Fiscal Rangers

Lake County School Board Votes to Hike Property Tax $25 per $1000 Valuation - 4 to 1

Note: If I misstated some facts here, please notify me directly at [email protected] or submit a comment and I will correct the information if credible. July 28, 2009 - Tavares, FL - Last night the Lake County School Board voted unofficially 4 to 1 to hike property taxes by .25 mills to pay for capital spending and maintenance programs. This was NOT a final vote, but a preliminary vote, and the formal, final vote will be at a Board meeting on Sept. 8th. The issue, covered by newspaper articles at both the Daily Commercial and the Orlando Sentinel, was that the State legislature dumped on all School Districts by changing the allocations for a "2 mill" tax normally received by all Florida School Districts, but restricted to capital and maintenance spending. Thus, it can't be used for teachers or programs. A "mill" represents 1% of property values, thus a 2 mill tax would be $2 for every $100 in property values (residential or business). Or, it is $20 per $100,000 in property values subject to tax. Thus if you have a house with a taxable property value of $300,000, your annual tax of 2 mills would be $60. This tax... Read more →

Florida County Agrees to Full Time Anti-Corruption IG over ALL County Operations

It seems that Palm Beach County has had a number of corruption scandals that has led to three of the seven County Commissioners being put in jail. So, the local businesses pushed for a State Grand Jury hearing and the results were a recommendation for an Office of Inspector General who had authority over ALL county operations, inlcuding School Districts, Sherrif, etc. In contrast, in Lake County, we haven't had any corruption scandals, but the lone Count "Auditor" Office does not have authority to initiate performance audits of the Sherrif, etc. So, it seems you needs some scandals, convictions and State Grand Jury hearings to get full operational audit oversight of all County operations. Note: All County operations have annual financial audits, but that only means the financials are correct, but not audited for operational efficiency, effectivenes, elimination of sole source procurements, etc. And, the School District does have an auditor to do such audits. So, we just need some corruption scandals and convictions and maybe we can get an IG also! vj sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/sfl-corruption-palm-beach-072109,0,7467841.story South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Palm Beach County gives go-ahead to corruption watchdog By Andy Reid South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 21, 2009 WEST PALM BEACH Trying to restore... Read more →

Local Lake County Group Accuses Two County Commissioners of Sunshine Law Violations

This is a pretty well researched article, which if true, indicates that there is some "inappropriate" use of lobbyist's for the environmental movement by Lake County Commissioners Elaine Renick and Linda Stewart. It seems they have had lots of meetings with some environmental lobbyists without recording the meetings, and they are using the lobbyists to write laws that affect all Lake County residents. This is the same thing where pharmaceutical firms use their paid publicists to write articles issued by "scientists" to claim a medicine is safe, without disclosing the affiliation. In addition, I don't like having paid, professional lobbyists on volunteer boards steering the discussion to benefit themselves. And, as the column says, the lobbyists then recommend studies that benefit their pockets...which to me smells of an ethics violation. Finally, I remember when Renick and Stewart used to come to Republican meetings, claiming to be Republicans, but once they were elected on an anti-growth movement, they dropped any pretense of being Republicans and you don't see that at all (especially now that I am in AFghanistan...). So, read, and remember these tales below when the next elections come up. vj Here is the "Right Side of the Lake" news... Read more →

Expose on Former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt

I received this information from Stan Bainter, who was formerly a member of the Florida legislation. Below is his letter, and a direct link to the expose website he mentions. http://psldirt.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html From Stan Bainter This is very long and you may not have time to read it all. Please fast forward to the end and click on the blog PSL-Dirt (which is above, or click HERE.). I served many years in the House w/Senate Pres Pruitt. You may have read recently that he abruptly resigned after the 2009 Session. Now we know why. In l996 when the Rep’s became majority in the House, Dan Webster violated the Republican House Rules that prevented a Leader to succeed himself and got the rule changed. Rep Pruitt was one of Webster’s favorites (among others known as the God Squad) to pull this off. Pruitt was rewarded and appointed Appropriations Chairman. Until this day and reading the attached I always held Ken Pruitt in high esteem. Just proves again the ole saying “Do not believe what a politician says but judge them on what they DO”. IT LOOKS LIKE THE GOOD OLE BOY NETWORK MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE, READ NOT ONLY THE STORY BUT... Read more →