Broward Schools & Property Tax Edition: Capitol to Courthouse Headliners–December 2
Dec 2, 2008
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Court strikes down Fla. charter school law
It may be harder for charter schools to get approval in Florida after an appellate court decision.
Crist, Fla. banks halt foreclosures for 45 days
Florida’s bankers and credit unions announced Monday that they’d suspend foreclosing on homeowners for the next 45 days.
Broward school administrators asked state legislators Monday to find creative ways to make the decreasing amount of money they will be allotted for next school year go further and to adjust existing laws that don’t have price tags.
Broward School Board members asked state lawmakers Monday for more freedom in how they use dwindling school funds, accepting that no new money will be coming to school districts in the state budget that will be approved in the spring.
Broward schools must tap reserves
The latest round of Broward school budget cuts will require using some of the district’s financial reserves.
After slicing away at expenses following waves of budget cuts, Broward County school administrators said this week they will now have to take money from their rainy-day fund to keep the district going.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Revenue Estimating Conference for the General Revenue Fund
Since the August General Revenue Estimating Conference, weakness in the state, national and world economies has deepened. In response, the Revenue Estimating Conference has reduced its estimate of General Revenue collections for Fiscal Year 2008-09 by $1.4 billion or 6.0% below the estimate from August. For Fiscal Year 2009-10, expected revenues were reduced by $2.3 billion or about 9.5% from the earlier forecast.
Budget trouble ahead for state
More than three months remain before next year’s legislative session, but state lawmakers from this area are already thinking about how to reshape government from the top down in response to the nationwide economic crisis.
How quickly did Florida’s once bright economy turn gloomy? The state led the nation in job growth in 2005 and now leads the nation in job losses. After five years of double-digit increases in housing starts and price increases, it’s now second in the nation in foreclosure filings, with 444,000 homeowners in default, according to industry researcher RealtyTrac.
EDITORIAL: Federal aid crucial for financially strapped states
Florida isn’t the only state in deep financial trouble. Nor is it the only state where the brunt of cuts are falling on those least able to suffer loss.
Many think property-tax reform still needs work
To Marvin Miller’s way of thinking, the job has not been done on Florida’s property-tax system.
In fact, part of what has been done simply made the situation worse, he says.
Growth won’t pay the bills in Florida
For the dozen state economists huddled around a table this month to fine-tune Florida’s annual revenue forecast, something was different and disturbing.
COLUMN: Fix tax system or hit the iceberg
When people pleading good causes want the House and Senate budget committees to do something they don’t enjoy, like spending lots of money on things with no political reward for themselves, they sometimes say the Chinese characters for “problem” and “opportunity” are the same.
Plan may aid ailing towns as state stalls foreclosures
Florida Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham on Monday submitted a plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to distribute housing assistance for communities throughout Florida needing help, including Titusville and Melbourne.
Florida lawmakers seek local economic safeguards
With Florida foreclosures skyrocketing and unemployment rising above the national average, lawmakers are scrambling to plug a $2 billion budget hole as the economy continues to spiral.
A year after many local governments yanked their money out, Florida’s local government investment pool has made improvements. But investors still fear they won’t recoup their funds.
Last fall, a state investment fund in which counties, cities and other local agencies parked extra cash temporarily was the largest in the country, at $26.1 billion.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Squelch the trend toward user fees
As economic conditions worsen and the interests of stock traders, insurance agents, car makers and bankers are addressed, our state’s 2,600,000 K-12 public school students will again be shortchanged. Gov. Charlie Crist supports annual university tuition increases from the present $3,400 to the $6,900 national average in coming years, but no mention is made of the mere $7,300 appropriated this year for each of our public school students, compared to the $9,300 national average.
COLUMN: Can ‘sin’ taxes be a savior for Florida’s ailing budget?
It’s been two decades since Tallahassee imposed an across-the-board tax increase to pay for classrooms, health care, prisons and roads. A 6-cent sales tax on services was enacted and quickly repealed in 1987, amid a furor that cost Republican Gov. Bob Martinez his job in the election three years later.
Raise cigarette taxes, allow nude bathing to save budget, residents tell state lawmakers
Smokers and nude sunbathers could help ease Florida’s budget woes, activists told state lawmakers during a public hearing Tuesday.
The most dire fiscal crisis in decades, and some creative word play, could lead Florida’s lawmakers to join the rest of the nation in raising taxes on cigarettes.
Crist, other governors to meet with Obama
Florida’s Charlie Crist is joining his fellow governors for a meeting with President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia.
Legislative leaders from the Florida Panhandle have a long history of bringing home the bacon. Among the most infamous examples were the football stadium that a Senate president from Pensacola tried to build at a university that didn’t have a football team and the original ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ that a House speaker got built with state funds near his hometown.
Water managers have 3-week deadline to sign $1.34 billion U.S. Sugar deal
South Florida water managers have just three weeks to sign off on their contract to buy nearly all of U.S. Sugar’s farmland for $1.34 billion – the centerpiece of Gov. Charlie Crist’s plans to restore the Everglades and the most expensive conservation land purchase in Florida history.
Average pay for Florida state employees drops
2,153 positions added, mostly to university system
Gov. Charlie Crist has stabilized the size of Florida government but, for the first time, average earnings for most rank-and-file state employees have declined under his administration.
Broward School Board weighs boundary changes
Almost two dozen schools could have their boundaries redrawn in Broward as the district, reined in on new construction, tries to meet state laws on crowding.
After being told they can’t build any new schools, Broward School Board members began talking Tuesday about making boundary changes over the next few years that would shuffle students to schools where there is space.
Broward School Board considers countywide ID policy
All Broward middle and high school kids could be required to wear ID badges by the 2010-11 school year.
For years, thousands of Broward middle and high school students have worn a not-particularly cool accessory on their way to class: an ID badge.
A push to raise salaries bumped up teacher pay 22 percent in the past five years, making the Sarasota County schools the second-highest paying district in Florida.
Layoffs a real possibility for Pasco school district
When setting operating budget priorities this year, the Pasco School Board made clear its desire to avoid layoffs at all costs.
Lacking state guide, schools find own way
Brevard blazes path in accrediting pre-K classes
Four-year-old Leah Kerr held a paintbrush up to an easel at Coquina Elementary in Titusville and dabbed at a florescent pink blob.
Lower gas costs help schools’ finances
But higher diesel prices earlier this year still leave many over budget.
Falling gas prices may have you feeling like you’ve got extra cash, but for First Coast school districts, lower diesel prices are merely helping to offset higher prices from earlier in the year.
Arbitrator backs Pinellas middle school teachers
An arbitrator has ruled that the new seven-period schedule in Pinellas middle schools violates the teachers’ contract and should be undone in time for the second semester.
Pinellas School Board faces tough choices on closures
Some key issues will be on the table today when the Pinellas School Board meets in a workshop to decide whether to close schools and revoke bus privileges to some students.
State cuts $9 million from Treasure Coast schools’ budgets
Kids are walking farther to bus stops, there are less sporting events and schools have hiring freezes.
These are some of the ways Treasure Coast school officials have dealt with more than $44 million in state budget cuts. But more cuts are imminent and officials say locally there is no budget fat left to cut.
New Lee schools built with the Earth in mind
The faucets shut off automatically, and the toilets flush less water.
“You produce good jobs by having great education.”
With these words, Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed a bold package of changes in both public tuition structure and governance.
Bright Futures scholarships face cuts
Help about 43 percent of Florida college students
Bright Futures – sometimes derided as the BMW scholarship for its lack of a means test – could face legislative scrutiny next spring amid a third straight year of state budget cuts.
EDITORIAL: Tarnished future–Bright Futures is costing too much
Bright Futures has always been a great program for good students who want to go to college at Florida’s remarkable bargain rates. In terms of tuition, we’ve got one of the lowest in the nation, and Bright Futures has made it so for nearly a decade.
State Board of Education to Meet in Orlando
The State Board of Education meeting will be held tomorrow in Orlando. The agenda and materials may be viewed at:
What’s Working Series Shifts Focus to Mathematics Education
State and national experts gather to discuss “What’s Working in Math” in Florida
The Florida Department of Education will bring together distinguished mathematics educators, researchers and business leaders in Orlando today to talk about the critical topic of mathematics instruction in Florida.
75,000 students get ‘cyber education’
Attorney General Bill McCollum recently announced that his CyberSafety Education program has exceeded the 75,000-student mark for the 2008-09 school year in just over three months.
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