Tag: Ken Thompson

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Hard to match last week with all the excitement of Florida's primary elections, but there's still a lot going on in Florida politics this week. On Tuesday, Polk County school board will hold a work session at 2 p.m., followed by a board meeting and public hearing at 5 p.m., to adopt the final budget, tax rates, and revisions to school board policies. Also on Tuesday, the city of Sarasota will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. about raising its property tax rate to offset costs from five parks and recreation facilities. The tax increase is about $10 bucks a year for every $100-thousand dollars in home value, so the owner of a $300,000 home would see a tax increase of $27.12 per year. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission will hold its monthly meeting this week on Wednesday and Thursday. The commission was setup to uncover what went wrong leading up to and on the Valentine's Day shooting massacre in Parkland. The commission will also begin the process of formulating its findings and recommendations for the final report due to the legislature in January 2019. On Wednesday, two cases will go before the Florida supreme court, both regarding whether language used in two constitutional amendments on the ballot in November is detailed enough. Amendment 6 would increase victims' rights a la Marsy's Law, raise the retirement age for judges from 70 to 75, and prohibit courts from deferring to a state agency's interpretation of the law. Both cases argued that the amendments' ballot title and summary weren't detailed enough and misrepresented the true impact of the amendments.