Fiscal Rangers

Lake County Building Inspection Departments Need to Issue Tornado Upgrade Guidelines

This is a picture of the Feb. 2, 2007 tornado rich weather pattern crossing Lake County. The Orlando Sentinel just published an article about the weaknesses of mobile and manufactured homes during tornado or hurricane seasons HERE. I just happen to have researched that issue two years ago, after the Leesburg & Eusits tornado, when I was planning to purchase a remodeling franchise. Below (click the link) are my comments, as posted on the Sentinel's website, and then expanded (click link below to see them) plus several pictures: One problem is that local government building inspection departments do not provide any decent guides to upgrading mobile home tie down systems, and they don't recommend them during building permit inpsections. About 2 years ago, Builder magazine published a comprehensive article on the reasons for tornado damage, including mobile and manufactured homes. Just after the Eustis and Lady Lake tornadoes in Lake County, I visited one of the damaged mobile home parks in Leesburg and looked at the separation points where tie downs or posts failed. There was a building inspector there from the Lake County building department to advise homeowners on how to ensure they only used licensed contractors. Since tie... Read more →

Education in China stretches just to get everyone to 9th grade

So you think education in Florida is bad, and underfunded. Here is a link to the Chinese government website on education strategy. To them, they are still trying to bring much of the rural population up to only 9 years of education. Only some 43% of the Chinese population has been to high school. Read some of the linked pages - very interesting. By the end of 2004, China had 2,236 schools of higher learning, with over 20 million students; the gross rate of enrollment in schools of higher learning (college - 13th year and beyond) reached 19 percent. Postgraduate education is the fastest growing sector, with 24.1 percent more students recruited and 25.9 percent more researchers than the year before. This enrollment growth indicates that China has entered the stage of popular education. The UNESCO world higher education report of June 2003 pointed out that the student population of China's schools of higher learning had doubled in a very short period of time, and was the world's largest. Much of the statistics may result from the low enrollment in rural areas and higher enrollment in the large cities. http://english.gov.cn/about/education.htm vj Read more →

Why Are Lake County Commissioners & Constitutional Officers Afraid of Performance Audits???

Below is an example of an overview of internal audit reports by an Inspector General in Washington DC. Earlier, I have posted audit articles about Palm Beach and Miami Dade County scandals and audits. I include it because Lake County has a "County Auditor", but he has no authority to initiate audits like this of the County Commission operations (Fire, libraries, waste, etc), and he has no authority to initiate performance or operational audits of any of the County Constitutional Officers (Sheriff, Elections, Tax Collector, Assessor...). Each of these groups has a "financial audit" that verifies basic financial statements are accurate, but they don't have any of these audits (except some rare ones of the Commissioner operations) for performance, effectiveness, etc. AND there is no central, objective waste, fraud & abuse hotline for anyone to report any suspicious activities. Recently, one of the rare audits of the County Employee Services Dept. was ready for an exit conference, but the interim County Manager canceled the meeting. So, if you see a Lake County Board member or Constitution Officer, ask them why they are afraid to request performance audits or allow the County Auditor to initiate audits without requesting approval!! And ask... Read more →

Ethnic Based Medicare Fraud Spreading from Miami to rest of US

One of the drains on public funds that reduces funding for local government is Medicare fraud. South Florida is the home of Medicare Fraud, and it extends North. This article below talks about how much of it is now related to "home health care" scams, and is run by ethnic minority groups. So, as illegal aliens increase in Lake County, the chances of various illegal activities increases. (Hey, remember I left Orange County, CA, which had lots of ethnic crime...if they don't have education and legal documentation, they are more likely to resort to crime, and teach it to each other.) Keep that in mind when you patronize a restaurant or construction contractor that clearly is using illegal aliens. The more that are attracted to an area for jobs, the bigger the chance some will bring criminal practices with them. And, if government officials award construction contracts without checking to ensure only US citizens are working on the jobs, complain to them. vj Medicare Fraud 'Rampant' In Miami, Spreads Among Different Ethnic Communities Nationally from KaiserHealthNews.com HERE Dec 07, 2009 "Medicare fraud runs rampant in Miami-Dade" while federal experts examine how the crime spreads among different ethnic communities in different... Read more →

Why is the Lake County County Commission & Chairman Welton Cadwell Afraid of Public Input & Transparency???

The Lake County Commission needs to drastically change their resistance to allowing public input at meetings. For three years, I have been going to School Board meetings and workshops, and then started going to the separate County Commission Board meetings or watching them on TV for the last two years. This next paragraph is an extract from the County Commission website describing weekly meeting formats and "encouraging" public input, but then saying it might not always be allowed: "The Lake County Board of County Commissioners meetings may consist of several components, including work sessions, discussion agenda items (departmental business), consent agenda items and public hearings. Lake County residents are encouraged to attend the meetings and to speak at public hearings. The Board normally meets in regular sessions the first, third and fourth Tuesday of each month. Special meetings and/or work sessions may be called as necessary. While public comments may not be taken at these work sessions, the public is invited to attend." One major difference between the School Board and the County Boards is their approach to transparency, or allowing the public to speak and publishing info for the public to review. For instance, the School Board allows public... Read more →

Lake County Jobless Rate Leaps to 12.7% in November While Lake County Board Parties in Bella Collina

So, while the Lake County Commissioners party in Bella Collina, Lake County "burns" through more layoffs and unemployment goes up to 12.7% (which doesn't include all the people who have given up or who don't ask for unemployment compensation). Besides the jump in the jobless rate described in an article below, earlier this week, several of the County Commissioners (except Elaine Renick, who publicly stated it was not a good idea) went to a party hosted by the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC) in a fancy country club in Bella Collina (remember those $7-million homes they had in that big open house 2 years ago?). They did it to give awards to people who worked on Lake County economic development. However, no one I know thinks that any economic development success has taken place in Lake County. Do you? (See Lauren Ritchie's commenatary about the party below) Of course, you might get as angry as I am if you read several of Lauren Ritchie's columns (Orlando Sentinel) this last month about the EDC, and how they use inaccurate data and job counts to report results, or if you knew that the Board approved a FOUR year contract to pay... 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 →

Lake & Other Florida County Hospital Property Taxes Criticized in Orlando Channel 9 Report

Channel 9 in Orlando just produced a TV report on the "unfairness" of Hospital Tax Districts , including those in Lake County. You can read below what we say first, or you can go right HERE to Channel 9 to see their video report, THEN come back here and read our comments! Favorite quote from the TV Report: "Out of nearly 300 hospitals in Florida, only 14 take taxes straight from residents’ pockets; two are in Lake County and three are in Volusia County." They just put it on the backs of the taxpayers. That's not fair and it’s not right," David Sava said." In Lake County, I have periodically reported on this blog about the lack of accountability and lack of justification for the 1 mill property tax paid by North Lake county (FL) property owners (residential and commercial). If you look in the categories section at the right, and click on "North Lake Hospital District" or HERE, you will find a list of our blog posts, including much information from local activist AND Board member of the District, Marilyn Bainter. In our most recent postings on the North Lake County Hospital District taxes, I focused on the complete... Read more →

Clout of Tea Party grows vs Republicans or Dems, According to Rasmussen Poll

A major political polling firm, Rasmussen, has published a study that indicates the Tea Party groups have much more clout in the minds of voters than you might think. Here is what they said: Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters December 4-5, 2009 Suppose the Tea Party organized itself as a political party. When thinking about the next election for Congress, would you vote for the Republican candidate from your district, the Democratic candidate from your district or the Tea Party candidate from your district? Democratic 36% Tea Party 23% Republican 18% Not sure 22 However, the study above is misleading, because the REAL Tea Party folks do NOT intend to be a separate party, and many Tea Party followers consider themselves Republicans, as we explain below. We know the Tea Party in Lake County has some clout and organization, resulting in a very organized campaign for Patricia Sullivan, a Republican running against Democrat Alan (My Congressman is Nuts) Grayson. (You can tell my bias). But the national Tea Party and the local one do not believe in starting a new party, but instead to run under either of the two major parties, R or D, and won't support third party... Read more →

Baltimore Mayor Convicted of Embezzlement

One of the reasons that some elected officials get tied up in financial fraud is a tendency of entitlement after they have won or have been in office awhile. I call this a tendency to confuse social confidence with result oriented competence. A results oriented elected official obtains satisfaction from accomplishments, but a visual image or power oriented official obtains satisfaction from what they get when in office, and sometimes anything goes. So, here, the Baltimore Mayor, Sheila Dixon, was convicted of embezzlement for SOLICITING gift cards from local developers "for the needy" and instead using some of them for her own purchases. So, she only got maybe $1000 but killed her reputation, and faces up to five years in prison. The article doesn't say how the problem was uncovered, but a proper control would be having a fraud, waste and abuse reporting hotline, which Lake County does NOT have. The article briefly mentions that Dixon was also charged with financial disclosure violations, which indicates they have one, and monitor compliance in Baltimore. vjFrom CNN here Baltimore mayor guilty of embezzlement December 2, 2009 10:13 a.m. EST (CNN) -- A jury convicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on Tuesday of embezzlement... Read more →

How Government Can Lie With Data - Growing Global Warming Climategate "BAD data" Crisis

Perhaps you have read about the hackers who posted about 1100 emails from a European science center that supports Al Gores Global Warming hypothesis. The emails show a pattern of collusion to modify or drop data so it only supported Global Warming. In my separate blog on corruption, I already posted a lengthy article HERE from the London Times explaining the scandal. It tells how now the guys with all the "underlying data" used to support Global Warming have deleted much of it so the analysis or data cannot be reviewed. Thus the issue is that most of the statements by Al Gore and others about the coming of Global Warming may be a fraud. So, now the issue is moving to the US, where GOP Congress members have sent a letter to the EPA telling them to halt actions and policies based upon the missing data until the quality of the science can be evaluated. This is a clear example of the risk of listening to government officials or policy setting people who control data and they manipulate it to make their case. ALWAYS question the underlying data for data based decisions. If it is not available or clear,then... Read more →

Innovative Approach to Property Tax Impact Fees Should be Studied by Lake County

Thanks go to Marilyn Bainter who sent me the link to this article, and the new impact fee method described sounds creative and very logical! Apparently in Hernando County (FL), real estate developers have loaded the County Commission with supporters who then cut impact fees in half, without any real discussion on where funds for schools, roads, etc, would come from in the future. But,. the Columnist also discusses another County, Charlotte County, where they came up with a creative approach by setting sliding impact fees based upon the DISTANCE from existing facilities. They had already tried drastic reductions of impact fees and "it didn't work" (no reason supplied). Thus the impact fee might be half off if a new house was built within 2 miles (no bus requred by the State) of an existing school. But, if a new housing tract was built far away from existing schools AND roads, then fees were much higher to reflect the cost of building infrastructure and schools to support the new tract. I think that is very innovative, and also supports the Lake County type of development plan where land zoning is being setup in clusters so that we don't have sprawl.... Read more →

Spend $700-Million Florida Tax Dollars on a Train, or on Education?

Ok, so Matt Falconer is running for Orange County Mayor, and this blog is for Lake County. BUT, Matt Falconer has a good point in his email that is below. If Sunrail is passed due to the heavy lobbying, there will definitely be less funds left for education. The website Centralfloridapolitics.com says that “SunRail would cost $1.2billion, with $500 million or more possibly coming from the federal government. The first 31 miles, from south Volusia County to Sand Lake Road in Orange, could be up and running in 2012, with the remainder in 2014.” That means about $700-million would come from Florida taxpayers. I agree with Falconer on the costs for rail. In California and Los Angeles, they pushed through laws to build rail lines and they were a huge cost per rider. I support big business, but not in this situation of corporate welfare, if Falconer’s info on CSX is accurate. And, any talk of this project generating jobs should consider that if the funds are spent elsewhere, like Education, they will still create or save jobs, so I consider it an even wash. The issue would be whether the funds go for LAND, and also railroad building work,... Read more →