Fiscal Rangers

How the Pilgrims Converted from Socialism to Property Ownership & Grew the USA

I received this Thanksgiving article below from Dan Peterson at the Orlando Coalition for Property Rights - www.proprights.com . Read this and discuss with your families during Turkey day. It is a short story how the original Pilgrims started out in 1607 as a socialistic commune, and everything was shared. Many stopped working and were taking from those that worked, thus fewer had motivation and they were dying off from starvation. So, their INVESTORS came to the US and introduced Property Rights by giving every Pilgrim family some land, which changed their entire outlook towards work, and saved the day and resulted in American being one of the richest nations. Most other countries do NOT have property rights laws like the US. A major result of property rights is owners can borrow against the value of land and invest in creating or growing businesses. That is how America became a rich country, not through socialism. Read about it below, and there are links to other similar stories about the Pilgrims Vance Jochim ============================================================= How property rights saved the pilgrims - from Dan Peterson at Coalition for Property Rights What do property rights have to do with Thanksgiving? The year was... Read more →

Lake County Property Tax Percentages EXCEED Every County Around Us

Tavares, FL Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 Lake County, FL CNN published an interactive map of residential property taxes showing how every County in the US compared to others in two categories: Total Dollars paid per residence per county, and Percent of "Home Price" (not sure if that is original price or current market value per appraisers). They used data from the Tax Policy Center, and we assume the data came from this report: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/stateandlocal/tax-and-budget/Revenues-and-taxation.cfm Lake County property taxes as a percent of "home prices" is 1.08% and is higher than many Florida counties but lower than others, ranging from .58% to 1.36%. Further examination reveals that EVERY County around Lake County pays less percent in property taxes than Lake County homeowners . But Lake County property taxes were not as high as counties in other states according to this CNN map. In the "Dollars" tab, Lake County residents pay an average of $1801 compared to $595 in rural counties to $2751 in Miami-Dade County. CHECK both TABS to see dollars and then percentages of home sales prices. Move your mouse over the counties to see how they vary. http://money.cnn.com/interactive/real-estate/property-tax/?iid=EL So, when you hear people complain about property taxes in Lake... Read more →

Lake County School District Update: New Board Chair and Vice Chair elected, and upcoming Dec. 2nd workshop is OFFSITE at a different location.

Tavares, FL Sat., Nov. 23, 2013 Lake County School District Update: Last Monday the Board elected new Board officers, and Debbie Stivender moved up from Vice Chair to Chair, and Tod Howard was elected as Vice Chair. Congrats to both. A new policy will establish the Vice Chair, Howard, as liaison with the School District Audit Committee, and his appointee to that Committee will be the new Chair. So expect more action on the internal audit front, especially since they now have a new Internal Audit Director, Tom Mock, who will be presenting his audit "risk analysis" to prioritize future audits at an upcoming School Board meeting. It will be at a 2pm School Board workshop on Monday, Dec. 2 at a NEW OFFSITE ocation, the Institute of Public Safety, room 302, 1565 Lane Park Cutoff, Tavares. You can always get early notices of these issues by “Liking” our FiscalRangers Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FiscalRangers Vance Jochim Lake County Fiscal Rangers Chief Fiscal Watchdog Volunteers Searching for Ways to Improve Local Government Fiscal Management, Efficiency & Effectiveness Tavares, FL (Lake County) Mobile: 352-638-3578 [email protected] www.FiscalRangers.com TWITTER: @FiscalRangers "FiscalRangers" page on Facebook YouTube: NEW 6/2012 - Videos of local political candidate forums and... Read more →

Should Lake County Schools Revise Gun "Zero Tolerance" Policies to reflect Common Sense?

Lake County, FL - Nov. 14, 2013 by Guest columnist: Rick Riker (Rick attends many Lake County FL School Board meetings) Lake County Schools & Zero Tolerance Related to Students & "Guns" In response to a number of school shootings, the 1994 Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Gun-Free Schools Act which required every school district to establish a zero-tolerance policy for guns. If a district didn’t establish a policy they would lose their federal funding. Over the course of time zero tolerance expanded to drugs, knives, sexual assault, gang paraphernalia, and explosives. Sounds good but wait. When was it ever legal to bring guns or explosives to school? Was it for show and tell or something to while away your free time on the playground? IT WAS ALWAYS ILLEGAL TO BRING GUNS, DRUGS, KNIVES TO SCHOOL whether or not a school policy was in place. This meaningless, unnecessary top down act was implemented for one reason and one reason only. Like so many federal acts it was an easy way to show the federal government “felt your pain” and was going to do something about it, Somewhere between 1994 and 2013 these zero-tolerance policies became zero-tolerance policies... Read more →

Nightmare of Obamacare Presentation by Dr. Tim Moore

Tavares, FL - Nov. 4, 2013 Dr. Tim Moore, a cardivascular surgeon who owns a surgery clinic in Leesburg, FL gave at talk on the "Nightmare of Obamacare" to residents and visitors at the Royal Highlands retirement community in Leesburg, FL on Nov. 4, 2013. Moore's talk is blunt and covers all the Obama lies and the restrictions and true cost analysis that will affect both working and retired folks, so this is a good video and/or Powerpoint to watch, with many researched facts. We have both the Powerpoint and the video. Download Nightmare of Obamacare 2013 <<<< This is the Powerpoint You can find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSI14Q5OF2I Read the video description also. The best way to watch it is to open a window with the Powerpoint and then another window with the video and click through the Powerpoint as Dr. Moore discusses each. We apologize for the sound, but the microphone was faulty and the hall created an echo due to the placement of the speakers (not under our control). Another version of the video might be uploaded later if we can get it from the owner. Read more →

Lake County might soon be invaded not just by aliens, but backyard chickens.

Tavares, FL - Wed., Nov. 6, 2013 Update 11/15.2013: I added another article about chickens by Vickey Cheney at the bottom of this article Yes, it is true. Your neighbor in Lake County, FL may soon be allowed to setup a backyard chicken coop with up to five hens, and if they cheat, a Rooster also. AND, as the picture shows, the proposed Lake County ordinance prohibits having roosters, but doesn't prohibit having kids in the coop. 1-2 months ago, County Commissioner Sean Parks asked that a draft ordinance be developed to define and allow residential chicken coops in backyards. There were a lot of chicken jokes that day. It is clear that Parks, who is running for re-election next year has staked out his talking points as being "A chicken in every pot" or backyard. Well, the issue has come home to ROOST, because the County Planning & Zoning Commission met on Oct. 30. 1 and I assume approved a pending “Chicken Ordinance” (not verified since no “Actions” or minutes have been posted). It will soon be advertised and then voted on at a future Lake County Board meeting. (As soon as I get the date of the meeting... Read more →