Fiscal Rangers

Update on Florida Septic Tank Issue from Florida's Tea Party Network

I provide this update on the Florida Septic Tank Issue Courtesy of Dave Von Gunten and the North Lake County Tea Party. There is now the Florida wide "Tea Party Network" of over 170 Independent Tea Party organizations and our own Lake County activist, Patricia Sullivan is Chair of the network. They had established Florida wide issue coordinators and this information is from the one for the Florida Septic Tank issue, which is a previous, very onerous law that would require every home owner with a septic tank to have it inspected and incur excessively high expenses. The law was pushed through by environmentalists and septic tank cleaning firms. Be sure to read the consumer tip below: vj ================================================================= Septic Tank Issue: Here is the latest on the Septic Tank Issue from Sharon Glass, the Tea Party Network coordinator on the issue Dear Patriots, Current Status of SB550 and the Ban on Treated Septage SB550: I am sorry I have not sent anything to you on what happened to SB550 the last day of session. I have been out of town, arrived home yesterday and have just now been able to wrap my brain around all that happened. I am... Read more →

Florida Jumps to 3rd Best State to Do Business in this Study

Florida leaps from 6th to third best State to do business, Chief Executive magazine says . All we have to do now is knock off Texas and North Carolina. California is DEAD last. http://chiefexecutive.net/best-worst-states-for-business vj Read more →

Texas Sunset Commission Challenges Reason for Government Agencies

Tavares, FL - April 15, 2011 - This is what we need in Lake County and Florida. A commission like one in Texas with a responsibility to review the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission questions the need for more than 150 agencies, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. The Commission seeks public input through hearings on every agency under Sunset review and recommends actions on each agency to the full Legislature. In most cases, agencies under Sunset review are automatically abolished unless legislation is enacted to continue them. I found out about this Commission while reading THIS story on how the North Texas Tollway Authority is facing fraud allegations, and people are calling for this commission to review them. There is even a menu item "How to Participate" which describes specifically how the public can become involved. This is a great idea for some Lake County Board member to build their fiscal conservative chops. Create a commission like this for Lake County, and implement it to question departments and programs. UPDATE:... 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 →

Florida Governor Rick Scott's State of State Speech - March 8, 2011

March 8, 2011 - Tallahassee Florida - Governor Rick Scott gave a rousing 30+ minute State of the State speech that was very clear, results oriented and quite good to those who want fiscal conservative approaches to State Government. The link below is the Florida Channel page for the full speech, plus responses from Democrats: http://thefloridachannel.org/video/3811-coverage-of-governor-rick-scotts-state-of-the-state-address/ This is the link to get the official transcript of the speech: http://www.flgov.com/2011/03/08/florida-governor-rick-scott-delivers-state-of-the-state-address/ I won't try to summarize it - you should read or view it yourself. But, it is clear that new ways of doing government's business are moving forward. For instance, Scott makes economic development calls every day to business leaders to try and get them to expand business in Florida, or locate new operations here. He introduced four company leaders who have done so. Gee, maybe some Lake County Commissioners might make some calls also - they have an economic development staff to give them leads, and they pay $300,000 each year to the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. But, I have never heard of any of the Commissioners recruiting any new businesses into the County. Instead, we heard how two earlier Commissioners refused to meet with leaders of prospective relocation... Read more →

Wall St. Journal: California Government Workers Paid 30% More than Private Sector Workers

Finally, someone did an analysis reported by the Wall St. Journal that describes what the true differential is between Public and Private Workers, and calls the Public workers on the Gravy Train... The study was based on California public workers, and also identifies missing components not described in another study from Berkeley. Here is an overview: - Actual wages are below private workers in BIG corporations by about 4%, but just about even if you compare all private worker pay (small and large employers). - Value of defined benefit pensions is about 4% higher for government workers because they are promised SPECIFIC levels based upon 8% earnings vs most corporations use 401k programs where the employee gets maybe 4%, and it is not a promised amount (defined benefit). - Retiree health benefits - about 90% of public plans offer retiree health benefits while pirvate sector employees rarely get them, AND government workers can start getting them when they retire in their 50's, while private sector plans rarely cover anything until a much later retirement age. State actuarial reports for California indicate the retiree health benefits could another 8% in compensation value. - Adding the values of the above pension and... Read more →

Updated Feb 8th: Video of Governor Scott's Budget Speech in Eustis Today + Article Links

Updated Feb. 8th to add text updates and links to print stories of the event Eustis, FL - : I made my own video at the event of Florida Governor Rick Scott's Budget proposal speech in Eustis on Feb. 7, 2011, but ABC News beat me to it and this is their full video of his speech on YouTube, so watch it HERE: - 23 minutes long. Here are links to the news articles & Budget details: Here is Governor Scott's website with the full, proposed budget: http://letsgettowork.state.fl.us/ Daily Commerical front page article on Gov. Scott's proposed budget is HERE. Orlando Sentinel main article about Governor Scott's proposed budget is HERE. Orlando Sentinel article about educators mad about budget plan isHERE. Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas writes about the budget HERE. Governor Scott's Official Press Release & FULL TEXT of speech at event is HERE. HERE is the Google Search list for "Rick Scott Florida Budget" HERE is the video of Dr. Jack Cassell's talk - taped by Paul Richardson, So. Lake 912/Tea Party HERE is the video of State Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, who announced that he and others would form Tea Party caucuses in both the Florida House... Read more →

Florida's Miami-Dade County to repay $3.6-million to HUD for lousy accounting

If you are a County government, and get a Federal grant from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban development (HUD), you better keep good records to show where you spent it. Apparently the staff at Miami-Dade County flopped the accounting test, and had to repay $3.6-million. This is apparently in a long string of accounting screw ups in that County. Watch out for those Federal audits, Lake County! vj Posted on Thu, Jan. 20, 2011 Miami-Dade must repay $3.6M in Housing and Urban Development funds BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN [email protected] In the latest sign of weak financial controls in Miami-Dade government, the county must pay back $3.6 million in federal grant funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after a federal audit found that county officials couldn't show the money was properly used. The county's latest problems with HUD -- which administrators unveiled at a County Commission meeting Thursday -- come just two years after the federal agency returned control of the troubled Miami-Dade Housing Agency to county hands after 15 months under HUD supervision. The disclosure angered several commissioners -- particularly in view of unrelated financial woes at the Miami-Dade Transit Agency, which has seen... Read more →

Florida Grand Jury Report issued on "Public Corruption" - Will Governor Scott Implement It?

Note: A Florida state wide Grand Jury established by Charlie Crist just issued their "First Interim Report" on "A Study of Public Corruption in Florida and Recommended Solutions". A number of case histories in the report are related to corruption committed by County officials in various Florida Counties. I am posting a link to the full report here and a short news article, and will add my comments HERE later. Note: The full 127 page grand jury report is HERE. vj ================================================================= Will corruption grand jury bring charges, change or just hot air? Interim report reads as a plaintive cry of frustration January 05, 2011|Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist When a grand jury issues a report instead of indictments, it can be seen as running a white towel up the flagpole. For nearly a year, a Fort Lauderdale-based grand jury has looked into statewide public corruption. So far, the only tangible result is a 124-page "interim report" released during the holiday lull. Reading it is a depressing reminder why few arrests might follow, even if Gov. Rick Scott extends the term for another six months beyond February. The report is informative, filled with concrete proposals to toughen penalties, close loopholes... Read more →

Will FL Gov Rick Scott's Efforts to Run Florida like a Business Work?

The Orlando Sentinel had a front page article HERE on Scott's aim to run Florida like a business. Here are my comments about the article: After four years of writing a blog ( www.FiscalRangers.com ) on encouraging the local Lake County government and School District to be more efficient and run like a business (better contracts that don't give away the farm, use of metrics to evaluate cost per service, no sole source contracting, use of sound economic data to make decisions, etc), I suggest that Scott will have problems with the entrenched staff who won't change internal processes unless fired. He can appoint leaders over the various Departments, but unless they have some experienced business process troubleshooters who find the internal process problems, define solutions and monitor implementation, there won't be much progress. They will constantly tell him "there are no resources" to track spending effectiveness, and 3 years down the line he will find no improvement. As an example, the local Lake County government lists "work measurements" in their departmental budget sections, but they only report activity counts like phone calls received or fire report incidents , but don't calculate trends of costs per service, expect plans for... Read more →

Cost Reduction Ideas We Have Submitted to new FL Governor Rick Scott

Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott has a transition website and a webpage to collect ideas from the public to reduce Florida government costs. It is HERE at http://www.scotttransition.com/send-your-ideas/ . Here are some ideas I submitted - I will add more as I do them. 2010-12-09 - Establishment of Independent and Elected County Auditors is Needed Florida counties have no County level department assigned full oversight over performance areas like efficiency, economy or effectiveness. The Auditor General does superficial, low quality financial audits, and the Counties brag about "award winning" CAFR reports and financial audits, but NO ONE is assigned independent review (unlike corporations) of operational metrics, efficiency, and effectiveness to reduce measurable costs. Florida needs to establish tough, mandatory departmental performance metrics, AND establish an independently elected County Auditor like other States have with authority to initiate performance audits of County, Schools, Constitution Officers, Special Districts and Cities. (Note: Some Florida Counties have had so many problems that they established their own County Inspector General - but they are usually run by ex-law enforcement or attorneys and are focused on after the fact investigations of wrongdoing, and not reviewing and improving performance measurement systems BEFORE problems can occur.) 2010-12-09 OPPAGA Needs... Read more →

Governator Elect Rick Scott Establishes High Level Education Reform Committee

In the past, we wrote about actions by then Washington DC Chancellor of Schools, Michelle Rhee, who was turning around the DC schools by firing poor teachers, using merit pay, standing up to union demands and other drastic actions. Now, Rick Scott has selected her as a member of the Education reform transition team for Florida. Wanna bet she is appointed head of the Florida Education system? I would think poor teachers, and teacher unions will get aggravated over this. So, wouldn't you know, the local Lake County School District unions are already asking to start bargaining sessions for next fiscal year's budget allocations for wages and benefits. Unlike businesses, which base wage increases on merit and comparison to economic and competitor statistics, the unions start out by asked how much is in the budget, then go after as much as they can get. It will be interesting to watch what happens, and see if Board members actually use REAL wage and economic data to evaluate the "merit" of any wage increases. (If they did, the wages would be rolled back or benefits reduced and employee contributions for benefits increased.) Here is Scott's transition website and the press release on... Read more →

Get Ready to Pitch Legislative Requests to Lake County Delegation on January 5th

Lake County, FL: The annual Lake County Legislation delegation meeting is where various local agencies make a pitch for Florida State government funding or regulations from the Lake County Florida State legislators (Reps and Senators), and where Marilyn Bainter previously asked for changes to the Hospital District legislation to allow a flexible millage rate (which were ignored). I don’t have the time yet, but it will probably be at the auditorium at Lake Sumter CC. So, if someone let Godzilla loose in Eustis, and he and King Kong took out some historic homes, and your agency wants the State to initiate legislation to provide grant funding for a specific Godzilla rehab clinic grant, this might be the place to make a pitch. (Good luck on that... ) At a previous delegation meeting two years ago, the Legislators let hospital reps give a presentation, but them forced Bainter and her supporters to wait until the END of the meeting after everyone left to give their public input. Hopefully, if Bainter makes a presentation this year, she won't be treated so badly. The County BCC is being asked in next Tuesday’s agenda (tab 6) to approve a staff prepared list for the... Read more →

Fiscal Rangers Endorses Larry Metz for Florida State Representative, Dist. 25

Yesterday, the main editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Metz. Then today, the Lake Section had a "front page" article reviewing Metz and his opponent Rick Joyce. My endorsement is based not on what they said, but my observations of Metz as School Board member and Chairman while I have been attending School Board meetings for four years. The guy has a steel trap for a mind. He is able to mentally organize facts (just like an attorney, which he is), and describe the factors to make a decision in a logical manner, then make a recommendation based on those factors. Emotional reasons without substance don't get past him. I have also met and know Rick Joyce through the Republican Executive Committee, and his appearance at some candidate forums, although Metz attends many more REC meetings than Joyce. I have not been able to observe Joyce in leadership positions like Metz. Both Metz and Joyce have their own law firms and specialize in mediation. At Lake County School District Board meetings, I have watched as he Metz championed the creation of an internal audit function AND wrote the policies for both it and the related audit committee (which I... 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 →

Why Florida & Lake County School Districts & Teachers May Lose LOTS of funding to Rail Systems

Matthew Falconer is running for Orange County Mayor, and his fiscal mind meshes with us here at FiscalRangers.com. Falconer sends out periodic emails on stupid fiscal practices there, and the one below is important. He basically says that the State's plans for Sunrail spending and a number of other rail lines may drastically reduce education funding. It seems the Rail vendors have better lobbyists and State legislators are switching funds to rail that will reduce the pot of funds left for education. The teacher's unions should be going after this issue - they went after SB6 on merit pay, but this may affect them more than any other issue. I would even suggest they closely watch local spending plans for a commuter rail from Orlando to Tavares/Eustis. My experience from California is that rail systems are boondoggles that soak up HORRENDOUS amounts of funds and never payoff. They are corporate welfare for all the firms that subsist on building rail systems and equipment. I don't spend much time on State issues, but Falconer does, so I suggest you get on his mailing list. vj From Matthew Falconer - candidate for Orange County Major: The biggest threat to education and public... 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 →

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 →

Broward County, Florida - Next County that is Victim of String of Fraud & Corruption

Recently we reported on the corruption schemes in Palm Beach County (Florida) which resulted in the County citizens, encouraged by a local Tea Party group, to establish a very strong Inspector General program which is planned to end up having authority over all County government entities as WELL as cities. Palm Beach County corruption cases followed massive cases in Miami-Dade County before that. Now, as reported in the article below, it is Broward County, Florida's turn (Fort Lauderdale area), and more elected officials are being prosecuted and going to jail. It seems they now are uncovering a string of corruption cases as well as a large Ponzi scheme run by a big political contributor. My observation, as a former internal auditor, is that Florida does NOT have an adequate oversight program over local counties. Some other states have elected Auditor Controllers for each County who provide oversight, but here in Florida, there is no such thing. As I have posted earlier, Lake County's "County Auditor" works for the County Clerk, and does not have authority or a charter to initiate audits of other County departments, including the Board's operations or the Sheriff. You can't help but wonder which Florida County... Read more →

Florida State GOP Chair Jim Greer to Resign today

The first article has appeared on Google News so more will be coming. Jim Greer has been under pressure to resign by many State Republicans due to various decisions not regarded as appropriate. Locally, I only met Greer once when he came to Tavares to hold a meeting that resulted in him pulling the "Republican Club" affiliation with the local Lake County Republican Founder's Club. He did the same to two local women's Republican clubs (I believe). So, now the Founder's club is known as the Lake County Conservative Founder's Club. I can't even remember the reason why Greer was antagonistic towards official "Republican" clubs, but he was. Some say it was because he wanted more control over any effort using the Republican name, but it turned off a lot a people towards him. Below is the link to the first article from a Palm Beach paper - look for more, with details why... http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/florida-gop-chairman-to-step-down-under-pressure-163248.html Read more →