Shannon Nickinson: What will be our definition of the future?

It’s easy to tell what a government values.

What it values is what it funds.

Escambia County Commissioners were scheduled Tuesday to talk more about their values – in the form of the $412 million overall budget they have before them. It will be the second public hearing on the document, which includes requests for $11 million in what’s called “outside agency funding.”

Government budgets are full of things that must be paid for. Outside agency funding is the lagniappe: the things that help local governments fulfill not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of it.

Several of those areas are tied to the 16 key metrics in the Studer Community Institute’s Pensacola Metro Dashboard. The dashboard, created with the University of West Florida’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement, is an at-a-glance look at the area’s growth, educational, economic and social well-being.

On Sept. 8, county commissioners talked a lot about that spirit in an epic meeting to review those requests. Every nonprofit entity that wanted money for next year had forms to complete and had the opportunity to pitch their case and answer questions.

Lots of time was spent complimenting those who did a good job filling out the forms. There was tsk-tsking and finger waggling for those whose paperwork left gaps or questions in the commissioners minds.

The lion’s share of those requests – $7.2 million – will go toward supporting and promoting tourism and cultural events.

About $2.7 million will go toward in economic development efforts and nonprofits that aim to improve the quality of life in our community.

The big-ticket items on that list are Escambia Community Clinics, Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County, Pathways for Change, BRACE, and Northwest Florida Comprehensive Services for Children.

The work they do includes providing primary care to low-income people and the uninsured; preparing children for kindergarten; helping people incarcerated for drug offenses rehabilitate themselves by gaining job, coping and life skills; improving our community’s disaster resilience; and investigating and processing child abuse cases.

As that meeting unfolded, District 3 Commissioner Lumon May often spoke about the value nonprofits such as these and others provided for his constituents. And as The New York Times reported in May,  Escambia County is among the worst counties in the U.S. in helping poor children up the income ladder. It ranks 47th out of 2,478 counties, better than only about 2 percent of counties.

Poverty and its effects on education, crime, jobs and access to health care, aren’t just Lumon May’s problem, though watching that epic Sept. 8 meeting,  it would be easy to get that impression.

The terrible toll poverty takes on someone’s future success is a problem for Marcus Pointers and Cordova Parkers, too.

Until that urgency is felt by more people than Lumon May, this is as good as Pensacola is going to get.

Until it is no longer OK for 66 percent of our kindergartners to show up not ready for school – and the same percentage of our high schoolers graduate on time — we will remain a community happy with the status quo.

Especially if the status quo is working for us.

If we want a community that attracts and retains young professionals, that sees crime decrease, job opportunities increase beyond the service- and tourism-based jobs we now have by the bushelful, we have to get uncomfortable.

The alternative is doing nothing different, but expecting a different outcome – which is the definition of insanity.

Shannon Nickinson is the editor of PensacolaToday.com, a news and commentary website in Pensacola. Follow her on Twitter @snickinson.com. Column courtesy of Context Florida.