Fiscal Rangers

108 Miles of Lake County Roads Belong to the Cities - so who pays for Maintenance?

Tavares, FL - June 25, 2011 - Yup - here is another stupid Lake County government Fiscal Fiasco. If you are a County resident, would you be mad if you found the County was using YOUR tax funds (mostly sales taxes, not property taxes) to repair and maintain ROADS within city limits, and city resident taxes are not being used for the repairs, even though they LIVE or WORK on the street? Are you in a city, paying city property taxes, and the nearby road and sidewalks are not repaired because the City tells you "that is up to the County". The CITY should be doing the repairs using your property taxes or sales tax revenues they get (or other sources). It seems that a number of cities keep growing by annexing neighborhoods and businesses. That means the CITY gets the property tax at CITY tax rates (usually higher than the County), and the properties go off the tax rolls of the County Government, reducing their revenues. That is normal. Note: I if you know someone who should read this, please forward this to them, and ask them to LIKE our "FiscalRangers" Facebook page. But, what came out at recent... Read more →

Government Gone Wild Talk Held Recently in Lake County, FL

The local Lake County Republican Executive Committee (REC) recently hosted Blaise Intoglia who gave an hour presentation on "Government Gone Wild" or just how REALLY bad the Federal government's fiscal position will be now and in the future. There were about seventy of us there, but notably missing were numerous local elected Republicans, even though this was publicized by the REC widely. The only local elected officials present were former Florida State Senator Carey Baker (who is now running for Lake County Property Appraiser ), Eustis Vice-Mayor Sue Hooper (of FairTax fame) and Marilyn Bainter, member of the Board of the North Lake County Hospital District. No other elected Republicans were there - shame, shame. The presentation was a fact filled but sobering view of how bad the Federal government's fiscal affairs are, and how prior legislatures and Presidents (especially Obama) have set the Federal government on a course towards possible bankruptcy. All you local government workers who vote Democrat just remember that when Feds start cutting off grants and programs and your job might be terminated. One subject that made people mad was Blaise's list of the original "estimate" for Federal, State or local Capital construction projects comparing the... Read more →

What Should Local Voters do When their Elected Officials Have no Initiative?

Tavares, FL - June 24, 2011 - I went to a meeting recently where about 20 concerned local residents (not the Tea Party) were gathered to discuss why their area was not improving economically. Their businesses were slowly declining and nothing much was happening. There was a lot of griping about the lack of action by the local elected officials and the manager of their local area (not the County). After lots of discussion, they came to the conclusion their elected officials were part of the problem by not pushing the manager to establish measurable economic development objectives and implement them. It seems that one local high flying city does that, and their success is aggravating others without positive economic leadership. As always, I threw in my suggestion that foreclosures were a big part of the problem. Since I have not been able (yet) to get the Lake County County Commissioners to set up an action plan, I suggested this group add it to their list. I think it got lost somewhere during the discussion about trees. But, there were some heavy hitters from local bigger businesses, and the consensus resulted in the plan to do a survey and get... Read more →

SamAdamsAlliance Market Research on the Tea Party & What's Next

This foundation, SamAdamsAlliance, funds various oversight groups and does research. This link goes to their 2010 series on the Tea Party, who is joining it, and what is next, but this page is before the 2010 elections & examined who makes up the Next Wave of activists joining this movement: Who is identifying with the Tea Party brand? How are they interacting with Early Adopters? How is the Next Wave making its mark on politics? What does all of this mean in terms of the 2010 elections? http://www.samadamsalliance.org/research/activist-insights/next-wave.aspx They also provided seed funding for the "Texas Watchdog" blog in Texas: http://www.texaswatchdog.org/about/who-is-funding-the-work/ vj Read more →

Florida House Re-districting Update & How to Provide Input

Updates: I will add links below to articles about redistricting as I find them (June 22): I received this from the North Lake TEA Party Patriots on the process to decide new Florida House district lines that will be used for the next 10 years in elections. I think it is important information, and gives you information on providing input regarding the formation of new House Districts for Florida. Right now, I don't know that much about what advice to give, but I do know if at all possible, Districts should be compact and follow city or county lines, rather than run across multiple districts making it hard for cities or counties to have an impact on local elected officials. Minorities will claim that compact districts may reduce their clout, while others want compact district lines that follow city or county lines to make representation easier for the new Representatives. HERE is an Orlando Sentinel article on the redistricting. HERE is a list of public meetings in central Florida, including one in Orlando (July 27) and one in the Villages (July 13). UPDATE June 22: HERE is an article on how a redistricting public meeting went in Florida's panhandle area... Read more →

Florida Becomes Haven for Illegal Immigrants Due to Crackdowns in Other States

Not long ago, we wrote about the tougher, Arizona style anti-illegal immigrant laws being passed in other states while Florida did nothing. We commented that illegals will move to Florida. Sure enough, here is an article discussing the same point. The same worked for welfare or works for Medicaid. Some states are tough and don't subsidize welfare or Medicaid and the people who seek those entitlements move to the states that do not. I lived in California, which subsidized welfare so much that they attracted many people who only wanted to live on the fattest welfare checks they could find. Now, Florida, but not enacting regulations to restrict rights of illegal aliens, may attract illegals who no long can work in some other states. Read and then ask your legislators why they caved to the agriculture and other businesses that WANT illegal aliens as cheap labor and resisted illegal immigrantion control reforms. vj http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/neighbors-crack-down-illegals-florida-becomes-sanctuary?utm_source=constantcontact&utm_medium=email&utm_term=readmore&utm_campaign=062011 As Neighbors Crack Down on Illegals, Florida Becomes 'Sanctuary' Supreme Court upholds E-Verify and states pass tougher immigration laws While Florida failed to approve an E-Verify bill this year, all of its neighboring states and even Congress are moving forward with immigration laws. Georgia, Alabama and... Read more →

Maryland County's Inspector General to Examine School Budget Systems after Failure to Disclose $14-million Surplus

It seems that School District staff in Montgomery, MD failed to notify County council members BEFORE they approved the new annual budget of a $14.5-million surplus in funds due to savings in employee benefit expenses. And, they found that the staff knew of the surplus cash before the budget agreements were reached. Most times we hear about fiscal fiascos where government agencies later discover more expenses than planned in the budget, but this is a surplus. Why would they hide the surplus and not disclose it to elected officials setting the budget? - Plain mistakes. - Plans to save the funds for some favored project or wage hikes later in the new budget year. - Prevent elected officials from allocating the funds to projects not supported by staff or other elected officials. But, by not disclosing the surplus funds, credibility of budget and financial processes and reports from staff are questionable, which is why the County Inspector General (no such position exists in most Florida Counties) decided to review the Districts financial reporting. Budget methods are NOT standardized like annual financial statements, and it is easy for staff to snafu, or purposely not disclose certain items since independent oversight on... Read more →

Three Lake County Commissioners Sneakily Approve $8.5-million Emergency Operations Center

Updated June 16 - I added a link below in the "1. Budget Update" section to the County Manager's Powerpoint for the budget discussion. Tavares, FL - June 15, 2011 - The Lake County Commissioners had an offsite workshop yesterday in the wilds of Eustis at the Trout Lake Center. The agenda is HERE and SOME attachments are located under the "Tab" links. Offsite workshops are used many times to make decisions out of public view (no video taping), without public input and poor agenda details. Major results of the meeting were 1) a discussion on the $16-million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2) asking the Sheriff to do REAL budget cuts of another $3-million (5% of his $55+million budget); 3) three County Commissioners, Jennifer Hill, Welton Cadwall and Sean Parks approving the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for $8.5-million without disclosing it or the fiscal impact anywhere on the agenda, or allowing public input, and 4) Commissioner Jennifer Hill, who sets agenda items, did not provide for any public input during the meeting. (which is normal, but annoying, and an insult to taxpayers). We issued a bulletin on Monday about the pending meeting, and suggested... Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Weekly Alert on Local Lake County Government Activities

Tavares, FL - Monday, June 13, 2011 - This was sent out yesterday by email, but I have included some important revisions: - Tuesday School District Board 1PM "Retreat" CANCELED: I was notified this morning that the School Board retreat on Tuesday afternoon was CANCELED since the funeral for Tod Howard's son is Tuesday. However, last night it was still on the School Board website, and is still there this Monday morning. - Former Florida Senator Carey Baker will be speaking at the Wednesday evening Tea Party meeting, not Alan Hays. Hays postponed his appearance last week. Baker currently does not have a political office, but rumors are he is running for a local County Constitutional office. - I revised the wording in the discussion of overhead on the Lake County Fire Assessment District discussion in the County section below to clarify it. - The numbering is off due to this blog software not converting properly. Sorry 'bout that. vj Lake County School District Board a. Condolences to School District Board Member Tod Howard and his wife Ginger for the loss of their son in a car accident last week. See article HERE. Last week, the Board approved a new... Read more →

Lake County Commissioners Decide to Invoice Hospital Districts for $237,000

Tavares, FL - June 9, 2011 - Lake County, FL Commissioners are pursuing collections for $237,000 in required Medicaid expenses from two local Lake county Hospital Tax Districts. Commissioners discovered the existence of a regulation never used that allows the County to invoice local Hospital Districts for required Medicaid payments. So, as this article indicates, they are pursuing collection of about $237,000 which will help offset budget shortfalls. This action has been attacked by another local blog which screams that the Commissioners are "defunding" Medicaid. That is ridiculous. The invoicing was pushed through by County Commissioners Jimmy Conner, Leslie Campione and Sean Parks, who properly took fiscal action to control County costs. All they are doing is following a previously unused Florida regulation that allows Counties to invoice local Hospital Districts for a share of Medicaid expenses previously paid by the County. This releases the budgeted money for other County spending priorities. That invoicing is a good fiscal practice, especially when the approximate $10-million in property tax revenues given to the North Lake County Hospital District are provided, as the article says, "without strings". The real issue is that the existing County Chairperson, Jennifer Hill, and the County Attorney, Sandy... Read more →

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 →

Corn Ethanol in Gasoline - not all it is "cracked up" to be & harmful to environment

The ethanol industry received huge subsidies from taxpayers for producing ethanol that is mixed in automotive gasoline. Former Governor Charlie Crist decreed that WE in central Florida had to have gasoline with ethanol, which is less fuel efficient, runs hotter engines, and damages many small two cycle engines (lawnmowers, etc.). As a car buff, and antique boat buff, I will never forgive Crist for that. Ethanol fuel will not run well in my 1974 Mercruiser outboard engine, so I have to travel about 10 miles to get fuel that does not have ethanol and bring it back in five gallon cans for my boat. We have written about it's harmful effects before, but here is more: vj From Roger Segelken : Ethanol Fuel from Corn Faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’ David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of... Read more →

New "Promise Healthcare" Hospital Planned for the Villages

Here is an article about a new 40-bed hospital planned for the Villages for acute-care long term patients. The interesting thing is that this $22-million facility will rely on Medicare patients, which means they WILL MAKE MONEY in the Villages and with Medicare as the main revenue source. In contrast, what is it about Leesburg Regional Medical Center that they claim they CANNOT make money and must continue to be subsidized by North Lake County taxpayers to the tune of $5-million or more a year? I don't know yet it they are also non-profit. If they are a "for profit" hospital, they will also be paying all the taxes that Leesburg, a non-profit, does not. vj http://www.dailycommercial.com/localnews/story/060311newhospital Read more →