In fiscal year 2008-09, Highlands County will spend nearly $170 million, according to a budget summary presented Tuesday at the county commissioner's meeting. ...more

July 17, 2008

The county government TV series "Profiles on Pasco" will focus on the budget process and proposed spending in the coming fiscal year. The cable show will air multiple times throughout the summer ...more

July 14, 2008

If you have been looking for good economic news locally, you'll like the new Highlands County government budget for fiscal year 2008-09, which begins Oct. 1. ...more

July 11, 2008

BUILDING SUPPLIES JUMP 50 PERCENT ...more

June 22, 2008

During the past seven years, Pasco County officials have collected more than $1 million from developers trading houses and asphalt for trees. ...more

June 22, 2008

SEBRING — The formal legal process for the appeals of two county employees for exchanging inappropriate and often sexually explicit instant-messages will begin in six days, on Monday. Jim McCollum, the attorney for ex-county employees Jared Lee and Treasa Handley, will take sworn statements, recorded verbatim by a legal stenographer, from four people, starting at 9 a.m. in a conference room at the Highlands County Government Center. Handley and Lee were dismissed more than five months ago for sending thousands of personal instant messages to each other, and others, on their county computers during working hours. Many of the messages were sexually explicit, and all of them are public record, accessible to anyone, with a request to either the county's public information officer or the Highlands County Clerk of Courts office. ...more

June 16, 2008

SEBRING – The appeals of the firings of ex-county employees Treasa Handley and Jarod Lee will be heard by new Highlands County Administrator Michael Wright. But the informal hearing process won't be scheduled until after Handley's and Lee's attorney takes depositions from at least four and possibly more county employees. Attorney Jim McCollum, representing the two Office of Management and Budget employees who were fired for sending thousands of personal and inappropriate instant messages on their county computers, has not yet requested a hearing date. Their firings go back more than three months, but McCollum is not rushing to schedule the appeals hearing in front of Wright. Before any hearing is scheduled, McCollum said, he needs to get sworn statements in depositions from several high-ranking county managers and from one ex-county employee, Carl Cool. ...more

June 6, 2008

While Medicare, our national health care program for seniors, drowns in waste and inefficiency, some members of Congress want to throw a life preserver to the health care organizations that improperly bill the program for billions of dollars each year. ...more

February 13, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – The Sheriff's Office sought to rev up support today to buy seven traffic patrol motorcycles with Penny for Pasco revenue. ...more

January 22, 2008

President Bush threatened Thursday to cancel thousands of pet projects that Congress inserted into a massive spending bill before leaving town this week, a move that could provoke a fierce battle with lawmakers in both parties who jealously guard their ability to steer money to favored purposes. ...more

December 21, 2007