Fiscal Rangers

Official Lake County Map of the Boundaries of the North & South Lake County Hospital Districts

There are really two Hospital Tax Districts in Lake county, but this blog has focused on issues related only to the North Lake County Hospital District. For the record, here is the official map of the District boundaries: http://www.lakecountyfl.gov/pdfs/gis/maps/HospitalDistricts_22x34.pdf vj Read more →

Lake County Redistricting for Lake County & School District - See maps here

Note: This report is a work in progress - I will add more details to THIS page during the next week, including dates of public hearings, link to news articles, additions to the "issues" lists. If YOU have a comment regarding the proposed district boundary maps, post it under this article and I may add it to the article. My intention is to include all issues and info so residents can use it to send comments to the respective board members or make public input statements at the public hearings that will be scheduled in about two weeks to select district boundaries. I would also recommend you ASK your elected official what they think, because there may be other considerations they know about. Tavares, FL - August 19, 2011 - This article is about the LOCAL Lake County district boundaries that will be changing for the County Commissioners AND for the Lake County School Board. Political boundaries must be changed every 10 years per State law to equalize the current population in the new districts. Lake County now has about 280,000 residents, so district boundaries must be redrawn so each of the five districts is about one fifth of the... Read more →

$20-million "Green Jobs" Program in Seattle Deemed a Failure - What about Lake County

Many local governments, including Lake County, have received Federal funds to provide retrofitting services to homeowners to install energy related insulation, etc. Lake County is just starting such a program, called Go Green, Get Green. But Seattle's got $20-million and after one year, they have only created 14 jobs... Hopefully there is more in Lake County, although our funding is a lot less (I think it is $800,000 to provide rebates on energy efficient appliances and retrofits). vj http://www.theblaze.com/stories/seattles-green-jobs-stimulus-success-failure/ Read more →

FiscalRangers.com Agenda 21 Alert: Democrat Florida Senator Bill Nelson Lobbies to Spend $100-million in Fed Funds on "Re-wilding"

tavares, FL - August 12, 2011 - The Florida Political Press tells us that our own liberal senator Bill Nelson is lobbying two US Federal Agencies to dump $100-million in buying more "public land" in Florida that would then be "re-wilded" and humans would be prohibited from visiting the lands. This is all part of the UN's Agenda 21 pushed by socialists to reduce land available to humans. Yes, if you are new to Agenda 21, it sounds like I am yelling "conspiracy" and you are right. But it is part of the early communist agenda and new socialists are using environmentalism to REDUCE LAND OWNERSHIP BY PRIVATE OWNERS by using taxes to buy land and restrict it from human usage. Even in Lake County, we have a "public lands" program with a small tax setaside to buy "public lands" and then NOT develop them for human recreation, but to restrict them from human use. They also want to waste tax funds on "re-wilding" which means tear out all the "non-local" trees, critters, etc and restore the land to what it looked like 200 years ago. I don't know about you, but to me, trees from 200 years ago probably... Read more →

FiscalRangers Alert: City of Tavares, FL to Install 12 foot Mermaid Sculpture in Lake Dora

Tavares, FL - August 11, 2011 - Tavares city officials announced today a new "Art in the Lake" program which will feature a new 12 foot high sculpture called the "Grand Mermaid" in Lake Dora in the front of Al's Landing Restaurant. We floated a new $3-million bond issue, so we thought, instead of using it for sidewalks or train tracks, why not? says an official. Kayaker's will use it as a boundary in new Kayak races between Mt. Dora and Tavares. "We will show up those &*&^(%$# Dragon Boats..." said one Kayaker. A city spokesperson said "We need a UNIQUE, singular image for the City, and Seaplanes aren't it. We need an image that only one city would dare to have - a mermaid in the water." The sculpture, currently residing in Hamburg, Germany, will be shipped via Taiwan and then to Tavares during a city officials' "business development" trip which will only cost taxpayers $143,000. Last year, they visited Taiwan, but have a more ambitious program this year. Of course, none of this might be true, or Lauren Richie would have already written an expose on it, but knowing the Tavares city officials who like to work on... Read more →

Agenda 21 Update: Florida Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida to be Abolished

Tavares, FL - August 9, 2011 - Recently we wrote about the dangers of the UN Agenda 21 socialistic philosophy being rolled out into local government, with land planning restrictions that reduced property rights, with "planning" methods to push people away from CHOICE in where they lived to government decided central people pods (or "Employment Centers" in Green Speak). I don't really know what is the right answer to "growth" but stealth marketing of extreme Agenda 21 objectives needs to be monitored. I mentioned the existence of a Florida State Commission called the "Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida", and some of its objectives which reek of Agenda 21 objectives. But, a recent Florida law will apparenty abolish the 15 member Commission and they defunded it for year 2010-2011. Today I was reading an analysis of a new law passed by the current conservatives in the State legislature, HB 7201. The Lake County Board will get a presentation NEXT Tuesday on this bill and how it affects the County Comp Plan. Effect of the Bill This bill repeals s. 163.3247, F.S., and abolishes the Century Commission on June 30, 2013. You can go HERE to read three analysis of the... Read more →

Lake County Upcoming Government Issues for this Week - August 8

Tavares, FL - August 8, 2011 - Below are issues to be discussed by the Lake County Board and the Lake County School Board at their meetings this week, with my comments thrown in... Today - Monday - Lake County School District - go to their website HERE and view the "Board Docs" section for agendas and attachments, if any. A-1. School District Workshop at 2pm, TODAY, Monday, at School District building on HWY 441 This is a short workshop with the following topics, with my comments, if any: 2. TOPICS 2.01 Transportation Update From Lake County Public Works (Ross Pluta and Seth Lynch, Engineers) 2.02 Update to Capital Budget (Harry Fix, Director of Growth Planning) - NOTE: There IS an 8-page attachment which is a revised 2011-2012 Capital spending budget on the online agenda page in "Board Docs" It basically defers several construction projects due to the lack of funding. 2.03 Restructuring of Auditing Department (Susan Moxley, Superintendent) - This is interesting - the Board just last week agreed (I think) to continue the contract of the existing District Auditor, but attendees at the meeting said that two Board members said they could't understand his presentation. For the last... Read more →

Lake County Sheriff Discovers New "Prisoner Assisted" Method to Make up Budget Shortfalls

Tavares, FL - August 3, 2011 - The Lake County Sheriff's department made ABC news this week when some inmates in the Lake County Jail found a way to scam the phone system used for inmate phone calls. One inmate discovered a way to earn refunds from incomplete phone calls and made enough money to pay his bond and leave jail with a check for $50+ . Since the Sherrif, Gary Borders, is being asked to reduce spending to offset County budget shortfalls, maybe they should continue this contract and let the prisoners work on a new prison work detail to figure out another scam and split the earnings. They already use prisoners for work details to cut grass.. clearly they should be using them for more intellectual earning projects. Maybe online gambling? Maybe working reverse Nigerian email and phone scams on Nigerians? Time for a brainstorming session... http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-inmates-scam-jail-phone-system-make-money/story?id=14179653#.TjityOmSPCc.facebook vj Read more →

Meeting Alert: Our Review of the Upcoming Lake County Board Meeting for Aug. 2

Tavares, FL - Aug. 1, 2011 - Tomorrow morning at 9am is the regular weekly Lake County Board meeting held at the Lake County Administrative Building in Tavares. I reviewed the agenda HERE and have the following comments listed by selected "Tab" numbers: This is a regular meeting, so they DO allow public input, but ONLY at the beginning of the meeting AFTER Tab 1 on the agenda. So, if you want to speak for 3-minutes, then be ready to do it then. The Board Chair, Jennifer Hill, still refuses to allow public input as each agenda item is discussed, which the School District DOES allow. Entire Agenda: READ the agenda HERE and watch the meeting online from the same page or attend the meeting and watch for any surprise additions or addendums. Both the staff and Commissioners tend to add last minute surprises, and sometimes they are key issues not defined well in the agenda page. Tab 7 - 4th Annual Green Fair VS Jobs, Economic Development and Foreclosure Reduction - The County staff organized this Green fair and arrange all types of vendors to attend. I applaud the effort, but why not do the same thing to improve... Read more →