The recent revelation that the City of Tallahassee has a budget shortfall of approximately $7 million for the upcoming fiscal year has started a debate on how to best deal with this issue. Should the city commission raise taxes, cut services, or implement some combination of both? In this article, Tallahassee Reports looks into one side […]
As alternative energy moves to the forefront of the energy policy debate, the fight over whose energy preferences will be implemented has begun. In Florida, two “brands” of alternative energy – biomass and solar – are vying to become a part of Florida’s energy future. The City of Gainesville is building a 100MW biomass plant and Florida Power and Light […]
The pursuit of alternative energy as a source for our power needs has clearly become an important public policy issue. Despite the contentious global warming debate, most people would agree that – all other things being equal – it would be beneficial to get all of our energy from environmentally clean sources. But here lies the problem, all things are not equal. Alternative energy has not […]
With all the talk about carbon footprint, and with the City of Tallahassee moving aggressively toward reducing our already low carbon footprint through energy conservation, it is time to define carbon footprint in terms everyone can understand. First, we have reported here that due to the use of natural gas we have one of the lowest […]
So you think the City of Tallahassee spends millions on electric utility conservation programs? Wrong! The City of Tallahassee collects millions for conservation programs. A data request by Tallahassee Reports indicates that the City of Tallahassee budgeted close to $15.5 million to various conservation programs for fiscal year 2008, which began on October 1, 2007. […]
The Mayor of Tallahassee, John Marks, is currently in Saudi Arabia on a seven day trip to develop business opportunities and exchange ideas. It has been reported that the trip will be at no expense to American taxpayers. However, a discussion with the Mayor’s Office indicated that the Mayor was joined by an administrative assistant and that both the Mayor […]
Our recent analysis of spending on “green” programs has documented the clear priority of city leadership in achieving the “living green” dream. Green expenditures in the fiscal year 2009 budget include $10 million for smart meters, $7 million for energy conservation, and $300,000 for the creation of the green department. These 3 programs total $17,300,000 in spending in […]
Travel records provided to tallahasseereports.com show that Mayor Marks has increased the travel billed to the city each year over the last three years. During FY 2006, Mr. Marks was on the road for 29 days at a cost of $16,460, in FY 2007 he was on the road 31 days for a cost of $16,731, […]
From the Wall Street Journal: Not everyone thinks smart meters are such a smart use of money. Utilities are spending billions of dollars outfitting homes and businesses with the devices, which wirelessly send information about electricity use to utility billing departments and could help consumers control energy use. Proponents of smart meters say that when […]
The push to acquire signatures supporting a Tallahassee Utility Authority began on April 15, 2009. To date we have gathered almost 750 signatures. The goal is to have as many signatures as possible when the Tallahassee City Commission has the public forum addressing possible changes to the City Charter. The date of the forum will […]