Even as they fretted over billions of dollars in budget cuts, state lawmakers voted this spring to spend $27 million to help more poor children attend private schools. ...more

May 28, 2008

In his eight years in the governor's mansion, Republican Jeb Bush only got to appoint two justices to the seven-member Florida Supreme Court. As a result, the court remains significantly to the left of the state's political mainstream, which has drifted from moderately liberal to moderately conservative over the last couple of decades. Fate and the state constitution are giving Bush's successor, Charlie Crist, a chance to reshape the court. ...more

May 28, 2008

Florida voters will decide this fall whether to tack another penny onto the state sales tax and whether to resurrect one of former Gov. Jeb Bush's pet education projects. They will also weigh in on various tax breaks. ...more

May 4, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY – Courts in Pasco and Pinellas counties are facing employee furloughs because of a budget shortfall, according to Judge Robert J. Morris Jr., chief judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit. ...more

February 20, 2008

The Little Sunshine Preschool and Learning Center was buzzing at midmorning on a recent Wednesday. It was filled with the distinctive white noise that dozens of happy, active 4-year-olds can create. ...more

February 17, 2008

The Little Sunshine Preschool and Learning Center was buzzing at midmorning last Wednesday. It was filled with the distinctive white noise that dozens of happy, active 4-year-olds can create. "They're still having fun at the same time," said director and owner Stephanie LeDouaron. "They don't even know they're learning." ...more

February 13, 2008

In the run-up the Jan. 29 vote on Amendment No. 1, officials of local governments and public school districts around the state were issuing dire warnings. Tax revenue would plunge; services would be slashed; criminals would run the streets; children would go uneducated. The amendment, of course, was the plan the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist came up with in response to last year's howls of protest from property-owning Floridians about rising ad valorem tax bills. ...more

February 12, 2008

The city of Dunedin is still tiptoeing around the question of whether to buy a parcel of land along Alt. 19 with St. Joseph Sound on one side and the Pinellas Trail on the other. It would be nice to turn this land, owned by businessman and musician J.C. Weaver, into a city park to ensure it isn't developed. ...more

February 12, 2008

Amendment One, the package of tax cuts voters added to the state constitution last month, was oversold. ...more

February 10, 2008

Low-income seniors who applied for the Senior Citizens' Homestead Exemption program should know today if they will get an even deeper cut to their property taxes. ...more

January 30, 2008