Archive for the ‘Taxation’ Category
Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: These meetings will take place on Monday, June 21. The meetings will begin at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet. Please note the…
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Apparently last week’s Pensacola Tea Party rally wasn’t big enough for Rick Outzen and company. They packed up and travelled to Tallahassee last week to take in the big rally at the Capitol. As entertaining as the Pensacola rally was, we didn’t have anyone show up in Spiderman costumes or 18th-century garb. Good thing the Independent News crew brought along a video camera.
For more videos from the Tallahassee rally, check out Rick’s Blog…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Crist vetoes SB6. In case you didn’t notice amid all the Tax Day excitement, Governor Crist did veto SB6, the controversial education bill. We’re glad he did. The bill would have taken more control away from local school districts and tied teacher pay to FCAT results, among many other flaws.
City stormwater fees. The PNJ’s Jamie Page thoroughly explains the issues with the City’s stormwater…
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Upwards of 1,000 people gathered today at University Mall for a big Tax Day rally-palooza sponsored by local “Tea Party” activists. There were, as there have been at other such rallies, those who simply dislike President Barack Obama, because he’s black, or because they believe was born in Kenya or is a socialist/communist/fascist/Marxist. Most of the crowd, though, seemed to be most upset at the fact that their taxes have gone up since the president took office. The thing, though, is that their taxes haven’t gone up…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page. Included in the full agendas are copies of any contracts, agreements, ordinances, or resolutions.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, April 19. The meeting begins at 1:30 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. Please note the earlier-than-usual start time…
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During yesterday’s City Council workshop on the Mercer Study, Councilman John Jerralds broached the often-taboo topic of tax increases, saying that an increase in ad valorem property taxes may be necessary to balance the budget and give City employees raises:
If we have to go back to increasing the millage [rate], I wouldn’t hesitate to do it.
The City’s millage rate currently stands at 4.5395 mills. It was last reduced in 2008…
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A few items we wanted to highlight today:
Page lists potential mayoral candidates. Jamie Page of the Pensacola News Journal lists the names he’s heard mentioned as possible mayoral candidates. No surprises except for Kenneth E. Lamb, the owner of CyberSmart Computers and WEBY radio personality, who at least as of 2008 did not live within the City limits.
O’Brien analyses McLaughlin firing. The PNJ’s Mark O’Brien analyses yesterday’s decision…
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, August 24. The meeting begins at 3:15 PM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall. The Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet.
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Below is the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week. As always, direct expenditures are highlighted. Links to the full agendas are included at the bottom of the page.
Note: This meeting will take place on Monday, July 20. The meeting begins at 9:00 AM in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room, second floor, City Hall.
All committees will meet.
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I wanted to round up a few more links about the Pensacola teabagging parties:
Rick’s Blog:
“Pensacola Tea Party”
The Lunch Counter:
“Pensacola Tea Party”
Pensacola News Journal photo galleries
Blast Off!:
“The story behind the video”
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Crowds of crazy, ignorant teabaggers were out in full force in Pensacola yesterday. Several hundred people gathered at two locations, apparently to protest federal income taxes, even though the vast majority of them have just received a tax cut courtesy of the Obama administration.
As expected, though, the festivities attracted a veritable cornucopia of radical, conspiratorial, hopelessly uneducated wahoos. The system obviously failed these people.
Religious themes dominated throughout, with several speakers bemoaning the fact…
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Progressive Pensacola is proud (or ashamed?) to present the latest installment of our weekly feature, Our Crazy Legislature. Each week, we try to round up some of the many, many bad decisions made by the Florida Legislature, and some of the many, many bad ideas proposed by the legislators therein. There are so many that it’s literally hard to keep track.
“Raise sales tax, cut exemptions, forget ‘user fees’”
“Hang up on this bill”
“Unemployment”
“Florida lawmakers want to ban novelty lighters”
“A serious comment”
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Progressive Pensacola is proud (or ashamed?) to present the latest installment of our weekly feature, Our Crazy Legislature. Each week, we try to round up some of the many, many bad decisions made by the Florida Legislature, and some of the many, many bad ideas proposed by the legislators therein. There are so many that it’s literally hard to keep track.
Miami Herald:
“Common sense goes up in smoke”
Orlando Sentinel:
“We think: State needs fair budget”
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S 1840, a bill which would increase Florida’s cigarette tax by $1 per pack, has cleared the Senate Finance and Tax Committee. From the St. Petersburg Times:
“A Senate committee ended a nearly 15-year freeze on tax hike proposals in Florida Tuesday, unanimously voting to raise the cigarette tax $1 per pack and increase the tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco $1 per ounce.
Supporters called it a historic opportunity to raise more than $870 million in new revenue, discourage smoking, and offset the state’s Medicaid program…”
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As we’ve mentioned before, the idea of raising Florida’s cigarette tax, which is dramatically lower than the national average and hasn’t been raised since 1990, has been picking up steam in the Florida Legislature.
Yesterday, tobacco lobbyists and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff met with House Speaker Larry Cretul to make the case for big tobacco. The Miami Herald political blog Naked Politics fills us in:
[Larry Williams of Reynolds Tobacco]: “Our mission is to say, first people who use our product — 55 percent of them are at the poverty level — and if you’re going to balance the budget, you’re going to balance it…”
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Progressive Pensacola is proud (or ashamed?) to present the latest installment of our weekly feature, Our Crazy Legislature. Each week, we try to round up some of the many, many bad decisions made by the Florida Legislature, and some of the many, many bad ideas proposed by the legislators therein. There are so many that it’s literally hard to keep track.
“Bogdanoff: No cig tax on my watch”
“Budget deficits bigger than Crist figured”
“Florida sales tax breaks aren’t likely to be dumped”
“Lawmakers seek hiding places”
“Storm clouds are on the horizon for state’s Sunshine law”
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Here’s the breakdown of what the Pensacola City Council will consider in the coming week:
*Committee of the Whole
*Neighbourhood Services
*Enterprise Operations
*Finance Committee
Note: The Economic and Community Development Committee and the Community Redevelopment Agency will not meet on Monday; however, the CRA will hold a special meeting on Thursday night, before Council, from 5:30-6:30 PM.
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Lots of good stuff today:
Council meeting roundups
Both the Pensacola News Journal and Rick’s Blog round up last night’s Pensacola City Council meeting:
Sam Hall: “Coffee with the mayor”
Mayor Wiggins is planning a monthly session called “Coffee with the mayor”…
Rick’s Blog: Legislative delegation update
The Buzz: “Zapata files cigarette tax hike”
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An overwhelming majority of Floridians support a $1 raise of the cigarette tax to help deal with state revenue shortfalls, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
The question:
Florida’s cigarette tax is now 34 cents a pack. Some legislators and public health groups are suggesting raising the cigarette tax an additional dollar a pack. Do you support or oppose raising cigarette taxes in Florida one dollar a pack?
Yes: 71%
No: 26%
Don’t know: 3%
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After more than $700 billion in taxpayer-subsidised bailouts for irresponsible corporations, and after our government has absorbed massive private debt into the already-enormous public debt, our American economy is still finding a way to blow itself up. The Dow continues to fall by triple digits every day. Today, it closed at 8,579. One year ago [...]
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District 2 Councilman Sam Hall posted today on the proposed Automatic Aid Response Agreement which I railed against last week. It’s worthwhile reading.
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Currently, the City of Pensacola and Escambia County have a mutual agreement to provide police and fire services to each other when requested. For example, if there was a fire in the County, but there was a Pensacola Fire Department station closer to the fire, Escambia County could request that PFD respond, and we typically [...]
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The PNJ quoted Pensacola City Councilman Jack Nobles as saying, regarding recent efforts to cut City property taxes: “I think the budget we passed is a fiscally responsible budget. We have spread the monies in the right places. I was a little disappointed when I got my tax notice that it wasn’t a little lower, [...]
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The Escambia BOCC voted last night to cut the millage rate, which determines property taxes, from 8.017 to 6.9755 mils. This will represent a savings of $100-200 for the average homeowner, and a cut to the County budget of $27.7 million. Now, the county will make up some of that — around $13 million — [...]
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