|
|
Plate I · The Mown County
|
The Lead · Houses · Statewide ballot
The state’s own estimate shows Amendment 3 takes nothing off the school line of any county’s property tax bill, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). At least 13 school boards ask voters on the same Nov. 3 ballot to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and Florida Realtors have written $19.5 million for the yes side (school board records; Division of Elections).
Amendment 3, the homestead tax cut on the Nov. 3 ballot, leaves the school portion of every Florida property tax bill where it is, the state’s own estimate shows, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). On the same ballot, at least 13 school boards, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, ask voters to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and as of state records checked Oct. 13, Florida Realtors had written $19.5 million in seven checks, all of the yes campaign’s money apart from $10.33 in bank interest, against $888,917.15
raised by the three committees opposing it through Oct. 2, about 22 to 1…
Old Florida Money desk · Wed Oct 14 · State campaign records checked Oct. 13 · Sources: Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research (Revenue Estimating Conference); Florida Division of Elections; Miami-Dade County Public Schools; School Board of Palm Beach County; county and district ballot records; WLRN; WKMG; WDBO; FOX 13; South Florida Sun Sentinel; PolitiFact
Read the full story
|
|
|
|
|
Plate II · The Lights Left Off
|
Money Pulse
|
The Rays’ stadium tax gets its one public hearing Nov. 10, a week after the election
Hillsborough commissioners voted 5-2 on Oct. 13 to hold the hearing on sending $360M of the county’s half-cent sales tax to the ballpark at a regular Nov. 10 meeting, undoing last week’s evening-hearing plan; Joshua Wostal and Donna Cameron Cepeda voted no, and the county attorney says the bond-validation vote cannot be scheduled until that hearing and a tourist-tax plan change are done (Tampa Bay Times; Hillsborough County). On the field, the Rays beat Cleveland 3-1 in ALCS Game 2 on Oct. 13 to tie the series 1-1; Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland (MLB box score; MLB schedule).
|
|
Isaias: Escambia County puts its own cleanup bill at about $64M, and modelers put insured losses at $1B to $3B
Debris removal is $54.87M of the county’s initial estimate, and private property is not counted (Escambia County). Verisk puts the industry’s onshore insured loss at $1B to $2B and Cotality at $2B to $3B, both for the whole landfall, not Florida alone; Florida’s death toll is 6, Gov. DeSantis said Oct. 13 (Verisk; Business Insurance; Patch).
|
|
Hope Florida: the order erasing the grand jury report stays open to rehearing through Oct. 22
Rule 9.330 allows 15 days to seek rehearing of the Oct. 7 ruling, and we found no report of a motion (1st DCA opinion; our arithmetic). Florida law gives prosecutors two years to bring campaign-finance charges, which the Florida Trident reads as running out Oct. 17 to 29 for the six October 2024 checks, $8.5M in all, that reached Keep Florida Clean; no one has been charged (s. 106.28; WLRN/Florida Trident).
|
|
FPL’s Florida politics memo stays at the companies’ lawyers’ offices as Virginia weighs the Dominion deal
Virginia’s chief hearing examiner ruled Oct. 8 that staff and respondents who signed a confidentiality agreement may read the 2021 “Robo Memo” only in person at the companies’ attorneys’ offices, and the ruling does not decide whether its allegations are true (Virginia SCC; The Center Square). NextEra Vice Chairman Armando Pimentel calls them unsubstantiated; staff testimony is due Oct. 19, public comments now close Nov. 12 and the evidentiary hearing opens Nov. 17 (Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald; Virginia SCC).
|
|
Lennar’s Miami spinoff said it would have no tenants. A shareholder suit says it bought hundreds of Lennar homes to rent
The Oct. 9 class action against Millrose Properties and two of its executives rests on Hunterbrook Media’s report that Millrose bought more than 700 Lennar homes, an estimated $200M or more, in about a month, including houses in Ocala and Wesley Chapel; Hunterbrook’s investment arm was short both stocks, and Lennar and Stuart Miller are not defendants (complaint; Hunterbrook Media; The Real Deal).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plate III · Calling Cards at the Shut Door
|
This edition, by desk
|
Who pays, and who answers for it. The Florida House voted 106-3 to police insurers’ side deals and the Senate never put the bill on an agenda, while property insurers, their managing companies and their trade group’s committee gave Senate Republican committees more than $1 million, by our sum of state records. Escambia County puts its own Isaias cleanup at about $64M; the Hope Florida ruling stays open to rehearing through Oct. 22; and FPL’s parent keeps its Florida politics memo at its lawyers’ offices in Virginia. Sixteen donors gave Byron Donalds’ PAC
$100,000 or more each in four days, and Boca’s GEO Group sold ICE its Adelanto complex for $950M.
Big Sugar, GOPAC, an auto-insurance agency and you: who’s paying for the governor’s race
Hope Florida grand jury report ordered erased; appeals court calls the $10M “never public money.” An IRS claim is still open
Pensacola’s Isaias cleanup bill lands on Escambia County first. Here is who pays the rest, and what you paid first
Byron Donalds’ PAC sent Florida’s GOP $24 million in September as his spending passed $100 million
Boca’s GEO Group sells ICE its own Adelanto detention complex for $950 million, and keeps running it
FPL’s parent wins a lawyers’-office-only reading of its Florida politics memo in Virginia
Open the Politics desk
|
|
Amendment 3 leaves the school line of your property tax bill untouched while at least 13 school boards ask voters on the same ballot to keep or add a 1 mill school tax. Florida Realtors’ $19.5 million is still the yes side’s only money, and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava runs a third committee against it. A shareholder suit says Lennar’s Miami spinoff bought hundreds of Lennar homes to rent. Larry Ellison is asking a North Palm Beach record $165M for his Seminole Landing estate.
The Lead, above
Florida Realtors are still Amendment 3’s only donor, and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava runs a third committee against it
Lennar’s Miami spinoff said it would have no tenants. A shareholder suit says it bought hundreds of Lennar homes to rent
Ellison and MacNeil split a Manalapan lot for $66.4M, then kept assembling
Open the Houses desk
|
|
Hillsborough set the one public hearing on $360M of its sales tax for the Rays’ ballpark for Nov. 10, a week after the election, and the Rays beat Cleveland 3-1 in Game 2 at the Trop to tie the ALCS 1-1. The Seminole Tribe’s suit accuses DraftKings of secretly bankrolling years of challenges to its compact.
The Rays’ stadium tax gets one public hearing in Hillsborough, a week after the election
The Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings and accuses CEO Jason Robins of racketeering, calling its Florida app an illegal sportsbook
Open the Teams desk
|
|
Ken Griffin paid Moishe Mana a reported $1.1B for Wynwood land that counts toward his $2B Carnegie Mellon campus gift, gave Baptist Health $25M more and has a Nov. 3 Planning Board date for his Miami Beach helipad. Forbes ranks Jeff Bezos Florida’s richest at about $378B.
Ken Griffin’s Miami fortnight: the Wynwood land under his Carnegie Mellon campus, $25 million more for Baptist Health and a helipad fight
Bezos is still Florida’s No. 1 at $378B; the Forbes 400 maps who moves Florida money
Open the People desk
|
|
Advertisement · Oaktree Reserve
The Weight of a Legacy
A Florida story. A present-day invitation to plan what follows.
|
|
|
|
|
Watch the film · 0:30
John Ringling had approximately $300 cash on hand at his death in 1936; this was not his estate’s total value. His home and museum transferred to Florida in 1946 after years of estate administration.
The aerial sequence is an AI-created interpretation, not recorded drone footage or a verified aerial survey. No family or museum endorsement is implied.
Historical source, imagery and transcript
Oaktree Reserve is not a law firm. Legal services are provided separately by Oaktree Reserve Law PLLC.
|
About
Old Florida Money is Oaktree Reserve’s public Florida capital brief: the named checks behind houses, teams, races, and public votes across the state.
Plates are painted illustrations, not depictions of the people named in the stories.
St. Petersburg · Est. MMXXV
|
|
|
|
|
|
