If you would like to ask a City Commissioner a question about the proposed property tax increase, you will not have to travel downtown. Tallahassee Reports, with the help of the Killearn Country Club, is hosting a Town Hall meeting to address the proposed 27% increase in property taxes. Commissioners Scott Maddox, Nancy Miller, Curtis […]
On June 16, 2015 Anita Favors Thompson released the City Manager’s budget for 2016. The proposed general fund budget calls for a $10.8 million property tax increase. In an effort to determine why the $10.8 million was needed and where it would be spent, we met with Heath Beach of the City’s Budget Office. Here […]
A closer look at the numbers behind the proposed 27% property tax increase by City Manager Anita Favors Thompson reveals that the increase is not all about public safety. The City’s public relations apparatus has promoted the increase as a response to public safety needs. The title of the City Manager’s press release was “City […]
Last week Tallahassee Reports wrote about how the Tallahassee Democrat categorized one of their news stories about the Leon County School Board as “Gossip.” Now, after another school board story on June 19th by the same writer, people are questioning the decision of the Tallahassee Democrat to change the original online headline by using the […]
The latest employment data shows that the number of people employed in Leon County has declined for the 7th month in a row and has reached a 21-month low. Not since August 2013, has the number of people employed in Leon County been below 140,000. The May 2015 number stands at 139,550. The losses began […]
Today, City Manager Anita Favors Thompson released her proposed budget for 2015-16. In a city press release entitled “City Manager Releases Proposed Public Safety Budget”, Ms. Favors recommends hiring 18 police officers and 16 fireman.Ms. Favors also proposes a $10.8 million property tax increase. The property tax rate would increase by 27% from 3.7 mills […]
On June 19, 2014, Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeff Burlew wrote an article entitled “School employee becomes whistle-blower, former secretary files lawsuit.” Tallahassee Reports has recently learned that the Tallahassee Democrat labeled part of the article as gossip, gossip that almost one year later has no independent factual basis. In the article, Burlew reported accusations from […]
Single-Family homes sales in Leon county continued to increase in the month of May as did average sale prices. For the month of May, 273 single-family homes were sold in Leon County for an average price of $244,880. Both numbers are 12-month highs. Since 2010, when single-family home sales reached a 12-month low of 1,499, […]
The City of Tallahassee released construction data for May 2015. The numbers show that single-family construction continues to slow. The chart below shows that the 12 month total number of permits fell for the second month in a row. The last time this happened was in May and June of 2014. Since April 2015 the […]
It appears the City of Tallahassee’s lack of attention to public safety over the last nine years has not been limited to funding for more police officers. During a recent City budget workshop, City Manager Anita Favors Thompson took time to tell City Commissioners that the City’s Police Department building, located on Seventh Avenue, is […]