by Tampa Bay Times | Jan 7, 2019 | Top Story
By Emily Mahoney (Tampa Bay Times) – TALLAHASSEE — Amid a ceremonial flourish and a raised right hand, Ron DeSantis will become Florida’s 46th governor on Tuesday on the steps of Florida’s historic Capitol. He’s canceled the usual parade and is addressing Legislative leaders on the fourth floor of the Capitol, where the 40-year-old incoming governor will emphasize the need to get to work immediately. After the swearing-in, at about noon, DeSantis will make a speech that will focus on his governing priorities and on a call to unify the state, said Susie Wiles, who led his campaign and now heads his transition. On Friday, workers were busy installing a stage and seating along Monroe Street in Tallahassee to prepare for that speech. Read...
by Tampa Bay Times | Dec 20, 2018 | Top Story
By News Service of Florida (Tampa Bay Times) – TALLAHASSEE — With an unexpected surge in sales-tax and corporate income-tax collections, analysts on Tuesday projected a significant increase in state revenue over two years. If the revenue projections hold, it will ease the financial pressure on incoming Gov. Ron DeSantis, as he prepares his first budget recommendation, and on the Legislature, which must pass a 2019-2020 state budget when it meets in the spring. State revenue collections during the fiscal year that started July 1 have been running $365.2 million ahead of projections that had been last revised in August. The two largest components of that increase were $173.5 million in sales-tax collections running ahead of estimates and $126 million in additional corporate income-tax collections. Read...
by Tampa Bay Times | Dec 3, 2018 | Top Story
By David Smiley (Tampa Bay Times) – Gov. Rick Scott suspended Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes from office Friday, citing malfeasance and incompetence on the heels of a tumultuous recount during which the governor also accused the embattled supervisor of elections fraud. Scott signed an executive order late Friday afternoon removing Snipes from office. To back his decision, he listed a litany of well-publicized problems, including the misplacement of thousands of ballots during the recount, a missed state deadline to file results and the inadvertent mixing of invalid ballots with valid ones. Read...
by Tampa Bay Times | Nov 26, 2018 | Top Story
By Steve Contorno (Tampa Bay Times) – Florida Democrats in Washington could only watch when the Republican Congress decided against new gun legislation after a shooter killed 17 students and staff at a Parkland high school last year. Nor could they force action to combat rising sea levels off Florida’s coastlines. That will change come January. After gaining 38 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, including two in Florida, Democrats will control the lower chamber for the first time since 2011. Read...
by Tampa Bay Times | Nov 15, 2018 | Top Story
By Emily Mahoney (Tampa Bay Times) – The Florida Department of State, which oversees elections, has asked federal prosecutors to look into faulty forms sent to voters in at least four counties that may have caused them to miss the deadline for fixing problems with their mail-in ballots. Emails released by the Department show that the forms appear to have been sent by the state Democratic Party. In a post-midterm season that is bubbling over with lawsuits and allegations of rampant voter fraud, this is the first instance in which state officials have flagged a possible violation of elections law. Read...
