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Blaise Ingoglia backs Ralph Massullo as successor in SD 11

They were once colleagues, and for a brief time, political rivals.

Today though, Blaise Ingoglia is all for Ralph Massullo.

Ingoglia, sworn in as Chief Financial Officer last week, endorsed former Rep. Massullo for the Senate District 11 seat Ingoglia just vacated.

“I’ve had the honor to represent Senate District 11 and can think of no better person to carry on our community’s collective fight for conservative governance than Ralph Massullo,” Ingoglia said. “Ralph is a friend, a pillar of our community, and a proven, Florida First conservative who will get real results for our state.”

The Primary is Sept. 11. The General Election, if necessary, is Dec. 9.

Massullo, a Lecanto Republican, served District 23 from 2016 until 2024. Ingoglia, a former state Republican Party Chairman, had served his first term when Massulo took office.

In 2022, when then-Sen. Wilton Simpson ran for Agriculture Commissioner, Ingoglia and Massullo both planned a SD 11 run. 

St. Johns County proposes $1.27B budget to cover explosive growth

One of the fastest-growing counties in Florida is facing a proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, designed to fund enhanced services that support its growth.

St. Johns County Commissioners now have a $1.27-billion spending plan for the next year to consider before the fiscal year goes into effect Oct. 1. Hundreds of millions of dollars in that spending proposal will go to pay for services that are increasing as a result of that rapid growth in the Northeast Florida county that is home to tourist-rich areas such as St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra Beach.

About 13% of the county’s total proposed spending plan for next year is, for the moment, earmarked for capital improvement projects. That accounts for $169 million, which would pay for the construction of new parks, fire stations, roads, and 64 new employees to provide services to taxpayers, as well as expansion of operations. Another $25 million is set to cover costs for emergency response reserves, according to a St. Johns County news release.

St. Johns County staff members preparing the spending plan are calling for a slight decrease in the property tax rate, with the resulting revenues allocated to the general fund. At the same time, the same slight increase in property taxes would be used to fund the fire district, covering the additional services and facilities required for those functions.

Florida's Fisher Island is the most expensive zip code in the U.S.: Report

South Florida is topping the list when it comes to the most expensive zip code in the U.S, a new report said.

According to the Robb Report, the 33109-zip code is the most expensive one in the Sunshine State.

The 33109-zip code is tied to Miami Beach, but more specifically, Fisher Island.

Fisher Island is home to about 600 residents and requires a helicopter or boat to get to it. It's located across Government Cut.

While Miami Beach is known as a luxury real estate hotspot, with sites like Indian Creek Village's Billionaire Bunker, which has attracted celebrities like Jeff Bezos and Tom Brady, the report says the median home price in Fisher Island is $12 million, and the median square footage on the island is 3,842 square feet.

The most expensive luxury condos, according to the report, are priced at $85 million.

But how does Fisher Island compare to other zip codes across the country?

Protecting wild Florida in a developer’s market: How the state plans to offset environmental impacts

A new state law aims to help developers fill environmental requirements faster, something critics say could throw the landscape out of balance. The law allows Florida developers to, for the first time, buy wetland credits outside the watershed where the development is being built.

When developers build near wetlands, they must, by law, avoid, minimize and mitigate their impacts. The first two steps are the most effective conservation strategies. The third has created an industry of buying credits from restoration projects.

With the Sunshine State’s rapidly growing urban centers, restoration projects within watersheds can’t keep pace, and developers often find themselves on long waitlists, eager for a mitigation bank’s next credit release.

A new Florida law aims to remedy those shortages by allowing developers to buy credits from outside of their watershed if none are available nearby.

Some experts worry about the environmental impacts of using rural restoration to balance urban upsizing.