Unintended Results Rock the Boat

The importance of green plants in keeping Earth habitable is gaining recognition. The importance of insects in keeping plants "happy" is not so well recognized. Yet the balance of nature, plants, insects and humans needs constant recognition, as does the delicacy of balanced systems.

In a desert ecosystem Yucca plants are an important species that depend on just one species of insects to do pollination. Many food crops depend on bees for pollination to produce profits. Furthermore, insect predators (wasps, beetles and ants) suppress crop pests. Injudicious application of pesticides often disrupts pollination and natural pest controls. These are examples of unintended results.

Global energy demands have stimulated interest in ethanol production. Corn Belt politicians got on the bandwagon at once, with subsidies that encourage corn production. Energy consumption for fertilizers and diesel fuel for tractors went up, as did energy prices. Corn prices went up, and so did prices for nearly all food in the market. These are examples of unintended results from energy consumption. Need we mention global warming as an additional result of energy consumption?

Other examples of unintended results of faulty grand plans include Africanized (Killer) bees, Prohibition's generation of mobsters and flooding of New Orleans after building inadequate levies. But we have an example right here in Levy County.

Levy County taxes (and the budget) grew like mushrooms from 2000 to 2006. Overenthusiastic assessment of property values certainly contributed to property buyers becoming property lookers. Sales dropped and minor downward revision of assessed values has cut tax revenues. That has forced budget cuts.

Another unintended effect of high appraisals has been disruption of long-range planning at the city level. Cedar Key's Community Redevelopment Agency planned on 9 percent increases of property assessments and resulting CRA income. That income is needed to pay off a $9.2 million bond issue over the next twenty years. However, declining property sales have forced lower assessments. Lower, not 9 percent higher, assessments reduces the CRA income used to pay off the bonds. This is a local example of unintended results in a delicate economic system.