little bit longer, we can at least say we have eliminated all of the tax burden that we possibly can, while still meeting our responsibilities and maintaining our status as one of Florida's leanest and most efficient county governments.

I say let's wait. Let's lower taxes now, and come back to the libraries question when our financial picture is more clear.