Money: Either you control it or it controls you
Hello Everyone,
This was quite a strange weather week which we are getting used to up here in the Panhandle. In addition we had no internet for 2 days. Aside from putting me behind in my work it was actually nice some quiet time.
Monday was the first budget meeting in Jackson County. It was quite interesting. Debbie and I went. It seems as though because we have a balanced budget for the years of 26-27 there will be no more budget meetings until the end of July. I would send you a copy of the agenda but it is not on the website yet.
From my recollection the Commissioners are looking to keep the millage rate of 7.945 the same They expect the new property tax to pass and if it does pass that is when tightening the belt for the Jackson county will be in order. There were several ideas for saving money thrown around. Hopefully you will come up with ideas as well. According to Florida CFO Blaze Ingigola, the counties have plenty of money. They just don’t spend it properly. It will be up to us to help the commissioners live within our means.
When grant and matching grant money comes into a County as revenue we have to read the grants to see what is expected of us. We have to make sure that we are taking advantage of the grants that the state is offering. But if we don’t monitor them we could end up spend more for thing we don’t need paying for things that we can’t afford.
We made the right decision regarding AI Data centers in Florida. Every day more states and counties are saying no. Last week one of the AI platforms went rogue during a security test and triggered a hack that compromised the infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face. Remember AI is only as good as its programmer. AI can be biased and give you the wrong information.
This brings me back to the budget. Your budget can be found on your county web site. Jackson County’s is here: https://www.jacksoncountyfl.
Budgets are extensive but you can help reading the budget and finding places that you can make reductions specially for next year. Example what is the actual cost of the Flock cameras? Lease? Maintenance? How does the ticket money get split? What about tolls from toll roads? What NGO’s get tax money?
Jackson County: We will have a budget Zoom meeting on Monday July 27th at 8:00 p.m. the zoom link for that budget meeting is below. Please be prompt.
Monday, July 27, 8PM CT
Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/
©2026 Karen Schoen. All rights reserved.
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