Millage Like Mileage for Your House

Today Preston Trigg, Director of Administration & Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's office made his triumphant return to Public Affairs Reporting.

This time however, Trigg was not here to talk about the tricks and tools of dealing with public records; but about how to decipher a government budget and of course the infamous millage.

Trigg started out by saying, "All facets of media and journalism have to work through and around budgets." Certainly a sobering statement for those who wished they could just ignore it.

One of the bigger surprises I learned during Mr. Trigg's presentation was that not all government budgets are balanced meaning your revenue meets your expenses. States like California in addition to the United States federal budget are unbalanced.

When writing a report involving a government budget it is very important to use simple language and explain everything in the simplest terms. A budget is a simple it consists of revenues and expenses. Revenues being money coming in and expenses being money going out.

Types of revenues include: taxes, licenses, fees and utility payments. There are three types of expenses: personnel, operating and capital. Personnel is people; Operating is recurring; Capital is one-time.

The government can also incur debt. This happens when the government sells bonds which is money borrowed by government from investors and paid back over time with interest. Bonds are usually issued to pay for big-ticket items like roads or expansion.

As journalists the biggest sin you can make is publishing false information and working with numbers is not always the easiest or most exciting. To counter any misunderstandings Trigg harped on one point in particular. ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Ask budget officials, they are usually very helpful, because if you publish incorrect information it is more of a headache for them. So be safe and be mutually beneficial.

Last but not least is millage. Millage is a tax levied on your house based on the property value. For instance mil = 1/1000 and if 1 mil = $1,000 property value and the tax rate is 5 mils then your millage rate is $5.

There are several deductions that can be made on your millage rate. For instance the Homestead exemption if you live in your home and you're not renting it you get to subtract $50,000 from property value. There is also the Elderly tax exemption - If you're a senior citizen you get another 25,000 off of your property value.

Here are some helpful links in learning about Millage:

Online Millage Calculator
Some frequently asked questions about millage on the Hillsborough County Property Appraisers website

Where Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean.

Mayor Charlene Glancy























My trip to the Casselberry City Commission meeting this past Monday March 22 went about as expected. It ran a little more than three hours and consisted mostly of readings regarding proposed redistricting, increased development and zoning amendments. Most of which went right over my head.

The council members were seemingly kind, generally energetic and concerned with the well being of their city. An energy that was perhaps only matched by their garrulousness.

However, that all changed when Mr. James Fraleigh took to the podium during the citizens' comments section of the meeting. "What's the matter with you? Are you stupid? Are you morons? You're ignorant and you're wasting the tax payers money!"

In what turned out to be a three minute verbal assault on the council's intelligence and integrity, Mr. Fraleigh managed to jump-start the council who did not take very kindly to words.

After Mr. Farleigh's time was up (citizen speakers are allowed three minutes)the meeting got back underway.

Mayor Charlene Glancy proclaimed April to be water conservation month in the City of Casselberry.

Mayor Glancy then recognized the 60th anniversary of the Woman's Club of Casselberry.

Adam Reichbach, a Special Projects Coordinator, working for the U.S. Census did a presentation about why the census was important. Perhaps the most important thing to take away was that for every 18 people who do not fill out the survey it costs the U.S. government 80-90 million dollars to send out agents to collect the information.

Then began the public hearings which took up the majority of the time. There was a second reading of Ordinance 10-1315 - Annual Capital Improvement Schedule 2009/10 - 2013/14 (LPA 09-08) which adopted the city's 5-year capital improvement schedule to meet growth management plan requirement for cities and counties to submit an annual capital improvement schedule to the Department of Community Affairs. This passed unanimously.

Then there was a first reading of a series of several ordinances which all how to do with increasing development around major roads that pass through Casselberry. So I thought the excitement for the most part was over. I was wrong.

During the citizens' comments section of Ordinance 10-1321 Mr. Fraleigh made his triumphant return to that podium and returned to his venomous rhetoric. Only this time he had been warned and this time it resulted in him being removed from the premises by two large security guards.

I could hear Mr. Fraleigh protest after he had been removed from the council room, but had no idea until the next day that due to his comments and resulting struggle leaving the premises Mr. Fraleigh was arrested for trespassing.

After Mr. Fraleigh's second disturbance the rest of the meeting went smoothly with the rest of the ordinances also carrying unanimously in their first reads.

One final interesting note from the meeting was that city attorney
Catherine D. Reischmann reitterated the importance of public records and constant compliance with Florida Sunshine Law. According to Reischmann, Walton County, Florida was recently hit with $155,000 in attorney fees for sending work related e-mails on personal e-mail accounts. Reischmann sought to remind the council that the city of Casselberry could not financially afford to be so careless and that anytime business e-mails were being exchanged from personal e-mail accounts to just forward them to their own work e-mails which would in return be sent directly to the office computers and placed in public record.

NASCAR, Public Records and Autopsy Photos

"So how did you get into pathology?"

"I just sort of fell into it." said Dr. Vernard Adams.

That brand of dry humor, made the trip to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Complex that much more enjoyable.



Unfortunately at times, due to space constraints I had a difficult time hearing and seeing what Dr. Adams had to say. That being said I think I learned enough valuable information to make my blog somewhat enjoyable.

To start it is perhaps most important to understand what exactly a Medical Examiner does. According to Florida Statute 406.11 the Medical Examiner in the district in which the death occurred or where the body was found is to determine the cause of death when a person dies from the following:

Criminal violence
Accident, suicide or poison
Suddenly, when in apparent good health
Unattended by a practicing physician or other recognize practitioner
In any prison or penal institution
In any suspicious or unusual circumstance
By criminal abortion
By disease constituting a threat to public health
By disease, injury or toxic agent resulting from employment

Any death that falls into one of these categories, under this statute, provides the Medical Examiner with the authority to perform the autopsies or laboratory examinations deemed to be in the public interest.

During this trip I was also able to learn a good deal about public records and what is and is not made readily available.

For instance, autopsy reports are public record, and up until 2001 autopsy photographs were also public record. However, due to the media frenzy surrounding the death of NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt congress changed this law making autopsy photos illegal to the public.



Earnhardt's widow filed a Complaint for Declatory and Injunctive Relief
which slapped an injunction prohibiting disclosure or dissemination of any of the autopsy photos.

The Orlando Sentinel which had previously been investigating safety in auto-racing had earlier requested autopsy photos (as per usual) to further investigate their story and this injunction prevented them from proceeding. In response the Sentinel filed a Motion to Intervene

Long Story short Mrs. Earnhardt was able to pass new law in Florida that prevented autopsy photos from becoming public record, in what chiefly seems to be due to her husbands celebrity status.

I also learned that there are two death certificates. The medical death certificate that includes cause of death is not public record, however the memorial death certificate is available to the public.

Frank Talk

Once again I was unable to attend this particular field trip to the Hillsborough County Clerk of Courts due to my internship, but from the sounds of it, this may not have been the worst of fates. After watching the video I am more than floored by the shear amount of information that Pat Frank is able to manage.

The world of legal reporting is admittedly not my first choice. In fact it is not even really in the running. Perhaps backwards and seemingly contradictory in nature, I would rather be a lawyer than a legal reporter. This is simply because if I am going to be doing that much research, deciphering, legal work, managing and seemingly monotonous work I want to make the most money I can.

However, this does nothing if not further my admiration for Pat Frank. Keeping track of records for longer than a good amount of people live is a task not for the feint of heart. Felonies stay on your record for 75 years and the clerk's office is responsible for keeping these records of every person in the county who has ever committed a felony, misdemeanor or whatever the crime may be.

So needless to say I was somewhat baffled by Frank's admission: "...in our case there are 20 circuits in the state but there are 67 clerks so this is very confusing because you've got in some circuits multiple clerks and that leads to some confusion. In our case we're the 13th Judicial Circuit and we're only one county...Hillsborough, so it's a very simply relationship."

While the statement of having one clerk in stead of multiple makes sense in order of a hierarchy, it fails to take into account that Hillsborough is it's own Judicial Circuit, because it makes up such a large portion of the Florida population thus making Frank solely accountable for that much more information.

In summation: it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to work there.

Anyone who wants to can visit Pat Franks blog cleverly entitled Frank Talk by clicking here.

Steve Andrews, More Than Just Erin Andrews Dad

To live, work and love what you do is something most can only hope for. For WFLA's investigative reporter, Steve Andrews, this dream is a reality. "I really enjoy what I do," said Andrews a 25-year veteran of the field.

And the citizens of Tampa Bay also love what Andrews does as he keeps them aware of potential pitfalls and shenanigans that are prevalent in our community.

Perhaps one of Andrews biggest cases was one of his most recent. Andrews had received numerous complaints about the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance (TBWA), but nothing ever seemed to be true. Andrews considered giving up on the case until he was told he should look into the food at the TBWA.

Being a good reporter Andrews did just that, and much to his shock and chagrin Andrews discovered that the TBWF had been wasting thousands and thousands of tax-payer dollars on extravagant meals. In one year alone, one section of the TBWA spent some $20,000, $100,000 in all Bay Area facilities and an astounding $600,000 statewide.

The TBWA was no stranger to spending hundreds of dollars on regular meals and having board meetings at restaurants just so they could eat. One meal in particular (shown below) had $9 cheesecake, a point which Andrews hammered home and really seemed to stick with his audience.



As one could expect the Bay Area did not take kindly to a federally funded company spending their money on exorbitant meals in stead of getting people jobs who need money to feed their own families. Not too mention this whole situation was exacerbated by the fact that we are presently in a recession, and people need jobs and money more than ever.

As a result of Andrews report a federal investigation followed suit. There were two resignations from the board at the TBWA and three of the four top members were fired.

This kind of case is something aspiring journalists dream of. Cracking the big case, but also the kind of abuse of power we wish we didn't have to report. As such Andrews left us with several keys to being a successful reporter.

Always be tenacious but polite otherwise the public tide can be turned against you. Always be prepared and write down at least three questions, and last but not least always know the rules and regulations for what you are talking about so you don't come across as ill-informed.