Gov. Charlie Crist may override the Legislature's decision to suspend the $300 million Florida Forever land conservation program, even as lawmakers prepare to make further state budget cuts this spring. ...more

January 23, 2009

Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom said Gov. Charlie Crist should suggest ways to offset any items he vetoes in a deficit-elimination package when he submits his recommendations for the next state budget. ...more

January 22, 2009

A task force looking to return Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to its original status as an insurance company of last resort recommended Thursday that lawmakers increase homeowner rates by as much as 20 percent. ...more

January 22, 2009

The Florida Legislature returned to Tallahassee last week to make the budgetary reductions necessary to meet our state's constitutional requirement for a balanced budget. ...more

January 13, 2009

Higher taxes and other new sources of revenue loom on Florida's horizon - but not in time to stave off $1 billion in budget cuts now. ...more

January 6, 2009

Higher taxes and other new sources of revenue loom on Florida's horizon -- but not in time to stave off $1 billion in budget cuts now. That was the message from Senate President Jeff Atwater and other leading lawmakers, who spoke today about tackling ways to fatten the state's dwindling coffers when the Legislature convenes this spring. ...more

January 5, 2009

Higher taxes and other new sources of revenue loom on Florida's horizon -- but not in time to stave off $1 billion in budget cuts now. ...more

January 5, 2009

Finally, it's official. There will be a special legislative session next month. Gov. Charlie Crist, not a proponent previously, is now on board. That (2008-09) $2.3 billion state budget hole - that could deepen to $3.8 billion or more in 2009-10 - plus possible harm to Florida's credit rating and Medicaid scenarios from hell has everyone finally fixated on a resolution. Presumably, everything is on the table, especially in a state that hasn't fundamentally changed its revenue-raising ways from the LeRoy Collins administration years. ...more

December 24, 2008

Businesses across Florida are carefully watching the Legislature with the deepening cash crisis facing state government leading to the most serious talk of eliminating some tax exemptions since former President John McKay took on the tax structure eight years ago. ...more

December 21, 2008

Sebring City Attorney Mike Swaine said as of Friday his firm Swaine and Harris P.A., had dropped Southern Oaks as a client to avoid a conflict of interest with his other client, the city of Sebring, in a possible deal by Southern Oaks to sell its Hammock Road property to a hospice. ...more

December 20, 2008