Fiscal Rangers

Breaking: Jimmy "Chainsaw" Conner, Lake County Commissioner, resigns to run for Elections Supervisor

Lake County, Florida's County Commissioner Jimmy Conner is resigning and running for Lake County Elections Supervisor. Here are all the details. Read all the article before posting comments. Read more →

Lake County, FL Sheriff Borders drops out of re-election race

Lake County, FL Sheriff Gary Borders has dropped out of his re-election race. Read more →

Lake Sentinel Columnist Lauren Ritchie picks on County Commissioner Tim Sullivan

Lake County, FL Political News: Columnist Lauren Ritchie from the Lake Sentinel is picking on incumbent Lake County, FL Commissioner, Tim Sullivan, about his living in Jimmy Conner's district but renting an empty apartment in the District he represents as a "residence". Read more →

Lake County, FL Candidate Meet & Greet Notice: Feb. 18 in Tavares

The North Lake County Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Women’s Club is hosting a local candidate election meet and greet event on Feb. 18 at 6:30 pm in Tavares, FL for ALL new and re-election partisan and non-partisan candidates for any party or office in Lake County. The event is open to all voters. Read more →

Just Retired Lake County Public Services Director files papers to run against Incumbent Lake County Board member Jimmy Conner

Lake County, FL Politics: Just Retired Lake County Public Services Director Wendy Breeden files papers to run against Incumbent Lake County Board member Jimmy Conner. 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 →

Lake County, FL Legislators Delegation Summit - Dec. 9, 2015, Leesburg, FL

Every year the five Lake County, Florida Legislators hold their annual Lake County Legislators' Summit to hear three minutes of public input from local agencies and citizens. Yesterday, Dec. 9, 2015, they held the annual meeting for three hours with 53 speakers. They use the input to set their priorities for the upcoming Florida legislation session that starts in January, 2016. Read more →

How to Use Common Law Grand Juries to Investigate Government Officials

Who knew there is a method defined in the US Constitution and descended from the the British Magna Carta on how citizen activists can convene a Common Law Grand Jury (CLGJ) to investigate local Governent corruption. A well known conservative talk show host and author, Jason W. Hoyt, visited Lake County, FL recently and explained how to setup a CLGJ. Read more →

Satanist applies to give invocation at Lake County, FL Board meeting, citing Supreme Court Decision, and my recommendations

Satanists apply to give invocation at Lake County, FL County Board meeting, citing Supreme Court Decision, and my recommendations to deal with it. 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 →

North Lake County FL Hospital District Board approves 1-mill property tax and budget of $9.3-million

The North Lake County Hospital District Board met for the second required public hearing on Sept. 24, 2015 to determine the new fiscal year millage rate and related budget which were set at 1 mill and an expenditure budget of $9-million for fiscal year 2015-2016. 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 →

EPA announces new over reaching Land Grab rules to reduce property rights even more!!!

The EPA has issued a new land grab rule that reduces property rights even more. Read this to find out how. Read more →

Video of Lake County, FL debate over Nov. Referendum to Renew $800-million "penny sales tax" for another 15 years

The Lake County North Lake Tea Party and the Lake Federated Republican Women's Club hosted a panel debate on whether to renew the "penny sales tax" for another 15 years, which would collect about $800-million from consumers. Below is the link to the video. Read more →

Be SURE to attend tomorrow's debate on renewing the Lake County Penny Sales Tax in November

Lake County Florida voters are asked to vote no on the "penny sales tax renewal" issue on the Nov. 2015 ballot. This article includes links to pro videos and info on why the tax should be voted down until certain conditions are inserted into the ballot language. There is also a flyer and info for a panel on August 20, 2015 in Tavares to discuss the ballot issue with two for, and two against the referendum. Read more →

Invocations in Public Meetings - Will they disappear due to a new court ruling?

A North Carolina County Board this week followed a new court ruling prohibiting "Christian only" invocations and allowed a Muslim to give the invocation. Then the Chair walked out and the remaining four Commissioners voted to replace invocations with a "moment of silence". Can this happen in Lake County, FL government agencies? 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 →

Lake County, FL Inspector General Bob Melton speaks at North Lake County Tea Party

July 24, 2015 Tavares, FL The Inspector General for Lake County, FL, Bob Melton, was the featured speaker at a meeting of the North Lake Tea Party on July 14, 2015. He works for the Lake County Court Clerk, and can do performance audits of the Lake County Government, but not the Constitutional Officers unless they request an audit. They have never done so. But this talk focuses on his department abilities, and provides insights into the function of Guardianships and what he has seen when working at other Counties. Here is a link to the video of his 45 minute talk: https://youtu.be/jzrh2R8zw14 Here is his Powerpoint shown in his video: Download Role of the IG in Government Guardianships FINAL Here is the Inspector General's webpage on the Lake County Court Clerk website, including many performance audits of Lake County Government functions. Opinion In my view as an experienced Internal Audit Manager, Melton's group issues some very good audit reports on inefficiencies and needed performance improvements in County Departments. He just needs authority to initiate similar performance audits of all the Constitutional Officers and other local agencies like Cities or the North Lake Hospital District or the Lake County Water... Read more →

Lake County surprise assessments could increase your tax bill tremendously

July 10, 2015 Tavares, FL This Daily Commercial article by Livi Stanford explains why you want to resist buying homes that are not on paved roads or may be subject to future assessments for public works projects. A neighborhood in Lake County has 10 homes that were on a dirt road. Some of the owners petitioned the County to pave the road and levy a property assessment on each home. Since a majority of the owners wanted the road, the County Board approved the road paving, with an assessed fee of $1800 per home per year for 10 years. But three of the owners (who objected to the paving) say they could not afford the tax, however the Board this week re-approved the assessment without providing any more relief to the resistant home owners. So always find out if a home you plan to buy may be subject later to some type of assessment for road paving, light poles, sanitation pipelines, septic tank replacements, etc. Vance Jochim Read more →

Tax Wars Start - County plans for renewing "penny sales tax" take hits from Right Side of the Lake Blog

Tavares, FL June 13, 2015 The Lake County Board, School Board and 14 local cities all want you to approve a 15 year renewal of the expiring 15 year penny sales tax. The issue will be on the November ballot, costing $440,000 (or I heard $900,000 at the Board meeting) to hold the election just for this issue. Today, like Vesuvius erupting, the old Right Side of the Lake blog, written by Don Magruder, erupted with many reasons to vote NO on the tax. Several of the reasons are correct. However, the School District and the Cities would be hurting if they each lost their 33%, or about $10-million per year for each of them. I also believe the vote should take place in 2016 during the regular election, and not in a special election costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. My Opinion - followed by link to Right Side of the Lake blog article My first argument against the sales tax renewal is that the school board (Rosanne Brandeburg), at least one city (Eustis) and possibly some County Board members are planning to SELL the future tax revenues in bonds to enrich attorneys, bond salesmen, construction firms and leave... Read more →

Lake County Property Values jump average of 5.8% with Groveland up 19%

Tavares, FL June 1, 2015 The Orlando Sentinel says that Lake County's property values spiked up an average over 5% and Groveland property values jumped 19%, while Leesburg stayed at 1.1%. This is a reason that the Lake County Board must roll BACK the property tax rate to the rate used TWO years ago before Jimmy Conner, Sean Parks and Welton Cadwell bumped up County property tax rates by 14+%. Vance Jochim FiscalRangers.com Read more →

Updated: Cemex suing Lake County Board, City of Clermont & 11 Other Groups

Tavares, FL May 2, 2015 May 3 Update: The Daily Commercial's Livi Stanford wrote a May 3rd article on this lawsuit after the County Attorney agreed to share the "Petition for Writ of Certiorari" legal paperwork filed by Cemex. It is too early to know responses from defendants, so now we have to wait for the lawsuit to grind through the courts or perhaps see a settlement. Cemex wants the mine approved. County Commissioners have been ordered by the legal department not to discuss the case. HERE is the legal petition that gives Cemex's reason for the lawsuit - try the above article first, then read it: Download 2015-05-30 PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI Here is the earlier Daily Commercial article about the Lake County Board's decision to reject approval of the sand mine at an earlier meeting. If you search on "Cemex" on their website you can find a series of articles. Original May 2 posting: The large construction materials firm, Cemex, was turned down by the Lake County Board recently when they applied for a permit to open a Sand Mine in an area south of Clermont. So two days ago, on April 30, 2015, Cemex filed legal... Read more →

Downtown Tavares parking is so bad, businesses are asking the City to fix it

Tavares, FL Apr. 3, 2015 Parking in downtown Tavares, FL is so bad that Orlando's ABC affiliate Channel 9 posted a video report. http://www.wftv.com/videos/news/tavares-residents-want-the-city-to-fix-parking/vDMyPR/ Myrt's Channel 9 report caught part of the issue, but skipped the problem where Lake County government employees are using up some of the spaces. The parking garage was justified by saying government employees would use it, but not all do, AND the entire first floor is set aside not for taxpayers, but police and disabled, and most of those spots are vacant. Why should taxpayers be expected to drive up three levels rather than employees? Finally, many spaces are taken by jury members. They should be asked to park on the upper levels and not take over the lower floors. The entire first floor, as well as parking spots on the street should have posted time limits like 2-4 hours. Otherwise, people with short, legitimate needs to visit the County, like paying a Tax Collector bill or getting a building permit can't find parking, and they are "customers" who should have priority on parking. The blue Mustang is parked on Main St. every day. This picture is of a blue Mustang that is parked out... Read more →

Columnist Explains New Solutions to Poverty & Dependency

Tavares, FL March 29, 2015 Conservative columnist Cal Thomas had a great column in today's Daily Commercial. He described how Federal poverty programs rarely work, but praised a new set of case studies of overcoming adversity from the "Center for Neighborhood Enterprise", run by Bob Woodson. Woodson and US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI - yes, that Paul Ryan who may run for President)recently embarked on a tour showing a new seven part online video seried calle "Comback. It showcases people who overcame poverty, drugs, etc on their own. Those people are labeled as "Overcomers" by Woodson. You can find the seven part video series here. "Comeback tells the inspiring, true stories of real-life Americans overcoming adversity in our nation’s cities and communities." The idea is to share what real people did to overcome their adverse conditions and raise them SELVES up to a better life. (Gee, does that sound like development of the conservative mantra of "self reliance" rather than big government dependency?) Regardless of whether you like Paul Ryan, maybe some Lake County, FL city and county officials can explore this program for local implementation? Vance Jochim www.FiscalRangers.com 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 →

Why aren't Florida Consitutional Officers Required to be Transparent about their Budgets?

Feb. 3, 2015 Tavares, FL - Lake County Why aren't Florida Constitutional officers required to be transparent about their budgets and have public budget hearings like the County, School Districts, cities and Hospital District? Florida requires little oversight on elected Constitutional Officers like Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, Sheriff, Elections Superintendent - I have periodically asked that Constitutional Officers be required to have public hearings over their budget details and to post a DETAILED proposed and then approved budget each year. Instead, they have no requirements to do so. As an example, the Lake County Tax Collector has a 2014-2015 budget of $5.5-million, but his website only shows this very vague, one page proposed budget dated Sept., 2014. Why aren't Constitutional officers required to have public hearings, budget workshops, and post DETAILED budgets on their websites like the County and schools do? What is going for software vs facilities vs utilities vs wages vs benefits? We don't know and are never allowed to provide public input. Ask your constitutional officer AND your Florida legislator why they don't do that. http://www.laketax.com/forms/2014-2015_budget.pdf and, the Tax Collector has only ONE page in the 484 page Lake County Budget book HERE (scroll to page 384).... Read more →

Lake County, FL Animal Services has problems, but at least they aren't labeled a "death camp" like Putnam County.

Jan 26, 2015 Lake County, FL Lake County's Animal Services has had repeated problems with management and their approach to euthanasia. But this article points out that Putnam County, FL has a worse problem - they are labeled as a death camp for animals. See, we aren't the worst! http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-01-25/story/putnam-county-working-improve-death-camp-animal-control-reputation?utm_source=FAC+News+Clips+-+January+26%2C+2015&utm_campaign=FAC+News+Clips+-+January+26+2015&utm_medium=email Read more →

Will Lake County Schools implement the one world IB education program?

The Lake County School Board may initiate IB education programs if two School Board members have their way. There are pros and cons, and we will have more next week. Read more →

Daily Commercial Discloses Capabilities of County Inspector General Bob Melton

Tavares, FL Lake County, FL Dec. 7, 2014 For eight years I have attended Lake County School Board meetings, and attended County Board meetings for 6 years. As a former Certified Internal Auditor I have preached the need to have competent Internal Auditors in both County Government and for the Lake County School District. During that time, each agency went through three auditors and now both have very competent Certified Internal Auditors (CIA) who focus on efficiency, effectivenes and economical operations reviews. I also was a CIA for 20 years. Today the Daily Commercial published a front page story by Livi Stanford on the County's Inspector General, Bob Melton. Livi is the reporter covering both the Lake County Board and the Lake County School District, and has recently been writing articles on the detailed audit reports from each agency's audit departments. Hooray. Now they need to do a story on School District Internal Audit Director Tom Mock, another Certified Internal Auditor. Read the Daily Commercial story HERE. You can find internal audit reports from Melton's website as well as the Lake County internal audits of Tom Mock at these two links: http://www.lakecountyclerk.org/internal_audit/default.aspx and http://www.lake.k12.fl.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=114 And for more background on why... Read more →

Lake County FL School Impact Fees Increased but growth costs still 25% Unfunded

Tavares, FL Dec. 7, 2014 The Lake County Board of Commissioners approved an increase in the Lake County School Impact Fees, raising it from an average $2500 per NEWLY constructed home to $7500. The fee is paid by the homebuilder at time of construction completion. HERE is the Orlando Sentinel story on the fee increase. Impact Fees are based upon the amount needed to generate new student stations (i.e. schools and classrooms) due to growth caused by new residents buying the new homes. Existing homes are not taxed, only new ones. The current rate is based upon a consultant's study required by Florida State that defines the average funds needed per home, and the current rate is about $10,200. However, the school district has no received full funding for years, due to waivers by the School Board and the County Board. Thus the approved increase will still not fully fund the added classroom space and facilities needed due to population growth. Here is the comment I posted on the newspaper Facebook page about the impact fee increase: " Well, this really means that the Schools need about $10,200 for every new house to build schools for the new kids from... Read more →

Video of Common Core Opponents Ripping into Lake County Legislators' Delegation Forum

Common Core Opponents Rip into Lake County, Florida's Legislators' Delegation Forum at a 3-hour meeting in Leesburg, FL on Dec. 2, 2014. A total of 35+ public input speakers presented different issues to the Legislators, with about 10 of them opposing Common Core in Florida. Read more →

Lake County Garbage Gate Fiasco Continues - WCA trash firm fails to pickup on scheduled day AGAIN

Tavares, FL Lake County, FL Nov. 29, 2014 by Vance Jochim Lake Countians GarbageGate Update - The Jimmie/Sean/Welton Garbage Gate fiasco continues... at least in my unincorporated Lake County neighborhood. Those Commissioners voted for this particular NEW method and vendors collecting the trash. My County selected trash collection firm, WCA, failed once again to pickup trash on the correct day. Thursday is my normal trash pickup day, but the published "Holiday" service schedule for Lake County trash pickup (unincorporated) says they won't pick up trash that day, but that Friday would be a normal collection day. The County published "Holiday" schedule of County services ALSO says Friday after Thanksgiving is a normal trash pickup day. So, everyone put out their trash bin and their recycling bin Thursday night for Friday pickup. My neighbor even left his relatives in Tampa early to get back and put the trash out. But the trash bins were still sitting there full of cat poop and garbage as of 7am this Saturday morning. Yup, even though the County issued a press release saying that folks with a Thursday pickup date would have their trash collected on Friday, nothing happened. So, the ignored Lake County trash... Read more →

SHOCKING - Daily Commercial NOW says the Lake County, FL County Commission Should Review the Budget

Yes, today the Lake County, FL newspaper, the Daily Commercial, had both a front page article AND an "OurVoice" editorial saying NOW the County Board, after raising taxes by almost 14%, should "get serious about your budget". This article contains a review of a newspaper article, an editorial and my specific responses to the points in them. Read more →

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer in Tennessee embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014

Local Government Fraud Alert: County Finance staffer embezzled $145,000 from Jefferson County, TN funds from 2011 to 2014 Read more →

Election Recommendations and News of School and County Board meetings this week

Tavares, FL Nov. 3, 2014 This post covers several issues: ( Updated at 2pm to fix some typos and add clarifications) - Election recommendations. Tomorrow is election day, so my recommendations are at the BOTTOM of this document - If you have NOT voted, be sure to do so tomorrow. I also include the Lake County Republican Party voter guide as an attachment. - Tomorrow's Lake County Board meeting is canceled: The Lake County Board of Commissioners (BCC) website today showed a meeting scheduled for tomorrow on their website, but it was canceled at a prior meeting. However, they did not send out update notices to their email list nor did they post the cancellation on the website. So, no meeting tomorrow, and I let them know in clear terms they need to keep the website updated and should ALWAYS send out update and cancel notices when they occur. I also told them about a programming error where if staff remove a linked document, there is no "error trapping" and the user gets an cryptic technical error notice rather than one written for users with a contact for solving the problem. The problem is there is an outside software firm... Read more →

More Problems with Lake County, FL Government online Agenda & Meeting Packets - it never ends

The Lake County, FL Board of Commissioners uses a convoluted and badly designed agenda, packet and video software from SuiteOne Media. I have constant problems with it, and the design is not user friendly. So, here is my latest post on flaws in the system. The problem is no one with technical skills is in charge of it, and they don't test it after posting documents. You have to be a power user or IT specialist to figure out how to find relevant sections and documents, agenda data is not indexed in the massive pdf packet, so if you download it, you can't easily find the section you want in packets that can be 400-600 pages long. Read more →

More Problems with Lake County, FL Government online Agenda & Meeting Packets - it never ends

The Lake County, FL Board of Commissioners uses a convoluted and badly designed agenda, packet and video software from SuiteOne Media. I have constant problems with it, and the design is not user friendly. So, here is my latest post on flaws in the system. The problem is no one with technical skills is in charge of it, and they don't test it after posting documents. You have to be a power user or IT specialist to figure out how to find relevant sections and documents, agenda data is not indexed in the massive pdf packet, so if you download it, you can't easily find the section you want in packets that can be 400-600 pages long. Read more →

Lake County Has New Trash Collection System Starting Monday but the process is botched in my neighborhood - what about your neighborhood?

Oct. 3, 2014 Tavares, FL Update: Oct. 4th - The Daily Commercial had a front page story on this issue, and also obtained quotes that confirmed our prior report's experience (see below) that not all delivered trash carts contained instructions. See their article here. If you live in unincorporated Lake County (not a City), your new trash collection process starts on Monday. If you live in a City with their own trash pickup process, this does not apply to you. In this bulletin: - Lake County Government and/or new vendors may have botched the rollout of new trash pickup services and schedules like they did in my neighborhood. - If you are in unincorporated Lake County and got new trash bins, how to find your new collection schedules and rules if they were NOT attached to your new trash bins. - Rumors about how trash collection fees may go up if a couple of incidents occur. And it seems some of it might be botched up. At least in my neighborhood, we got two new trash bins and NO INSTRUCTIONS or news of different collection schedules. I have not received any mailed instructions either, although a postcard announcing the changes... Read more →

Lake Countians - Your Property Tax will go up 13% Unless you tell Jimmy Conner, Sean Parks, Welton Cadwell & Tim Sullivan NO!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 23, the Lake County Board is taking their final vote to RAISE property taxes by 13%. We provide an overview, a copy of County Commissioner Leslie Campione's plan to avoid the tax hike, and info how you can provide feedback to the four Board members who supported the tax hike in last week's vote. This is the final vote, tomorrow at 5pm. Read more →

Your Lake County Property Taxes may go up 11-18% if you do not take action Tomorrow

Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 | Tavares, FL | by Vance Jochim If you live in Lake County, FL and own a house, commercial or investment property, your property taxes shown on your property "Trim" notice could go up 11-26% due to 1) appraisal values going up 4.2% or more and 2) the Lake County Board approving a budget and tax hike of 11-18% tomorrow afternoon at 5pm (Tuesday). I refer to the County tax increase as the "Jimmie Tax" due to encouragement for it by the Lake County Board Chair, Jimmie Conner. Or you could call it the Conner, Cadwell, Sullivan & Parks tax after the four commissioners who voted for it. (Tim Sullivan since recanted a bit and helped Leslie Campione reduce the pending tax to about 11%.) Below is an overview, our recommendations, and some links to reference documents. If you don't think the tax rate increases listed on the TRIM notice are acceptable, you need to write, call and visit tax authority public hearings to get your point across. There will be other groups who WANT the spending increased, including employees, interest groups and officials and they definitely are calling, writing and attending public hearings. Renters should... Read more →

Another Tax Spender Demand in the Daily Commercial

Once again, the Daily Commercial posted another front page article citing spending WANTS from local County fire officials while not talking to anyone with an alternative, or talking to taxpayers about the merits of adding more people to the staff. Read more →

Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione Explains why County Taxes Need not Increase

Lake County, FL Commissioner Leslie Campione just sent out her monthly newsletter which we inserted below. It focuses on the upcoming Sept. 9th 5pm meeting of the County Board where they may vote in the FIRST of TWO required public hearings to INCREASE the millage rate by 11% or more (it was 18% but that was reduced last week at a four hour meeting.). Read more →

VOTE - Tomorrow - Here are our FiscalRangers.com Election Recommendations

Tavares, FL (Lake County, FL) Monday, August 25, 2014 Update Aug. 26, 9am: We have corrected 3 bloopers as noted below. If you haven't voted yet, below is our reminder and fiscally conservative recommendations for Lake County, FL (no cities). Forward this to anyone who you think could use the information. But first read this NOTE: DID you get your property tax TRIM notice this week and see how high the proposed tax is? The Lake County Board is having a workshop tomorrow (Tuesday) on the pending budget and proposed 18% tax hike. If you want to give them your opinion, call, write or go to the meeting and give public input. You will have to do that at the BEGINNING of the 10am meeting (not 9am) when public input is allowed. The workshop could be 1-3 hours later. This is a workshop, and not the TWO required public hearings which are the final votes on Sept. 9 and Sept 23rd at 5pm in the County Admin building. Plan to be at BOTH meetings. Here is where you can find a copy of the proposed budget Update: 4pm: We got this superb 5 page analysis of all the alternatives to... Read more →

Lake 100 Business Group Meets about County Board proposed 22+% Tax Hike

Tavares, FL August 20, 2014 I was not at today's meeting, but all five County Commissioners were invited to a forum to discuss their planned “Jimmie Tax” (because Chairman Jimmie Conner sponsored it) tax increase of up to 18%. Add to that an increase in taxable valuations of 4.3% - thus the total tax increase on businesses, investment properties and non-homesteaded residences would be about 22% on AVERAGE. South County will see higher increases of 26% or more due to higher valuations and some other areas may see less than 22 % valuations. Only TWO of the County Commissioners showed up at the event, Leslie Campione who voted against the increase, and Tim Sullivan who voted FOR the tentative increase. County Board Chair Jimmie Conner, and Board members Welton Cadwell and Sean Parks failed to show up. The Lake 100 is a business group of mostly CEO’s of larger businesses in Lake County and were all against the tax increase. Campione has a plan where taxes would not be raised and for the County “to live within their means”, but the other Board members have only had two budget workshops and have ignored her ideas. Read this Orlando Sentinel article... Read more →

Tod Howard, Bill Mathias & Nancy Muenzmay win Leesburg, FL Elections HobNob Straw Poll

A Lake County, FL area elections HobNob was held Aug. 14, 2014 in Leesburg, FL and here are the results and links to pictures. Read more →

FiscalRangers Call for action - Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie column has attacked fiscal conservative Leslie Campione and you need to post comments XX

If you object to the way proposed Lake County, FL property tax increases of 18% are being "justified" or you think they are too high, send this to your friends. You can keep up with details on this proposed tax hike by visiting our new FiscalRangers.com blog page HERE focused on just the tax hike issue. Bookmark that page to get updates. As you remember from our prior July 21 warning article, the Lake County Board later voted 4 to 1 on July 22 to approve a tentative property tax millage rate increase of 18% which will appear on your TRIM notices for property taxes in mid-August. Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione is the one who said there were alternative methods to pay requested wage increases and some expenses without tax increases. But the Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Ritchie just wants taxpayers to throw money at the "budget needs" without considering alternatives. Lauren's tax and spend attack column appeared today, and is here. She even used the liberal name calling technique and attacked "Tea Party anti-tax extremists". This is not an anti-tax issue (but I couldn't help using this picture), or against salary increases, but a challenge to the method used... Read more →

The Lake County Board will Start the Process to Hike your Property Taxes 18% or MORE tomorrow, unless you tell them your opinion

Tavares, FL - July 21, 2014 Call for Action: If you are concerned about the County raising your property taxes up to 18% or more, you should be at the first approval meeting which is tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22 at 9am. It is the first of three meetings where the Lake County Board of Commissioners start the process to approve property tax millage rates by 18% or MORE. Tomorrow, they will set the maximum millage rate increase which will be on your property tax TRIM notice. The actual millage rate could be set lower at two future meetings. In my opinion, County Chairman Jimmie Conner is requesting all parties to pile on with budget requests to build up a big pot of "needs", then scale it back to maybe 5-8% and look like a hero. So the problem is not only the millage rate, but which services will be funded. So you need to provide input on both. Here are some recent Daily Commercial articles by Livi Stanford on the budget “needs” – notice they mostly talk to officials or staff who want to raise taxes, and rarely talk to taxpayer advocates about reasons to cut costs to match revenues... Read more →

Lake County Puts off $8-million in Equipment Replacement & Maintenance, and now the Commissioners Want to Raise Taxes 18% to Make Up for it?

The Daily Commercial just reported that County staff is proposing raising property millage rates by 18% or more for many reasons. I was at the Board meetings and saw the presentations. In this article, one reason for tax increase request is because the staff and the elected Board failed to have a routine process to replace $8-million in depreciating equipment and/or budget to maintain it on a yearly basis. "County Manager David Heath said it would cost an estimated $8 million to replace all the vehicles, but it is not possible to replace them all at once." This up and down equipment replacement budget policy has to stop. Here is the article, followed by the comment we posted: http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_f0c15e97-547a-5ef0-8779-b2efc9d68eeb.html Our Comment: How can professional government managers propose a budget to County Board members and leave out the need to replace depreciating vehicles? "there is no funding allocated in that (2015) budget to replace the vehicles." This situation of delayed capital replacement and deferred maintenance continues to indicate a lack of management skills on the part of both staff and elected County officials. This practice of putting off equipment and maintenance makes operations less efficient and now builds up a huge... Read more →

FL House Rep. Larry Metz Provides Update on FL 2014 Legislative Session

The 2014 Florida Legislative session is over, and Lake County's FL District 31 Rep. Larry Metz held a community update meeting in Clermont, FL to describe wins and losses in the recent legislation session. Links to his Powerpoint and Video are included. Read more →

Tomorrow, the Lake County Board Should REJECT any Tax Hike to Fund the Sheriff Unless They Require These Conditions

The Lake County FL Board will be discussing tax hikes and budget increases for the Lake County Sheriff. We do not believe that is fiscally sound without the conditions we describe. Read more →