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Gov. DeSantis condemns antisemitism after demonstrations in North and South Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s is denouncing antisemitism after a weekend that saw hateful displays across the Sunshine State.

The statement, sent by DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin Monday afternoon, comes after Florida Democrats criticized the Republican Governor for not immediately condemning the acts. A homeowners’ association property was defaced in Weston this weekend after other, anti-Jewish sentiments were displayed around Jacksonville Friday and Saturday, most prominently at a full-capacity football game between the the University of Florida and the University of Georgia at the TIAA Bank Field.

“Governor DeSantis rejects attempts to scapegoat the Jewish community — it has no place in Florida,” Griffin said in a statement. “Through legislative proposals, laws, and decisive executive action, Governor DeSantis has a proven record of supporting the Jewish community and fighting anti-Semitism and the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Florida.”

The impacts of Hurricane Ian are not deterring voters in several Florida counties

Despite certain regions of Florida suffering heavy damage from Hurricane Ian, voting officials say early turnout numbers are showing that the storm had little impact on Floridians’ desire to go to the polls.

As of Monday afternoon, Sarasota County has already seen a turnout above 27 %, with a week of early voting remaining. Over 71,000 residents have voted by mail, while another nearly 27,000 in the county have gone to an early voting site.

The storm caused significant damage in the southern part of Sarasota County, but Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner says the turnout so far has been on par with what his office saw in 2018.

"It ended up being that while we may have had some voters in southern part of the county that may have lost their homes, maybe the Election Day voting place where they vote was still intact," Turner said.

Oil suppliers got best of Florida’s gas-tax ‘holiday,’ experts say

Florida’s one-month gas tax holiday ended Monday without consumers ever seeing the full 25-cents-per-gallon break Gov. Ron DeSantis promised at the beginning of October.

The holiday did provide relief to the petroleum suppliers because they’re the ones who pay the tax to the state and then collect the money from the gas stations and convenience stores across Florida.

“It failed to meet its intended purpose if the goal was to provide relief to Florida taxpayers,” said Esteban Santis, an analyst at the Florida Policy Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that studies policy and budget decisions.

DeSantis originally recommended a five-month gas tax holiday, which would have cost $1 billion in lost tax revenue to the state. But his staff recommended making it a one-month gas tax holiday in October, financed by $200 million from the federal American Rescue Plan that DeSantis often criticizes as wasteful Washington spending. It was supposed to be used for COVID-19 relief.

These Leon County officials got a big raise. Here's how much and why.

Every one of Leon County’s elected officials got a substantial pay increase in October based on an annual calculation by the state’s economic research department. 

The salaries of everyone from the sheriff to tax collector to elected school officials are determined annually by the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research based on a formula that takes into account population changes. Supplemental pay, bonuses and one-time bumps were added to the pot in some cases by the Florida Legislature this year.

Constitutional officers can voluntarily decline the raises and have in the past. However, all eight officials whose salary is determined by the EDR accepted the increases, which went into effect earlier this month.     

The largest increase locally went to Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, whose pay increased by $36,141 since last year. McNeil’s salary is now $195,838, but his raise is not an anomaly.