Fiscal Rangers

Congressman John Mica's Lake County Transportation Summit a Bust

Tuesday afternoon, Congressman John Mica, supporter of the Sunrail, gave one day notice to about two dozen local County officials and government staff for a meeting to discuss transportation issues in Apopka at the offices of Florida Atlantic Railroad, the firm that runs trains up the old our of repair and unmaintained CSX railroad track from Orlando through Mount Dora, Tavares and to Eustis. Lake County cities and the County have already agreed to pitch in taxpayer money to fund an $18-million reconstruction of the rail line, to be called the Orange Blossom Express. The State kicks in $13-million, and local agencies along the rail line will kick in the rest, and all have apparently agreed except Apopka, which "still has questions". I expect this to be a done deal, so it is not contingent on Sunrail being approved. We issued an earlier FiscalRangers.com alert that the meeting could be a plan to lobby for Sunrail. But our speculation didn't cover what really happened. I went to the meeting, along with about 2-dozen officials and several other "real press". Mica's staff ignored me and didn't even ask me to sign the email list! When everyone introduced themselves, and I said... Read more →

Florida Hires Louisiana Based Firm to Help Reduce Medicaid Fraud & Costs

If you are concerned about Medicaid fraud and costs, this article might be of interest. It describes the firm who was hired for a $50-million contract to reduce the problems. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/company-helps-fight-medicaid-fraud-one-visit-at-1488373.html?page=2&viewAsSinglePage=true vj Read more →

Understanding Local Corporate Welfare & Identifying True Fiscal Conservatives

Tavares, FL - April 13, 2011 - Today, I gave a presentation at the Lake Federation Republican Women's Club in Tavares. It was on these two topics: - Understanding Corporate Welfare and Local Lake County Examples - Identifying Behaviors of True Fiscal Conservatives (vs liberals or Republicans in Name Only). Attached is the Powerpoint slide presentation. It has over 20 specific fiscal conservative actions that I recommend for elected officials to show they actually are fiscal conservatives. Download 2011-04-13 LFRWC Preso Enjoy. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers AT Comcast DOT net Read more →

Senator Paula Dockery on Sunrail Railroad Subsidy

Tavares, FL - Apr. 13, 2011 - The Lake County, FL County Board of Commissioners voted recently to subsidize the repairs of the privately (not public) owned CSX rail lines that run from Apopka to Eustis. They voted to spend over $1-million of their funds for the project which will cost taxpayers a total of over $16.5-million (Florida State kicks in about $13-million). The firm leasing the CSX line, Florida Atlantic Railway, will only pitch in about $1.5-million. We call that corporate welfare. We received the following memo from Sarah Hardy, a Legislative Assistant in Senator Paula Dockery's office on a related subject - the Sunrail subsidized rail project. Dockery has voiced objections to earlier attempts to use taxpayer funds to subsidize railroads. vj ================================================ Hi, Mr. Jochim, Thanks for your continued fiscal vigilance on behalf of the taxpayers. I really enjoyed your “on the hunt” illustration in the email. It’s great. Remember to mention that Orange County Commissioners recently voted to spend $18 million taxpayer dollars for infrastructure improvements on a private railroad corridor between Apopka and Eustis. This is the rail line that The Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Executive Director, TJ Fish, keeps asking for support from... Read more →

Guest Editorial: Are Taxpayer Subsidized Commuter Railroads Justified?

(Note: This subject of subsidizing rail lines is auspicious, because Lake County Governments recently voted to spend over $16.5-million in taxpayer funds to repair CSX privately owned rail lines in Lake County to facilitate commuter and freight rail operations without any reports showing facts to justify the expense - see our separate posts on this. VJ) From Richard Riker 3/21/2011 In December of 2009 Florida Legislature passed legislation by 27-10 establishing Sun Rail. This was done in a special session in an Obama-Pelosi hush and rush style. Why was this done in the “dead of night” without public disclosure? Simple, it would not have passed in the light of day. An initial impact of the passage was, as in most cases, financial, the legislature paid CSX Rail $10.5 million for track. This total is far more that the national average cost for track at $500,000 per mile. What are some of the other overall deterrents to rail transit? Ones that our legislatures should have considered before they voted for it. To begin with, and maybe foremost, only two rail lines in the entire world have recovered their capital cost Paris-Lyon and Tokyo-Osaka. No rail transit line in this country comes... Read more →

Florida Government Agencies should be Mandated to Use Charts Like This

Tavares, FL - Apr. 11, 2011 - In Lake County, FL , I have been watching union negotiations for wages. I have been preaching for maybe two years that the Administration and Board of the Lake County School District (and the Board of the County Commissioners) should develop statistics like the chart referenced on the link below. http://thathero.com/2011/04/11/oea-shared-sacrifice/ It is about Ohio wage patterns, and shows average wages of both union and private industry workers. Such charts should be mandatory for use when any government agency starts setting wage and benefits for government workers. Now, the chart is for Ohio, which is not a right to work State (Florida is), so the disparities between union and private wages are larger than you would find in Florida, but the idea is that no goverment elected officials should approve any wage and benefit increases without comparing trends like this, and for unemployment, benefits, pensions, etc. Government employees need to be paid within reason, and not excessively. vj Read more →

Firefighters DoubleDipping in Orlando

Tavares, FL - Feb. 14, 2011 - Channel 9 TV in Orlando reports that six Orlando firefighters are in the DROP program and doubledipping. Basically, they retired, collect retirement, then got rehired at new salaries to do vague jobs, including counting fire hydrants, according to the report. My view is that using double dippers eliminates opportunities for six other, out of work people and overpays government workers. NO corporation would have such a program, because corporate retirees usually can't collect any pension they might have until they are 65, while GOVERNMENT lets many people collect full, 30 year retirement immediately at age 55. This is another reason to keep voting out ALL incumbents until DROP is DISCARDED in local and state government in Florida. vj Here is the link to the article, including the video report: http://www.wftv.com/news/26838749/detail.html Read more →

Announcing the Tavares Business Incubator for Lake County Entrepreneurs

Tavares, FL August 16, 2010 Not long ago, I established a new business, Sunshine Medical Tourism, LLC. I actually formed it in 2008 after six months of research, but shelved it due to the economy. Anyway, I started it up two months ago, and I am in a new office at 921 West Main in Tavares, at the corner of HWY 19. We are just down the street from the County Admin Building. Separately, I had been following the UCF-run business incubator in Leesburg, and had talked to them and the City of Tavares about forming one in Tavares using the spare offices in the building I rent. I even proposed we could be a branch office for the Leesburg Incubator, since their offices are full. Incubators are office facilities with experienced business coaches for new, startup businesses. The emphasis is on growth, then they move into their own offices in 18 months. These are common in California. UCF has established a number of them around Central Florida and Orlando. It turns out that UCF charges for running incubators, and normally the local City provides an empty building for new business startups and also provides funds to pay for an... Read more →

Are You Angry at the Florida Sunrail Boondoggle - then read this

Florida isn't the only State with railroad boondoggles. I lived in Southern California where they spent billions on commuter trains that are extremely costly. It would have been cheaper to give each rider a new car. And Florida taxpayers are mad at legislators for passing the $600-million plus railroad boondoggle called SunRail, although there are even more rail projects around the state to reward the firms who paid lobbyists to bribe legislators to get approvals. So, here is a link to a story about a similar railroad boondoggle in Fairfax County, Virginia that is further along. This is a website to fight the rail plan, and the link is to an article analyzing all the hidden and unknown costs. When will we elect politicians who do not accept campaign bribes to pass such projects? vj Read more →

Illegal Immigrants: Many Florida Employers Use E-Verify to Detect them & Our Recommendations

One way to reduce illegal immigration is to remove the situations that entice them to Florida, such as employment. Thus, if employers do more work to identify illegal immigrants during the employment application process, fewer will be able to find work. So, the next things to do in Lake County to reduce attractions for illegal immigrants are: - Determine if contractors and employers in Lake County are using E-verify, and - Verify that local city, County, & School District government hiring and service contracts require that primary contractors as well as sub-contractors use E-verify to prevent hiring illegals, and - Ensure that employers and government agencies establish oversight functions to ENSURE that the E-verify requirements are met. This would include strong contract administration procedures, human resources procedures and internal audits. For instance, right now, the County Board has NO PLANS to have the new Judicial Center audited by internal auditors, so this will not be done. Hopefully, using E-verify and other actions will reduce inbound migration of illegal immigrants who take jobs from your kids, friend and relatives. We will help improve the hiring prospects for local CITIZENS by following up and examining government contracts for the necessary E-verify requirements,... Read more →

Why Don't the Chambers of Commerce Host Panels of Elected Officials to Answer Questions from the Public?

Here is an idea for an event that each of the local Lake County chambers could hold. It is an open meeting hosted by the Chambers to have the public ask direct questions of elected officials (as opposed to candidates). Right now, there is nothing like this in Lake County, but the one below is held by the Chamber of Commerce in Fountain Valley, CA where I used to live. They do it just for State and Federal officials, but I think the local one should include elected officials from County Government, the School Board and local cities. So what if it goes 3 hours - I think they would get a big crowd. Since Welton Cadwell hardly ever lets the public provide public input at County Commissioner meetings, maybe this type of meeting may provide an alternate version of transparency. How about it, Chambers? OR, what about the TEA Party or the local Republican Executive Committee (they are planning several for current candidates, but not incumbents who are not up for re-election) vj In the Local section of the OC Register, in the “Our Towns – Central” column, you find the following announcement. This is a fun annual event.... Read more →

Economic Development Examples: Rural Oregon County Gets $188-Million Facebook Data Center

So, what has your local Economic Development Commission done for Lake County lately? Below is an example of what happened with an EDC in Oregon. A rural county created an "Enterprise Zone" that gave tax breaks to new businesses, and they got a $188-million data center project for Facebook. Read the DETAILED article below from the local Bend, Oregon paper, then ask your local Lake County Commissioners when we will get a data center from Facebook!! The article gives a good overview of all the considerations of how such a project was defined. vj http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100122/NEWS0107/1220410/1001/NEWS01&nav_category=NEWS01 Read more →

Another Federal Mandated Fiscal Fiasco? - EPA Proposes New Tough Water quality standards Costing $1-billion plus for Florida, Effective by October

This is another costly surprise program driven by liberal lawsuits that will increase taxes and reduce lifestyles in Florida. When will it end? The end of the article below says that the plan, which supersedes in progress Florida State quality plans, will go into effect in October after three public hearings in February. Apparently, environmentalists have sued the Federal EPA for not enforcing long standing environmental "improvements", and Florida is the first state where the Feds are enacting tough standards. The standards would include tougher standards for "up stream" lakes in a chain, which means up-stream sources like Lake Apopka, the source of much of the pollution flowing through the Harris Chain of Lakes would have tougher standards to meet to reduce effects of bad water quality on downstream lakes. It must be a coincidence that the canal behind my house is green with algae and Tilapia are floating to the surface trying to breath enough air. Guys in boats are catching the lethargic fish with hand held nets. Yes, I want better water quality, and all the farms around Lake Apopka are feeding the phosphorus in the lake, but it seems the State put off enacting earlier required standards,... Read more →

Drastic Hikes in Florida Unemployment Insurance Start January 1, Reducing Funds for Other Agencies

Most Florida businesses will get an unexpected hike in employee unemployment insurance taxes starting January 1, 2010. This problem will cascade into another fight for the total remaining Florida tax revenues, thus reducing the remaining funds for other agencies, including Schools, etc. (and, remember, Charlie Crist just approved the $600-million SunRail system, which will also compete for funds. Additionally,if Obama's health plan passes, it mandates drastic hikes in Medicaid payments for Florida and other states that have low Medicaid payments, thus that will "suck" more funds out of Florida State cash). Below is a briefing sent out by the Eustis Chamber of Commerce that gives a good description of the tax hike, which significantly increases bottom line costs for each employee. If you are business owner, you need to know about this tax, and perhaps take the actions requested by the Chamber. If you are an employee, you need to understand how the State has used up their unemployment insurance fund to pay unemployment insurance, and has been borrowing $300-million per MONTH from the Federal government to continue paying unemployment payments. The tax hike means that your employer's cost will go up, which means that there will be another reason... Read more →

Election for Florida State Agriculture Commissioner Heats Up Right in Lake County

The Orlando Sentinel blogger, Lauren Ritchie, posted a blog describing how one candidate for FL State Ag Commissioner, Congressman Adam Putnam, made a speech at a local Republican Women's Federation lunch (I was there), and also announced endorsements from three GOP groups. The article basically said the meeting and announcement was a slam to his opponent, local Lake County resident Carey Baker, who is currently a State Senator. READ her blog here (also added at the bottom of this posting). Also read the comments, which contained some more issues related to Baker. I wrote this response to Ritchie's column on her blog, but the Orlando Sentinel gave the following message, and would not accept my response: So, here is my response - I decided to stop waffling and come out against Baker - he doesn't do anything that supports local taxpayers...unless they are gun owners or have "Bull's Balls" hanging from their trailer hitch. Baker has also angered the volunteers who were trying to get more oversight and voter approval for the North Lake County Hospital tax district that costs local property owners 1-mill in taxes without ANY specific conditions on how the funds are to be spent by the... Read more →

Government Pension Double Dippers in the OTHER Orange County

I moved here in 2006 from Orange County, California - the "Other" orange County, or known as "The OC" due to the TV show with the same name. I frequently get emails on political issues from the OC. There have been periodic articles in the local central Florida press about Florida government pension double dippers, but here is a very good watchdog article from the OC Register newspaper in California, preceded by a comment from a local County Supervisor (like a Commissioner here) John Moorlach. The key point that Moorlach makes is the Orange County County government just increased the retirement age and reduced the government retirement contribution... for their 30,000 or so County government employees ( in California, the local agencies enact such rules, not a central State government). Here is my favorite quote from Moorlach about the change: "The answer? Raise retirement ages. This is low hanging fruit. This is what the County of Orange just did with its largest employee bargaining unit. New hires will not automatically go into a “2.7% @ 55” formula. They will adopt a “1.62% @ 65.” They will be able to adopt the higher benefit, but they will be paying the higher... Read more →

Villages Caught with Possible Tax Bill on Bonds - Could Result in Higher Charges to Village Residents

The Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie wrote a two part commentary on how the Villages were financed that could result in a hefty IRS bill to the developer which could be passed on to the Villages residents. Basically, the developers of the Villages floated tax exempt bonds to pay themselves for future services and might be liable for a huge tax bill (millions) because most of the funds were not spent on real stuff that is considered deductible. This all reminds me of the periodic tax fines from the IRS for investors who purchase investments with "tax deduction" programs setup by CPA firms and marketed to clients. Then, the IRS catches on, gets the customer list, and goes after everyone who took unjustified (according to the IRS) tax write offs. Below are the two parts of Ritchie's commentary. It is an EXCELLENT example of investigative reporting. Now, if she would only write about the North Lake County Hospital District!!! vj PART 1 - published March 1, followed by Part 2, published March 4th (this posting was not made active until March 4th). orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-irs-villages-bonds-richie-030109,0,1221224.column OrlandoSentinel.com IRS, Villages tangling over maze of bonds Lauren Ritchie COMMENTARY March 1, 2009 Perverted is a word... Read more →

Internal Auditor for Orlando Orange County Expressway Quits

After only one year at this new job, the internal auditor for the scandal ridden Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority quit. The "X-Way" as it is called was the subject of a series of expose articles by the Orlando Sentinel in 2006 and after, so they established the internal audit position. The Authority owns and manages about 100 miles of toll roads in the Orlando area. The roads and other assets were values at $829-million in 2008, and Toll Revenue was about $206-million, plus other income for a total of $246-million in 2008 (mostly road tolls). Today's paper also had an article saying that usage of the roads are down and they might increase tolls to make up the difference. The article about the resignation is below, however, the statement from the quitting auditor that the authority management "has created and perpetuated a weak control environment" is a big one. That's about how I feel about the Lake County Commission and County Manager. Professional auditors will refer to this problem as "tone at the top". If senior managers don't support oversight and business control improvement, that is where the problem lies. Control oriented management will want control problems to be... Read more →

Orlando DEAD LAST in Cities having "High Impact" Job Growth Companies

Just read the article - basically, the SBA came out with a new report on small businesses that are "gazelles" that result in high job growth. Orlando ranks dead last among all US major cities. Guess that means Lake County might be below dead last... According to the SBA, cities that emphasize support and growth for gazelles will get higher job growth. Important Quote: Among large cities, the Norfolk, Va., area came in on top. No. 2 was Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Pittsburgh was No.4 and Charlotte, N.C., came in fifth. Orlando, Fla., came in last. See the SBA report at: www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs328tot.pdf vj ========================================== Friday, July 25, 2008 - 8:58 AM MST Arizona ranks second for number of high-impact job-generating firms Phoenix Business Journal - by Cathy Luebke Arizona ranked second among states and the Phoenix area third among the nation's 52 largest metro areas having the highest percentage of high-impact firms. Those findings were released in a 92-page report published by the SBA Office of Advocacy: "High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited." High-impact firms are considered those that have significant revenue growth and expanding employment. To earn its second-place ranking, Arizona had 7,463 of the so-called high-impact companies, accounting for 2.57 percent of... Read more →

Risky Florida & Lake County Government Cash Investments Disclosed by Orlando Sentinel

Lake County Government Avoids Possible Loss of a Percentage of their $144 million Investments in State's "Local Government Investment Pool" This blog entry was started before 8am on 11/29/2007 (Update 1:20 pm - Note - this is a critical issue - I will be updating this posting periodically with new info or corrections - just added the State press release on the issue at the bottom, and the link to the State's Nov. 9 report that started the run of withdrawals). Updated Nov. 29 - 1:20pm UPDATE - 2:40 pm Thursday - I received calls from County Commissioner Jennifer Hill and from Lake County Finance department Chief Deputy Clerk Barbara Lehman that Lehman also was concerned about the investment risk, and started pulling out the funds this morning at 9am. As a result, all $144-million in County short term investments are NOW out of the State Investment pool as described below. The below articles remain as written to give background on the issue. However, we don't know if other local government agencies, including the School District, have any investments with the State. UPDATE - 4pm - Lake County School District Board member Jimmy Conner said they moved their short term... Read more →

Local Government Administrative Services Should Be Consolidated Like These Charities

The article below is about the merger of charities because they find there are more of them competing for the same donations. For instance, numerous animal rights groups hit up the same donors, so some are merging to reduce costs and increase their brand name. Now, why am I including this article here on a website that focuses on improving government fiscal management. Because there is one quote that directly acts as an example that could be adopted by Florida County government agencies. Here it is: The Doris Day Animal League and the Fund for Animals share common legal divisions, technology and accounting systems, mailing lists and other things. By combining those operations, the organizations will save $1.5 million annually, Mr. Pacelle said. So here we have several charities that have merged their administrative functions to reduce costs. Consolidation is the term for this practice, and it is used all the time by businesses to reduce costs. In contrast, the way Florida County government works, there are five completely separate elected "Constitutional Offices" or government agencies in Lake County, FL. There is the County Government (elected Board), the School District (elected Board), County Sheriff, County Assessor, and County Tax Collector.... Read more →

Orange County FL plans for Red Light Cameras will be costly mistake

Below is a commentary submitted to the Orlando Sentinel regarding a recent front page article ( Feb. 21, 2007) where Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart was planning to implement a red light camera system without apparent research on unexpected consequences. Regarding your big article on Red-Light Cameras - It was not fully researched - accidents will increase as well as lawsuits CaliforniaOrange County Commissioner Linda Stewart and the Sentinel have acted emotionally on the proposed implementation of red-light cameras and clearly have NOT adequately researched the actual experience of other states with red-light cameras. My knowledge from California newspaper articles is that accidents will go UP, as well as LAWSUITS against the County for implementing the cameras. I moved here from California last year to escape dumb, politically correct politicians who make unsubstantiated decisions. In Orange County, California (home of the original Disneyland!) they experimented with red-light cameras and found that accident counts actually went UP because people would start running a yellow light, then look up, see the cameras that generated high fines, and slammed on the brakes to prevent getting fined. Then the guy behind them crashed into them and caused accidents. Stewart and the Commission indicate a... Read more →