Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States: ...more

November 16, 2009

Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee submitted a $370 million budget request for the 2010 fiscal year in a letter today to county commissioners. ...more

April 29, 2009

County commissioners have tabled plans to build a multi-million judicial center but have earmarked $18.6 million for the project. ...more

April 2, 2009

With federal stimulus dollars on their way to Florida - but possibly not quickly enough - Gov. Charlie Crist announced he is holding back 15 percent from state spending in the remaining fiscal quarter. ...more

March 20, 2009

Unless you had plenty of spare hours to sit at a computer and access hard-to-find Web sites, it could be a daunting task to find out how much money the state of Florida gives out to local government. ...more

March 19, 2009

New Web site tracks how state spends taxpayer dollars. ...more

March 18, 2009

President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.55 trillion spending plan Thursday that would boost taxes on the wealthy, curtail Medicare, lay the groundwork for universal health care and leave a string of deficits dwarfing any in the nation's history. ...more

February 27, 2009

For years there was an annual late-summer rite that occurred all around Florida. The local sheriff, in good economic times or bad, would suggest in a public fashion the bad guys were winning the upper hand and the sheriff's agency needed more money to put extra personnel and equipment on the street to take back the initiative. These days, however, Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats is cutting spending in response to the drop in revenue the county is experiencing as a result of the collapse of the Florida housing industry and the nationwide economic recession. ...more

February 21, 2009

Pinellas Sheriff Jim Coats held a news media photo opportunity Wednesday but he was not showing off any newly captured cache of illegal firearms or load of seized drugs. ...more

February 21, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist released a proposal this afternoon that relies on billions of federal stimulus dollars to boost state spending by $1 billion next fiscal year. ...more

February 20, 2009