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Brevard County commissioners are moving to bypass a property-tax growth limit that Brevard voters wrote into their own charter, advancing a $2.4 billion tentative budget that declares a “critical need” to collect more in property taxes than the cap normally allows. Commissioners approved the tentative budget Tuesday, Sept. 8, setting up a final vote for…
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Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is telling residents that if they vote themselves a property tax break in November, City Hall will simply find another way to bill them for it. Amendment 3, headed to Florida voters this fall, would phase out property taxes on homesteaded properties by raising the homestead exemption in stages — to…
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St. Petersburg’s City Council voted Thursday unanimously to approve a five-year strategic plan for Fire Rescue, signing off on a vision that includes a new headquarters and fire station at the old Tropicana Field site, additional stations under study for District 2, and a fresh push to modernize aging facilities. Council members praised the plan.…
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A coalition of environmental and progressive advocacy groups launched a petition drive this week to ask voters to force the city into taking over its electric grid from Duke Energy — a move that, by the industry’s own estimate, could cost St. Petersburg residents between $2.7 billion and $4.1 billion. The group, Public Power St.…
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Tampa city officials have pushed back a key round of negotiations on the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal, delaying talks on community benefit commitments until November — weeks after city and county leaders already signed off on their share of public funding for the $2.3 billion project. The Community Redevelopment Agency’s legal team said it…
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Manatee County Sheriff’s deputies are stepping up patrols across 33 high-crash locations this year, funded by a $78,000 state grant — a modest price tag next to the human cost of a problem that’s landed the county among Florida’s worst 25 for serious and fatal pedestrian and bicycle crashes. The high-visibility enforcement campaign, now in…
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When federal funding cuts forced a Seminole Heights drop-in center to shut its doors last year, it wasn’t a new government program that brought it back. Two private nonprofits decided to solve the problem themselves. Starting Thursday, The DROP — short for Dignity and Resilience Operations Partnership, run by WellBuilt Cities — is partnering with…
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For years, Pinellas County kept funding buildings the birth rate had already emptied out. On Thursday, Superintendent Kevin Hendrick put a number on that avoidance: 45,000 empty seats district-wide, and a recommendation to close seven schools that the enrollment numbers can no longer support. The list — Tarpon Springs Fundamental, Kings Highway, Azalea, Blanton, Bear…
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For the third time since Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s SAVE Act into law in April, advocacy groups are back in federal court trying to stop a law that hasn’t even taken effect yet. The latest suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, comes from the Southern Poverty Law…
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State regulators are moving forward on a proposal that could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for roughly $30 million to acquire nearly 28 acres of beachfront property at Mandalay Point, on the northern tip of Clearwater Beach, through the state’s Florida Forever land-buying program. The property, which sits across Dunedin Pass from Caladesi Island…
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Two female Asian elephants have a new home in Tampa, and their arrival is a quiet rebuke to the activist groups who insist zoos have no business keeping these animals at all. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay announced this week that Schottzie, 50, and Jati, 39, have moved into the park as part of the Association…
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Florida Realtors, the state’s largest professional trade association, has put its money where its endorsement is, launching a statewide “Vote Yes on 3” campaign backed by a $10 million political committee — while at least one Hillsborough County commissioner is pushing back hard against the property tax relief measure headed to voters in November. The…
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City officials in Largo spent Wednesday night warning residents that a proposed statewide property tax cut could blow a hole in the municipal budget — a reaction that says as much about how dependent local government has become on ever-rising property taxes as it does about the amendment itself. Largo held a town hall to…
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As Hillsborough County’s camera citation programs continue pulling in millions of taxpayer and driver dollars, the county commission has moved to replace the volunteers who once heard citizen appeals with paid attorneys — and the man overseeing the change can’t quite explain why. The county has hired five new hearing officers, all members of the…
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Heavy equipment rolls onto Lido Beach starting Monday as the city launches the final phase of a multi-year, $13 million effort to rebuild one of Florida’s most visited stretches of Gulf Coast shoreline after years of hurricane battering. Beginning Sept. 21, crews will install more than 3,000 vegetated dunes and native plantings across 1.2 miles…
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Safety Harbor city commissioners voted unanimously to authorize a purchase agreement of up to $500,000 for a small residential lot next to the Public Works complex — a price tag that has climbed considerably since the deal was first discussed, and one taxpayers will help cover through their utility bills. The commission’s 5-0 vote on…
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Florida voters won’t just be picking a new governor this November. Three statewide Cabinet seats are on the ballot too, and the outcome will determine how much of Governor Ron DeSantis’s conservative agenda survives his departure from Tallahassee. All three offices are currently held by Republicans, and all three incumbents or incumbent-aligned nominees enter the…
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took his campaign against Silicon Valley to South Florida Wednesday, holding a news conference in Miami on artificial intelligence and the tech companies he says are dodging accountability for the harm their products cause. The Miami appearance follows a Tuesday announcement in Tampa, where Uthmeier laid out a proposal to…
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Largo residents will get a rare chance tonight to hear both sides of one of the most consequential ballot questions Florida homeowners have faced in years — and city officials aren’t hiding how nervous they are about the outcome. The city is hosting a town hall on Amendment 3, the statewide property tax measure headed…
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Tampa Bay’s waterfront economy is not a new branding campaign. It is a working sector already employing tens of thousands of people in ports, shipping, defense, manufacturing, and related industries. Economic development officials now want to grow it further. The useful question is what actually produces the jobs. Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Manatee counties already host…
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A Clearwater group has collected more than 7,300 signatures to challenge the City Council’s 3-2 decision to vacate a stretch of South Garden Avenue for the Church of Scientology. Save the Garden needed 7,067 valid signatures. It has already cleared that number, with a Sept. 16 deadline still ahead. After that, the city clerk will…
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wants corporations that design, train, and sell AI chatbots treated as more than spectators when those systems walk a user through a crime. Speaking Tuesday in Tampa with Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, Uthmeier outlined draft legislation that would attach criminal consequences to companies that own, control,…
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Tarpon Springs commissioners unanimously advanced an ordinance on Aug. 25 that would ban bicycles, e-bikes, and motorized scooters from sidewalks in some of the city’s busiest tourist stretches. The first-reading measure targets East Tarpon Avenue between Pinellas Avenue and Ring Street and Dodecanese Boulevard between Pinellas Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard—the heart of downtown and the…
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The City of Tampa is lining up a $2.04 billion spending plan while warning that Florida voters might finally cap the property-tax windfall that helped fund it. If Amendment 3 passes with 60 percent of the vote in November, homestead exemptions on non-school property taxes would rise from $50,000 today to $150,000 in 2027 and…
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Indian Rocks Beach commissioners will take a final vote Tuesday night on an ordinance that would ban cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and other smoking devices on public beaches, with penalties that include fines of up to $500 and as much as 60 days in jail. The measure passed its first reading unanimously. If approved at the 6…
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Hillsborough County Schools’ nearly 20,000 teachers are back at the bargaining table this week, seeking higher pay and lighter non-teaching duties even as the district reports falling enrollment and tighter tax receipts. Starting pay for a first-year teacher sits just above $48,000. Union president Rob Kriete of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association notes Florida ranks…
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Cars are computers on wheels now, and the bill for that reality shows up at the shop. Independent mechanics say they cannot always reach the same diagnostic data, software, and tools that dealerships get from the manufacturer. A bipartisan measure in Congress, the REPAIR Act, would require automakers to give owners and independent shops access…
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Tampa Bay didn’t flip a switch September 1. Meteorological fall started last week, the astronomical equinox arrives September 22, and neither date will deliver sweater weather. Highs still average near 90 in September. They typically settle into the mid-80s in October and closer to 80 in November. That is the climate record, not a talking…
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Florida has recorded five lightning fatalities so far in 2026, the most of any state. That is not a surprise, and it is not a new “crisis.” It is the same pattern the National Weather Service has documented for years: people stay outside after thunder has already announced the danger. Between 2016 and 2025, lightning…
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Kathryn Bruno wanted to replace the roof on her New Port Richey home before listing it. She did what any prudent homeowner should do: she shopped around. The quotes she received ranged from about $15,000 to $36,000. “It’s been quite a range of quotes and what needs to be done,” she told WFTS. She remembered…
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Pinellas County will close libraries, shrink park hours and trim nearly every other department before it touches public safety if voters approve the statewide property-tax reform, Amendment 3, in November, County Commissioner Chris Latvala told beach-city officials last week. “Any public safety cuts would be absolutely last,” Latvala said Aug. 26 at the Barrier Islands…
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A new federal housing law signed in July removes a bureaucratic barrier that kept some disabled veterans from qualifying for rental assistance even while they were living on the street. The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act permanently excludes VA disability compensation from the income calculation used for HUD-VASH, the joint HUD-VA program that…
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Duke Energy asked Florida state regulators this week to cut electric rates in January 2027 instead of raising them. The request, filed September 3 with the Florida Public Service Commission, would lower a typical residential bill for 1,000 kilowatt-hours by 71 cents from December to January. Commercial and industrial customers would see reductions between 0.8…
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Typically, gasoline prices ease as summer driving demand fades. That seasonal break did not arrive this year. As of September 3, AAA put the national average for regular gasoline at $4.14 a gallon, up from $3.19 at the same point in 2025 — a jump of roughly 30 percent. The national average has never before…
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FEMA is preparing new Flood Insurance Rate Maps for the Alligator Creek Watershed that covers parts of Clearwater, Safety Harbor, and unincorporated Pinellas County. The maps change both flood-zone boundaries and base flood elevations. The city asked FEMA to review the watershed in 2015 after stormwater conditions shifted. FEMA completed its study shortly before Hurricane…
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Dunedin city commissioners voted 5-0 Thursday night to permanently ban launches of Jet Skis and other personal motorized watercraft from the south side of the Dunedin Causeway. The designated launch area has been closed since back-to-back hurricanes damaged the Causeway in 2024. The new ordinance ensures it will not reopen. The spot has served as…
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Doctors and administrators tied to HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital and the South Tampa Medical Center are asking Tampa City Council to approve the South Howard Flood Relief Project. They say repeated flooding has already shut clinics, delayed care, and left the hospital running on generators. Council is scheduled to take up the construction contract…
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Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri will pull automated license plate readers off state highway rights-of-way to comply with a Florida Department of Transportation order, but he is not taking them down on county roads. He says the cameras remain a practical tool that has helped recover missing children, locate human trafficking victims, identify vehicles used…
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Hillsborough County Public Schools has installed vaping detectors in K-8 and middle school bathrooms after a high school pilot showed the devices cut bathroom vaping and made restrooms usable again. The district already recorded more than 1,000 vaping-related referrals in a single school year. Officials say the problem did not start in 11th grade. The…
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A Duke Energy-commissioned study estimates it would cost St. Petersburg between $2.75 billion and $4.1 billion to seize the company’s local electric system and stand up a city-run utility. The numbers arrived as the city waits on its own $590,000 analysis and after its 30-year franchise agreement expired July 31. Concentric Energy Advisors, hired by…
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Governor Ron DeSantis has declared September Florida Preparedness Month, a practical reminder that the state’s most dangerous stretch of hurricane season is here and that residents—not distant agencies—must take the first steps to protect themselves. September is the climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Over the last 60 years, the basin has produced at…
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Floridians heading to the polls this November will decide more than a governor and a slate of lawmakers. They will also vote on Amendment 3, a constitutional change that would raise the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments after that. It would…
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