On Tuesday June 8th, the Leon County Commission will vote on an agreement between the Leon County and the Children’s Services Council (CSC) which will provide the CSC a $400,000 loan for their initial year of operation. If the loan is granted, the CSC will repay the funds in full with interest by the end of the fiscal year.
In accordance with the Truth in Millage (TRIM) Act, which informs taxpayers what taxes are owed and which governmental entity is collecting, the Leon County CSC will create a budget and millage rate, but will not begin collecting property taxes until November 2021. Therefore, the newly appointed council requires the loan to hire staff and begin operations until local funding is secured.
Florida Statutes permits the County to fund the CSC during its first year of operation which may include financial and/or staffing support.
Several counties have granted loans to their children’s services councils including Okeechobee ($5,000), Palm Beach ($150,000), and Broward ($500,000). Other counties chose to limit its support to in-kind staffing from the offices of the County Administrator, County Attorney, and Clerk of the Courts during the initial startup period.
As requested by the CSC, it is recommended that any funds provided by the County through a loan be restricted to operating expenses. Loan funds would not be utilized for programs and services or allocated to other organizations to provide programs and services.
If authorized by the Commission, the interlocal agreement would stipulate that the loan is to be repaid by the end of the fiscal year as the CSC will begin collecting tax revenue in November 2021. Additionally, the agreement would include an interest rate of 1.5 % based upon the 10-year treasury rate.
The CSC, which was approved by a voter referendum in 2020, is tasked with assessing the needs of children and families in Leon County and to developing strategies for addressing those needs. The CSC is able to “fund programs that meet the specific needs of children and families in their community,” by coordinating with other agencies, both public/private, who are dedicated to the welfare of children.
CSC Seeks $400K Loan from Leon County to Fund Initial Operations added by Lynsey Kirk on
View all posts by Lynsey Kirk →
The CSC is worse than a scam. It appears to be a $10 million annual fraud collected by Whole Child Leon on the backs of black, brown and poor children. Don’t forget that Whole Child Leon has Paul Mitchell of the Southern Group as treasurer of its board of directors.
Southern Group lobbies on behalf of Liggett tobacco company whose discount cigarettes are popular in poor communities.
Mitchell also has a role in CSC. That being the case, neither Whole Child Leon nor CSC, both of whom are lying bed with big tobacco, should receive a dime of taxpayer money.
Just remember… “Its all about the children”… oh, and the $45k a-year cubicle jockey friends and families insider employment program.
I remember when Sally Struthers said she “could make a dollar go a long way”.
… those were the day huh… 🙂
@ Snidely Whiplash
I do not think the Democratic loyalists will vote each and every one of them out of office because of this, mainly because I am sure they don’t read TR, because they can’t handle the Truth.
There’s already members bragging about how they’re getting money to do nothing on social media.
Ehh I think y’all are overblowing this one, the money will get paid back pretty quickly as the tax will take in, at minimum, a million bucks.
The bigger issue is the millage rate that the CSC elects to use for their year 1 operations. If they go for the maximum, they’ll be taking in 9 million bucks in their first year.
Most of all, the time for us to fight the creation of the CSC was last November, and fight hard we did. Unfortunately we lost and lost big.
Good insight there Hope. I would imagine everyone in support of Maddox living out of his district was also on the take in one way or another.
My theory regarding why only 3 pale face criminals were selected to make examples of is that even back in the day the FBI was operating on “critical race theory” and sealed off any evidence pointing to the non pale face local criminals.
Janson, Dobbins, and a few other attorneys able to get Maddox and crew get out of jail free cards dont come inexpensively. Yeah if they are not broke yet they are feeling some kind of way for being fingered as the fall guys so Gillum and crew can walk away.
News Maven is so right about the Florida newspapers. The Naples paper was so obnoxious during the DeSantis-Gillum race a Tallahassee Democrat reporter would join in with the Naples reporter and do pro Gillium articles that were so blatantly biased it was an embarrassment to journalism. Specifically, reporter Jeffrey Schweers would make “hay” of Maddox not living in his district and therefore Maddox should have been ineligible to run for City office.
But thanks to the Tallahassee Democrat, the local Democratic Party, the LC Supervisor of Elections, The Usual Suspects, and Chamber of Commerce who supported, promoted, looked the other way, and voted for Maddox’s corruption are actually sending him to prison. Had he been deemed ineligible to run for office he probably would not be going to prison. They don’t understand how important the little things are that will ultimately trip you up in the end.
Maddox and JT probably don’t have any money left and if they do it’s hidden?
If they’re not too busy “conspiring,” maybe Scottie & JT could front them the payola…I mean money.
If the Leon County Commissioners vote yes tomorrow I predict even our Democratic loyalists will vote each and every one of them out of office. The CSC is loaded with financial scammers for them to even ask for such a ridiculously high amount of money.
I understand the basic business principal of asking for more than you need then settling for what you really need.
But $400000. that is just insane.
400K for 3.5 months of “Administrative Services”??!!??..even bigger boondoggle than I imagined and I imagined very negatively..This will be an impressive addition to the long legacy of Leon County/COT Taxpayer Funded Scams/RipOffs..Congrats uninformed non home owning Voters for dumping this on me and other property owners
Broward Counties 2019 census population was 1,962,778.
Leon Counties estimated 2021 population is 297,432.
Broward did it with a $500.000. loan.
Leon needs a loan of $400,000.???
Folks something is very wrong here.
Simply fill a bag full of money and drop it from a plane aiming for the spot Sean Pittman and Gary Yordon will be standing on waiting for it. That is where all the boondoggles end up anyway. Have a nice day!
@ Dennis Barton: Exactly. How much will their Salary’s be? The CSC is a waste of Tax Dollars.
$400K is a substantial amount of money to cover just administrative expenses between now and the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Is there any documentation as to how it will be spent? Is it reasonable to assume the annual administrative cost for the CSC will be $1.2 million if $400K is just for 3 months?
Procedure for de-annexation in the state of Florida:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0100-0199/0171/Sections/0171.051.html
De-annex everything north of I-10.
Call it “North Tallahassee.”
Only way to block the uber-progressive city commissars from continuing to waste the north side’s money.
What are the chances this money ever gets paid back to Leon county? Another $400K of taxpayer funds down the drain.
I gotta move… I like Keaton Beach, and as long as the rain keeps boycotting us, the water stays pretty clear.
Let the wasteful spending begin!