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Pasco property tax rates holding steady By Kathy Steele ksteele@lakerlutznews.com
Property tax rates won’t go up in fiscal year 2017, though a more robust trend in property values could bring a slight boost in property taxes for some homeowners. At a final hearing on Sept. 27, Pasco County commissioners approved a $1.3 billion operating budget that includes increases for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, and 16 new business initiatives that give residents more services. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The final budget is about $80 million less than what was proposed in July, partly due
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to accounting adjustments in how unspent funds for capital projects are counted. Tax rates remain the same as last year.A homeowner will be assessed about $7.61 for each $1,000 in property value for the Mike Fasano county’s general fund, and about $1.81 per $1,000 for the fire district. However, as the economy has improved, property values in the past year have increased.Tax bills also could tick up slightly.
On average, county officials anticipate an additional $6.89 on a tax bill for a home valued at about $106,000. “Hopefully, most citizens are going to see some reductions in their taxes,” said Pasco County Commissioner Ted Schrader. A request weeks earlier from Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano resulted in a one-time allocation of $100,000 to the elderly nutrition program. The money will be held in a reserve account while county staff members provide details on how the money will be spent. Fasano told county commissioners he wantSee TAX, page 13A
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The Trinity Dragons robotics club won the Lake Sumter College Vex Robotics State Qualifier on Sept. 13 in Leesburg.
Lutz robotics team sweeps state qualifier The Laker/Lutz News Staff Report
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The Lutz-based Trinity Dragons started their 2016-2017 robotics season off with a bang, capturing first place in the Lake Sumter College Vex Robotics State Qualifier on Sept. 13 in Leesburg. The Dragons’ high school (Team 6430) and elementary (Team 6430B) teams were both awarded tournament champions and robot skills champions for their respective age groups. Moreover,Team 6430 received the Excellence Award, while Team 6430B
received the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Award. Thirty-six teams competed in the event across three divisions: elementary, middle and high school. Both teams have qualified for the Florida VEX Robotics Competition Championship on Feb. 17, at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. The Trinity Dragons, which consistently ranks as the top robotics team in Florida, is coming off a strong showing from April’s 2016 Vex World Robotics Championships
in Louisville, Kentucky;Team 6430 finished ninth among 500 teams at the world championships, which consisted of more than 16,000 participants from 37 nations. This year’s VEX robotics challenge, named “Starstruck,” is played on a 12-by-12 square field, in which two alliances, consisting of two robotics teams each, compete in matches consisting of a 15-fifteen second autonomous period, followed by 1 minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by having each robot place “stars” and “cubes” in designated zones, and remotely hanging robots onto a hanging pole.
School shooting threats now a felony charge By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com
The consequences just got tougher for Florida students who threaten to shoot up a school. The Anti-Terroristic Threat and Public Servant Protection Law.The law, which went into effect Oct. 1, makes false reports about using firearms in a violent manner a seconddegree felony. Bomb threats have carried a second-degree felony, but only charges of “disrupting a school function”—a seconddegree misdemeanor — could have been brought against someone making a gun threat. The law also makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to threaten with death or serious harm a law enforcement officer, state attorney or assistant state attorney, firefighter, judge, elected official or any of their family members. In the Pasco County School District, there already have been three incidents of students making gun threats through the first six weeks of the 2016-2017 school year. Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning described such threats — regardless of the degree of seriousness — as being “incredibly disruptive” to the community. “When someone makes what they con-
KEVIN WEISS/STAFF PHOTO
Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning address the new Anti-Terroristic Threat Law during a Sept. 30 press conference. The law, which took effect Oct. 1, makes false reports about using firearms in a violent manner a second-degree felony.
sider a joke to shoot up the school, people panic,” Browning said during a Sept. 30 press conference. “I’ve pleaded with students, and I’ve asked their parents to plead with them, to think before posting an idle threat on social media, or to make any kind of verbal threat to carry out a shooting at any of our schools.” He added:“When kids and their parents see these things, the fears spread quickly.” Such threats, Browning said, often cause Pasco schools to become “half-empty” the following day. “Students and parents are not going to take any chances when they hear rumors or see the posts on social media,” the superin-
tendent said. “It means that students who do show up are not going to learn much that day. It means that some teachers may decide not to teach the lesson that they had planned, because half the class will miss it,” Browning said. Ava Cahoon, a junior at Land O’ Lakes High, said fellow classmates oftentimes become “very scared” when they hear such threats. “We have to go into lockdown, and we don’t learn at all,” Cahoon said.“We have to sit in the dark, and the teachers don’t get to See SHOOTING, page 13A