Last December, city officials bounced around an idea to relieve crowding at city hall while spurring downtown development: Buy the old Fifth Avenue Wachovia bank building and turn it into municipal office space. ...more

December 12, 2007

Letter writer misses the point Re: "County experiencing a turnip crop failure." ...more

December 10, 2007

Guns Can Backfire Regarding "Robbery Victim, 89, Was Carrying Pistol" by Lisa A. Davis, Dec. 6: ...more

December 10, 2007

The numbers are in and they're not pretty. Last year, Metropolitan Ministries served 15,336 adults and children during the holiday season. ...more

December 8, 2007

Commissioner Bill Dodson announced Tuesday that he is running for a third term on the city commission. ...more

December 8, 2007

Donald Trump, who pays $1 million a year on a single Palm Beach County mansion, helped Gov. Charlie Crist raise money Thursday for a ballot question that could cap all property taxes while providing cuts for most homeowners. ...more

December 7, 2007

It has becoming increasingly annoying to me that there is much confusion about what the Florida Legislature recently did on the property tax question. ...more

November 28, 2007

SEBRING — Proposed tax relief for property owners could lead to budget woes for school districts if voters approve the doubling of the homestead exemption on Jan. 29. The tax relief plan also includes a tangible personal property exemption of $25,000 and a 10 percent cap on assessments for non-homestead property. In dollars for the School Board of Highlands County, it would represent an estimated loss of $1.4 million in 2008 or about 1 percent of the school district's general fund and 1 percent of the capital fund. "They [Legislature] said they are going to hold us harmless, but I don't see any other revenue stream that they are going to be able to replace it with, so obviously there's going to be an impact to schools." Highlands School District Assistant Superintendent of Business/Finance Mike Averyt said Monday. "If you try to cut a million dollars ... we're scraping to get the dollars to pay for teacher salaries and benefits and all those programs we have to operate to run this school district," he said, "So it is a significant problem that we are going to have to address if this thing passes." ...more

November 27, 2007

These days, lots of important decisions about your life are being made in Tallahassee. ...more

November 25, 2007

These days, lots of important decisions about your life are being made in Tallahassee. How much property tax you will pay, what kind of insurance you can buy, whether public education and health care will be funded adequately. Increasingly, however, these decisions are being made in private, without the scrutiny of the public and the media. ...more

November 24, 2007