Fiscal Rangers

Joseph Stephens Should Drop Out of the Florida District 31 Representative Race

Joseph Stephens, one of five Republican candidates for Florida's House District 31, should drop out of the race. We don't think he is serious. See the video and decide. District 30 includes the Florida cities of Apopka, Mt. Dora, Tavares & Eustis, and covers sections of both Lake County and Orange County, FL. Read more →

Florida Dept. of Education Budget Blunder costs local School Districts $51-million.

Tavares, FL (Lake County, FL) Monday, Apr. 21, 2014 by Vance Jochim www.FiscalRangers.com Pam Stewart (center), head of the Florida Dept. of Education, should be held accountable for this $51-million budget blunder. School Districts in Florida have been fiscally shafted by the Florida Dept. of Education to the tune of $51-million. (FLDOE). Lake County Schools received a surprise cut in budgeted Florida revenues of $916,000. Note: I will be seeking more information on this, and will post updated to THIS page. Update Apr. 23, 2014 - Orlando's Channel 9 TV reporter Berndt Petersen picked up this story and interviewed me: http://www.wftv.com/videos/news/video-lake-county-schools-wont-get-expected-1m/vCYKrQ/ This story was also published on the national news service, WatchDogWire here: http://watchdogwire.com/florida/2014/04/22/fl-budget-blunder-costs-local-school-districts-51-million/ and on April 24th, it was published in the Daily Commercial: http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_465a42d2-2b3e-5e4d-83a0-f875e09cecdd.html#.U1j_pxlp3_o.facebook What did happen? How did Lake County get cut $916,000 and all Florida schools get cut $51-million? Monday night, April 21, 2014, around 5:30 pm, the CFO of the Lake County School District told Lake County School District Board members their CURRENT year budgeted revenues from the State of Florida were being chopped by $916,000 over the next two months, and all 67 Florida School Districts were getting surprise, immediate revenue cuts totaling $51-million.... Read more →

Lake County FL Budget Woes Described, and our Counter Comments

The local Lake County Daily Commercial published an article quoting many officials about low budgets and the possible need for MORE taxes. They did not quote any watchdog groups about alternatives to raising taxes, and we provided some comments they would not publish. Read more →

CRA Update - California Shut them Down, Broward County FL stops funding them, and what will Lake County Do?

Tavares, FL April 1, 2014 No, this is not an actual book, but it could be... In 2011, California Gov. Jerry Brown shut down all CRAs and took their funds. Now they are trying to create new ways in California to replace the CRA’s (Community Redevelopment Agencies) which were never approved by voters, and nothing seems to work yet. http://www.publicceo.com/2014/03/will-california-ever-replace-the-hole-left-by-its-redevelopment-agencies/ Meanwhile, here in Lake County, FL, it will be interesting to see what happens with CRA’s in Lake County. Voters never approved any of them in Lake County. Instead, they were implemented by a legal process where local cities had to prove there was "blight" and no local votes took place. Lake County takes more than $1-million from their general funds and send it to the 15+ CRA’s in Lake County. All are run by cities except the new one in Sorrento run by the Lake County Board, which has no funds due yet to that CRA. Attached here is the recently issued annual report of the Lake County run CRA in the Sorrento area: Download 2014-03-25 BCC CRA Plan - 69pgs My previous article on Broward County, FL deciding to stop contributions to CRA’s is here: http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/2014/01/broward-county-fl-decides-to-stop-contributions-to-cras.html And here... Read more →