Fiscal Rangers

Florida Standards (Common Core) Listening Tour skips Lake, Orange, Sumter, Polk & Marion County! WHY?

The Florida Dept. of Education is conducting a review of the Common Core based Florida Education Standards. They are having a listening tour in parts of Florida, but skipping Lake, Orange, Polk, Sumter & Marion Counties. Why? We provide links to information and the press release but have no answer why they are skipping those counties. But we include links where parents can go online and review the second draft of proposed new standards and submit comments. Read more →

The new Lake County 2019/2020 Property Tax TRIM Notices are Out - and you need to analyze them

The 2019-20 Lake County, FL property tax TRIM notices are out. We provide an example and some analysis, and tips how to analyze YOUR rates to understand if hidden increases are included. Read more →

Tavares, FL property owners should attend this budget workshop, or open your wallet for higher taxes

Tavares, FL residents need to read this about pending millage rate tax hikes at a City Council workshop on July 24, 2019 at 4pm. These issues of escalating taxes are affecting ALL city and county residents in Lake County and the rest of Florida. If you don't act now, then hold out your wallet for tax day. Read more →

Lake County, FL County Commissioner Wendy Breeden visits the Republican Office for coffee and comments

The Lake County, FL Republicans held a coffee meeting today at the REC Tavares, FL HQ with Lake County Commissioner Wendy Breeden who shared secrets about the County Government. Read more →

Wandry 1919 Mansion in Eustis, FL saved from demolition by Eustis City Council Decision

A 1919 Mansion in Eustis, FL known as the Wandry Mansion, was slated for demolition but the Eustis City Council voted to agree with the local Historic Preservation Board to DENY removing the mansion's historic designation so it could be demolished. Thus the owner will have to renovate or sell it as is. We have links to over 100 pictures we took at a 2016 open house, plus recent articles on the house. Read more →

MedMen Medical Marijuana Pot Growers in Eustis, FL Anger Neighbors Over Excessive Industrial Noise

MedMen Medical Marijuana Pot Growers in Eustis, FL Anger Neighbors Over Excessive Industrial Noise Read more →

A Florida homeowner's guide for coping with surprise real estate developments next door.

Florida homeowners may be blindsided by developer requests for questionable projects next to them like the proposed 4-story rental apartment complex on the shores of Lake Saunders near Tavares, FL next to the single story, single family residences. So we created a 36 minute Florida Homeowners guide to the land development process to understand how to make your voice heard or oppose outlandish land use developments. Read more →

The GREAT annual Sunnyland Antique & Classic Boat show in Tavares, FL is over and we posted 200+ pictures

Tavares, FL March 25, 2019 Pictures by Vance Jochim of FiscalRangers.com You can see all the pictures of the March 22-24, 2019 event organized by the Sunnyland Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Association at this Facebook album link: Read more →

Will Eustis, FL become Lake County, FL's first Sanctuary City? Left leaning City Council members could do it!

Tavares, FL Oct. 26, 2018 A shorter version of this opinion commentary by Vance Jochim was also posted on CityGrader.com. Updated Oct. 27, 2018 with more facts. The opinions in this commentary are all my own, based upon observations at meetings and my research. Will Eustis, FL, controlled by liberal or RINO (Republican in Name Only) City Council members, become the first Sanctuary City in Lake County, FL? As an active Republican and fiscal watchdog blogger in Lake County, FL, I rate this City a C due to the Democrat or liberal sympathizers on the City Council. I live in nearby Tavares and the contrast of "vision" is quite strong. The City staff are quite competent, and the historic ambiance is great, but the elected leaders with a liberal bias are not helpful. I am a watchdog blogger in Lake County, and have been monitoring Eustis politics for years. They keep electing liberal or do nothing Council members under the cover of "non-partisan" elections, leading to disputes with residents. Under the right circumstances, they could become Lake County's first Sanctuary City. City Elections for City Council candidates are now in progress for the Nov. 6, 2018 elections. The positions are... Read more →

Publix Map of Shelf Inventories for store in Tavares, FL

To make Publix shopping easier, I created a floor map of goods and their aisle locations to use for shopping. This Excel version is for the Tavares, FL Publix at HWY 19 and CR 561. Download it, and create your own version for your local grocery store and shopping preferences. Read more →

Bad Roads & Traffic Jams in Lake County? Perhaps we need a #FixOurDamnRoads Initiative like Colorado!

Fed up with bad roads or traffic jams in Lake County or your city while officials spend mega-millions on: - new buildings, - splash parks, - interest payments to pay for non-infrastructure projects, - bike trails, - brick roads, - huge benefit increases including massive retiree benefits, - employee raises costing more than the cost of living, - staff time on private projects like Wellness Way, - "lifestyle" projects, - spending on downtown city projects more than road repairs, - social welfare programs, - free buses that lose money on every trip, - police radios ($18-million), - bureaucratic "required" studies, - huge parks, - trails, - lawsuits, - events and - local charities? Instead of cutting back on those, the Lake County Board (and cities) plan to hike your fuel taxes (it is coming). Everything else, it seems, is a priority over roads. In Colorado, citizens have formed a tax rebellion movement called #FixOurDamnRoads" and collected over 150,000 signatures provided to the Secretary of State. They demand the roads be fixed WITHOUT ANY TAX INCREASES Perhaps we need such a #FixOurDamnRoads program for Lake County. If you see a Lake Country traffic jam or bad road problems, take a picture... Read more →

Lake County, FL Bad Roads - Increased Impact Fees on Tomorrow's County Board Agenda

Traffic and road conditions are getting worse in Lake County. We talk about some of the issues, and how some more funding may be on the way if the Lake County Board starts the process to increase road impact fees on new construction. Read more →

Tavares, FL City Council Meeting VIDEO - Mar. 7, 2018 - More admin screwups postpone Shirley Shores Annexation AGAIN

Tavares, FL Mar. 11, 2018 I uploaded a video to YouTube of the Tavares, FL City Council meeting held on March 7, 2018 which is HERE: https://youtu.be/AWMAe7TYQC0. The agenda location is on the 2nd slide. Length is 1 hr, 17 min. The short link to THIS blog page is: https://tinyurl.com/TavaresFLMarch7 I have decided to write some comments about the actions seen in this meeting video which are below. Tab 7 - Annexation and Rezoning related to Shirley Shores Road / Hidden River Lakes proposed 222 acre development. THIS WAS POSTPONED DUE TO IMPROPER NOTIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC BY THE DEVELOPER'S REPRESENTATIVES. See overview starting at 3:55 on the video then more later. Probably at least 60 neighbors were there for this issue and for the 3rd or 4th time, the procedures were botched, so the issue was postponed to a future meeting. Apparently the developer representatives must follow certain steps and the city staff does not ensure they are followed, then the opposition attorney raises the issue and ONCE AGAIN, the issue is postponed. I am flabbergasted the City staff has no sanctions or fines to apply when zoning/land use change requesters don't follow the rules. So everyone will have... Read more →

Fish Kill in boating canal behind my house in Tavares, FL

The recent cold weather caused a fish kill in this canal off Lake Dora, Tavares, FL Read more →

Updated: Two City Meetings today in Lake County, FL Illustrate dangers of building homes in rural areas that could be annexed by cities.

Tavares, FL Sept 20, 2017 Post meeting updates for both meetings were added at the end of each section at 8pm on Sept. 20, 2017. Can any Lake County, FL resident who built a "dream home" in rural or lakefront Lake County feel safe from being annexed by a nearby city with higher taxes and high density planned development over their back fence? Today are two meetings affecting future living styles of retirees in rural Lake County residences. Two different cities are trying to annex different land areas that County rural residents don't want to happen. They don't want the taxes, or they don't want the planned nearby development that conflicts with the existing land uses. (Note: I will post updates on these meetings below each section after they take place today.) 1. The Tavares City Council meets today, Sept. 20, 2017 at 4pm to review and approve two ordinances that would result in annexation of 222 acres on Shirley Shores Road of rural lands near Deer Island on the south shore of Lake Dora. The second ordinance would change the County defined "rural transition" land use to city land use densities of 3 units per acre compared to existing... Read more →

Video of Lake County, FL Elections Canvassing Board "Audit" of vote machine counts vs manual count

The Lake County, FL Elections Canvassing Board performed an audit on Nov. 21, 2016 to compare a sample of paper ballot counts to machine generated totals. This is an overview of the process and a link to the video of the 3+ hour process. This includes some observations about loopholes in the "audit" process. Read more →

New Video: Republican Candidate Forum for FL Senate Dist. 12 in Lake, Sumter & Marion Counties

This is background and a link to a video of a Republican Candidate forum for Florida Senate District 12, held in Tavares, FL on August 3, 2016. The event was sponsored by the Lake County Republican Party, the North Lake Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Woman's Club. Video by Vance Jochim from the Lake County fiscal watchdog blog www.FiscalRangers.com . The candidate forums held by these groups are renowned for tough questions on conservative issues. Read more →

Lake County, FL Republican Sheriff Candidates Vie for support at Candidate Forum

Last week, on July 21, 2016, three Republican candidates for Lake County Sheriff answered more than 20 questions in a public forum. Here are details with links to pictures and a video of the event. Read more →

Follow up on our visit to Target regarding their gender neutral bathroom policy

Local Lake County, FL citizens visited a Target store in Mt. Dora, FL to discuss Target's new transgender policy that "welcomes" them to use whichever bathroom "they identify with". Two newspapers and an Orlando area TV station covered the event. Angry moms were there, concerned that other males could pretend to be transgenders to enter the women's rest room to take pictures or worse. Target staff were blase about the issue, and did not indicate they would take any steps to ensure only actual transgenders were using the women's bathrooms. Read more →

Board Meeting of North Lake County Hospital District (FL NLCHD) Jan. 21, 2016

The Board of the North Lake County Hospital District met on Jan. 21, 2016 in Tavares, FL to hold a routine meeting. Several routine reports were presented but not discussed. I will attach or link them here when received. They also discussed the wording for the Nov. ballot measure to renew this tax. This Board supervises the implementation of a 1 mill property tax collected of home and business owners in North Lake County, FL. It generates about $8-million in taxes split between two hospitals and several clinics to offset the cost of un-reimbursed indigent care (where the patients cannot pay for medical services.) Read more →

23 Tavares, FL Mobile Home Retirees to be Evicted by Owner for New Development

An owner of a Mobil home park in Lake County, FL and Tavares, FL plans to 23 elderly residents who cannot afford to move their homes and cannot find other locations. He plans to build a large Senior Citizens retirement complex and will not provide subsidies for the residents to move. The state requires some subsidies for moving but they are less than market costs. Read more →

Florida Syrian leader says 1000-2000 Syrian Refugees coming to Florida

Florida is expected to allow 1000-2000 Syrian unvetted refugees in the next year, spread among many cities. The Florida Refugee Services dept. in Orlando, FL is having their quarterly meeting on Oct. 14. Read more →

German Town tells Schoolgirls to "Cover Up" so as not to upset Muslims

Tavares, FL Sept 27, 2015 A German town is telling school age girls to "cover up" so as not to upset Muslim refugees located next to their school. Will this happen in the US and Lake County, FL? One problem with allowing Muslim refugees or immigrants into a town ( or like Lake County) is their fundamentalist "culture" will cause conflicts with American culture. In this article, a German town told all the schools to forbid girls from wearing revealing clothes or bare arms due to refugees being located nearby. They expect conflict like is happening in the UK and other locations in Europe where a small number of Muslims can disrupt communities by demanding accomodations to THEIR culture. Muslims move to other countries but usually refuse to adapt to the local country culture. An example is demanding that women be completely covered up. So, if you read about some of the 85,000 Muslim refugees being re-located in the US by the Obama administration into your neighborhood, this is what you can expect. http://newobserveronline.com/german-girls-must-cover-arms-and-legs-to-appease-syrian-refugees/ Read more →

10+ Reasons to Vote AGAINST Lake County, Florida's $800-million "Infrastructure Sales Tax" Referendum on Nov. 3

On Nov. 3, 2015, the ballot in Lake County, FL will have a referendum asking voters to renew an existing one penny sales tax for another 15 years that will generate between $450-800-million in taxes. The funds will be for capital spending like buildings or computers or vehicles and split in thirds for each of these three groups: 1) Lake County government, the 14 cities in Lake County, and the School District. This article covers 10+ reasons to vote NO on the referendum and conditions needed to save taxpayers $100-million plus by prohibiting use of bonds to run up government debt. Read more →

FiscalRangers Alert: Lake County Board to approve CDBG grant Tuesday morning that requires compliance with Obama's HUD AFFH program to shift poor residents into wealthier existing communities

The Lake County Board of Commissioners meeting agenda for Tuesday, August 4, 2015 contains a consent agenda item to approve a Federal CDBG grant plan. That plan contains a condition to comply with AFFH or Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing which can result in damage to existing property values of full neighborhoods. The Board should pull the agenda item and schedule it for a full staff presentation at a public workshop with public input to understand all the negative implications. The CDBG grant should be rejected due to the requirement for AFFH implementation. Read more →

Obama's HUD program moving forward to integrate low income residents into wealthier communities

Tavares, FL June 12, 2015 The Obama administration and HUD have been moving the "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule " forward. It will require some 1250 cities to do a study and enact programs to rebalance ethnic percentages among richer communities that do not have a desired percent of low income people. Here is Kelly on FoxNews describing it in a 9 minute segment. The regulations would apply to roughly 1,250 local governments. http://thehill.com/regulation/244620-obamas-bid-to-diversify-wealthy-neighborhoods Are you ready for Section 8 welfare rental voucher recipients to be moved into your neighborhood? I wrote about this over the last two years as the rule was moving from proposal to comment stage. It is coming closer to implementation. In the past, they bused low income kids to wealthier schools, but now the Feds plan to hold Federal funds hostage from cities unless they force integration of low income folks into wealthier neighborhoods. I will be waiting to see which Lake County cities are on the "target" list. Of course, once the initial 1250 cities are "integrated", look for more to be affected. That is how liberal programs work. The first indicator will be when specific cities or communities (i.e. The Villages?) are added... Read more →

Daily Commercial fails to deliver newspapers for four days due to new delivery contract

Tavares, FL June 5, 2015 Lake Countians: This information is updated from a memo sent to some recipients yesterday. Update: Today, Saturday, June 6, my paper is missing again for the fifth day. The Daily Commercial is really botching up every newspaper's credibility. I got through to an operator at 7:45 am and they will deliver it later. - The Daily Commercial just got a contract to deliver the Orlando Sentinel, Wall St. Journal and USA Today, plus their own subscribers. - For four days (Update: Now five days), hundreds of subscribers (unverified) did not get their newspapers. - I was one of them. - Problems include lack of planning to hire enough delivery couriers, and changing delivery routes to confuse existing couriers. - The circulation phone number for reporting missing papers is overloaded and put people in endless loops where they could not talk to a staffer or even leave a message. Puppy dogs are even sad when they can't read their newspapers. For the last four days, many Lake County subscribers to the Daily Commercial, Orlando Sentinel, Wall St. Journal and USA Today have not received one or more papers. I called to DC Publisher Steve Scaggs yesterday,... Read more →

Lake County Residential Zoning needs drastic improvement to retain home values

Lake County, FL allows many lax residential code weaknesses, and we show you pictures of many of them in just one residential community. Caveat Emptor when you buy a house in unincorporated Lake County. Read more →

Lake County resident Jennifer Sullivan Elected to Florida State House of Representatives

Tavares, FL Sept. 3, 2014 After local Lake County candidate Jennifer Sullivan, age 23, was elected to the Florida State House District 31, she was covered by many media. Latest articles are at the bottom of this list. Here is a link to one of my videos of one of the last FL District 31 debates on June 18, 2014 so you can see how she campaigned. I will add other links as I find them, but here is ABC TV's August 27 report. August 30 Orlando Sentinel - report by reporter Steve Hudak. And, HERE is a Sept. 1 report from Brighthouse Channel 13 in the Orlando area on how Jennifer won the campaign with less than half the contributions of Randy Glisson's $200,000. Sept. 3, 2014: Here is a CampusReform.org article and great picture about Jennifer's campaign. Sept. 4th, 2014: Here is the expected rant on Sept. 4th from Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie about the local Republican Party to whine after her favored RINO candidate did not win. Sept 5th - Fox Business News's Melissan Francis interviewed Jennifer HERE. Sept 6th - Orlando Sentinel has short "Champs vs Chumps" article and names Jennifer a "Champ" vj Read more →

Florida House Dist. 31 Race Candidates and Our Recommendations

Our overview and recommendations of 2014 election candidates for Florida House District 31 which includes Apopka, Eustis, Mt. Dora and Tavares in Lake County and Orange County, Florida. Candidates include Belita Grassel, Jennifer Sullivan, Joseph Stephens, Randy Glisson and Terri Seefeldt. Article also includes links to videos of candidate forums and other news media articles. Read more →

Upcoming Political Events in Lake County - July 4th, 12th & 16th

Thanks to Jer Broadhurst and James Krakowski for sending these out. FIRST: Tavares 4th of July Parade - starts 5pm, but get there early to get decent parking and bring a chair Watch it from the Republican Party office on Main St. OR join the North Lake Tea Party at slot 87 and help carry banners in the parade. Be there by 4:30 Upcoming Political Events in Lake County Attached are flyers for the two events summarized below. Please post these flyers on your website and/or distribute them to members of your club (or organization), as well as others. LAKE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD FORUM Voters in Lake County should take advantage of this forum, because it will allow them to hear responses from all of the candidates on critical issues. Date: Wednesday, July 16th Time: 6:30 pm (Reception), 7:00 to 9:00 pm (Forum) Place: Tavares Civic Center Cost: Free (but donations will be accepted) (When printing this flyer, reduce to 95% to print all borders) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Vx38N3D3OTYW9Od0Q1b1RxRU0/edit?usp=sharing CONGRESSMAN ALLEN WEST Date: Saturday, July 12th Time: 11:30 am Place: The Lakeside Inn, Mount Dora Cost: Luncheon $100 per person RSVP Deadline: June 30th Purpose: Fundraising luncheon to benefit the "Allen West Foundation".... Read more →

Property Rights Reduced by Lake County, FL Centrally Planned Land Development

Lake County, Florida's Board of Commissioners is considering a New Urbanism "South Lake Sector Plan" development where government planners will damage property rights and decide which land owners get increased value for development rights versus losing property owners who will be locked into Agricultural or Environmentalist demanded Conservation areas of much lower value for the future. Read more →

Wekiva Parkway Update for Lake County, FL by County Commissioner Leslie Campione

Mount Dora, FL Monday, Feb. 17, 2017 Some Lake County residents in Sorrento/Mount Plymouth and future commuters on the Wekiva Parkway are getting shafted by environmentalists, FDOT (Florida Dept. of Transportation) and Orange County's Highway Authority. (That is my opinion, not that of presenter Leslie Campione.) Wekiva Parkway is the expanded north west part of the Orlando beltway that is being constructed now. You can get maps and an overview at: www.wekivaparkway.com Use or download the main map so you understand the project sections and numbers. The website also has numerous Powerpoints you can view for more information. Watch this one from Jan., 2014 with recent info: Download Rotary Club of Apopka 013014 Lake County Commissioner gave an update at Lakeside Inn with TJ Fish, Executive Director of the Lake Sumter MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization). You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/GOLLPbjPTOc The video is not completely in focus because the interior lighting at the Lakeside Inn is so poor the camera could not focus well, but it is clear enough to see the maps and listen to the audio. Some of the highlights - I apologize if I use the wrong names - I am not familiar with the... Read more →

FiscalRangers Alert: Will Lake County, FL Board Throw $2-million More Into Expensive Cagan's Crossings Library?

Tavares, FL - Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 Tomorrow, the Lake County Board is being asked to approve, WITHOUT DISCUSSION, the start of a process to use $200,000 of library impact fees to design the total $2.2-million build out of the second floor of a library in South Lake County for unstated purposes. Those purposes may be to develop services that compete with tax paying businesses. The issue is in tab 8 of the "consent agenda" which means the Board will approve it without discussing it in public at the hearing. Lake County, FL has a very expensive library built in Cagan's Crossings, in the very south east corner of Lake County and next to Polk, Osceola & Orange County. Various agreements exist/ed to allow residents of other counties to use the libraries, but as far as I know, Lake County paid for it. Here is the link to the Cagan's Crossing library page: http://www.lakeline.lib.fl.us/libraries/cagan_crossings_community_library.aspx That is the library where Polk County agreed to contribute annually towards library expenses, then welched, causing the Library Dept. to reduce staff. It is my understanding that Polk County HAS no libraries, thus I assume they do not have a Library Impact fee, but Lake... Read more →

My Reponse to the New ACLU Legal Bullying Attempt to Sue Lake County Schools

Tavares, FL - Friday, Dec. 27, 2013 Update Dec. 28: Lake County School Board member Bill Mathias posted an illuminating comment to this article. Be sure to read it. Both local Lake County newspapers published a column or editorial this week supporting a second attempt by the ACLU legal bullies from Tampa to sue the Lake County School District & Board for not allowing an EIGHTH grader, in a MIDDLE school, from forming a Gay Straight Alliance student club. This is round two. I personally don't have a gripe with gays who live their own life. But I do resent having TV shows and movies constantly adding scenes to portray their lifestyle without warning, or the ACLU using legal bully tactics to force local school Boards to allow formation of clubs to indoctrinate Middle School kids in the gay lifestyle. I don't like legal bullies of any type, but ACLU has it down to a science. Another example is CAIR, which uses legal loopholes to sue in order to spread Islam. And, now that I mention it, there is the EPA who are also legal bullies who take land from owners for environmental reasons. Then there is Common Core, which... 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 →

Action Alert regarding Lowered Water in Lake Dora, Lake Harris & Lake Eustis

Dec. 18 Update #2: Commissioner Campione says she may move the discussion on the water issue UP to the front of the meeting if many people show up to discuss it. That means, be there at 9am - and I assume she MAY allow public input. vj Sun. 10pm Update Dec. 18 - Added info that we confirmed that this issue WILL be discussed at the Tuesday 9am meeting of the Lake County Commission, but it will probably be at the end of the meeting during the Commissioner "Reports" section, usually after 11am. We still do not know if public input will be allowed - return here to find any updates Monday afternoon. Dec. 16, 2011 - Send this to any other Lake County resident concerned about dropping water levels on local lakes like Lake Dora, Harris, Eustis. The Issue: The St. John’s Water Authority is restricting the amount of water flowing from Lake Apopka to upstream lakes like Lake Dora, the Harris Chain, etc. Lake Apopka is the source for most water in most of our other Harris Chain lakes. It is considered, however, to be one of the most polluted lakes in Florida. The St. John’s Water District... Read more →

Lauren Ritchie Skewers Leesburg Stealth Program to Blow $30-million Plus on Smart Meters

Tavares, FL - Nov 20, 2011 Leesburg City's attempts to blow through tax money on a smart meter boondoggle has been covered several times in Lauren Ritchie's columns. It seems it is easy to be the City Commissioners to consider such programs - so be warned - it could happen to you: Read Lauren's article from today's paper AND read all the comments first HERE. Here is my comment posted on the website, including "bonus" comments not on the OS site: Lauren is right. (egads...)! Leesburg City Manager Jay Evans seems to be practicing methods to ramrod staff supported spending or policy programs through elected official boards much like socialists teach city planners to do for "green" programs really designed to remove property rights. He seems to use the "Delphi" fake consensus technique of holding meetings with no formal votes and one sided facts to get "public support". He hides or downplays or delays the true costs (or any costs), allows last minute contract modifications to increase benefits to the contractor, fails to go for public bids again after making significant changes in the contracts, provides one sided back door information to apparently lazy elected officials using emotional pleas. Another... Read more →

FiscalRangers Event Alert: Florida Republican US Senate Candidate Craig Miller to "Work" for four hours in a Tavares, FL Tire Store on THIS Monday, Sept. 26 between 11am to 3pm

Tavares, FL – Sept. 24, 2012 - One of the four Republican candidates for Florida US Senator, Craig Miller, will be in Lake County, Florida THIS Monday, Sept. 26th, to “work” for four hours at a local Tire Dealer in Tavares, FL. Miller calls these events “Miller on Main Street” where he works in REAL jobs for four hours to get feedback from citizens. The picture shows an earlier event when Miller worked in a local gunshop, A.W. Peterson Gun Shop in Mount Dora Miller and the other Republican candidates are running to replace incumbent Democratic Florida US Senator Bill Nelson. The public, press and local officials are invited to visit the shop to meet Miller, have him check their tires (or more…) and lobby for issues. Miller’s campaign website is http://miller2012.com/ . Here is his webpage on his “Miller on Main Street” workday program. Miller has been visiting different businesses in Florida and this one in Tavares, Lake Tire & Auto, is owned by local radio personality and conservative political pundit Ralph Smith. Smith has a radio program on WLBE AM 790 on conservative political issues and arranged the visit during this week’s Presidency 5 campain conference in Orlando.... 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 →

Lake County Impact Fees - Should they be VARIABLE based on distance to infrastructure?

Note: If you are a Facebook member, and want to get frequent updates from our "FiscalRangers" facebook page, go HERE and "like" us.! In Lake County, our impact fees for new construction of houses and commercial buildings are fixed based upon sq ft and property type. The impact fee revenue is used to pay for added roads, schools, fire stations, and parks to handle the increased population. However, the impact fees are FIXED bacause there is no variable rate based upon distance from existing schools or defined population or commercial centers. Thus someone who develops a 400 unit housing development in a town near an existing school pays the same as someone who creates a new development in the boonies, 25 miles from existing schools or towns. The distance means that the County must build new schools and roads to handle the distant population. It seems to me that environmentalists want town centric development, and land owners, development attorneys, certain lumber yard owners and builders want the ability to create developments anywhere in Lake County, and not pay ANY impact fees. They want to shift the cost of new infrastructure to ALL taxpayers by using gas taxes or increased general... Read more →

Economic Development Leaders in Lake County? Yes, we found one at Yesterday's Minneola Business Summit!

As I have watched various issues affect Lake County, it has become apparent that there is not much leadership among the elected Lake County officials regarding economic development. We don't have a County Mayor, so the County drifts along like a lame duck while the County Board argues over zoning a horse riding stable or suing a water company, or they take junkets to Tallahassee to finalize a 350 page Comprehensive Plan containing regulations that will require hiring NINE new staffers (per the study given to the County Board early last year) and will expand County legal liability if the County does not have staff to act on some of the regulations. But, at the city level we have staffers John Drury and Bill Neron sparkplugging Tavares with the support from their City Council, and carrying on a planning legacy from Nancy Clutts. We have County Commissioner Jimmy Conner pushing for fiscal reform, but the County Commissioners do not even have weekly or monthly status reports on the critical issues of jobs and economic development. We have School Board member Larry Metz analyzing impact tax increases and halting some planned tax increases (last year). There is the small business incubator... Read more →

DailyCaller.com Ranks Lake County as 99th Most Conservative Area in the US

Thanks to Matt Gowan for finding this. The online "political news" website has been listing the top 100 conservative areas in the US, and Lake County is listed as 99th.Go here to find out more... vj Read more →