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Leon County school district faces staff cuts even amid $17M budget hike. How we got here

The 2024-25 staffing plan proposed by Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna is about $17 million more than the current year's budget. But while it is an increase, it is not without consequences.

The document obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat reflects what Hanna hinted in February when the district reached agreements with its teacher's union on a $5.12 million salary package, saying that "something has to give."

The most dramatic consequence is that the academic interventionist positions will be cut from middle and high school campuses and reduced to two positions at each elementary school. All schools will maintain a social worker and an extra guidance counselor based on school population.

This means about 69 people are losing their jobs, and not likely to be transferred to other positions within the district, Hanna confirmed.

Airbnb promotes Florida operations as biggest contributor to tourist taxes

Airbnb rentals in the Sunshine State have now generated more than $1B in state tourism tax revenue. Airbnb is touting its contributions to tourism taxes in the U.S. and Canada, most notably the most tourism taxes the company has raised is in Florida.

In a new report published this month by Airbnb, the company announced it has now accounted for more than $10 billion in tourism tax revenue around the world. Hosts renting Airbnb units for travelers and tourists generated about $2.2 billion in tourism tax revenue in the United States alone in 2023.

According to the report, Florida Airbnb rentals generated the most tourism tax revenue in the U.S. Florida accounted for $387 million in tourism taxes in 2023, more than any other state in the country. The company has now accounted for a total of more than $1 billion in tourism taxes in Florida.

“This tax revenue helps fund critical government services and comes at a time when many cities and states navigate budget challenges. Researchers estimate that almost half of Americans live in states facing budget gaps and/or deficits,” an Airbnb news release said. “Florida cities like Miami and Gainesville are among those grappling with budget problems with both cities considering budget cuts.”

Florida unemployment rate holds steady in February, lower than national rate

It's the 40th straight month Florida has a lower unemployment rate than the national figure. Florida’s unemployment rate for February held steady while remaining lower than the national jobless figure for that month, according to a Florida Department of Commerce report published this month.

Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the unemployment figure, which was 3.1% last month, representing no change from the January figure. The national jobless rate in February came in at 3.9%, which is a slight uptick from the January figure of 3.7%.

DeSantis was quick to point out that Florida has been on a roll by maintaining a lower unemployment rate than the national figure for the past 40 months.

“Florida continues to outperform the nation,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement this month. “We have proven that bold, conservative leadership across the board produces booming economic results—more jobs, lower taxes, less regulation, and fiscal security.”

Orange County commission showdown for Disney’s first affordable housing project

With a critical vote scheduled for Tuesday, an affordable-housing project proposed for Disney-owned acres in west Orange County has the backing of hoteliers, a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and a schoolteacher union, but its future neighbors are less enthralled.

“My family and I, we moved here, after an exhaustive research, knowing full well that Disney would be our neighbor,” said Alex Cabrera, whose home is less than two miles away. “We just never thought they’d be bad neighbors.”

Cabrera and many other residents of Horizon West, a fast-growing community of 50,000 people 30 miles west of Orlando, oppose the proposed development of 1,410 apartment homes along Hartzog Road on the west side of State Road 429.

Community residents say their roads are already congested and their schools are over capacity, and this new development will make things enormously worse.