The Laker-East Pasco-October 27, 2021

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CRA agency outlines initiatives

By Kevin Weiss kweiss@lakerlutznews.com

The Zephyrhills Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is hitting the ground running regarding initiatives in the city’s historic downtown district, in the new fiscal year. The Zephyrhills City Council, which doubles as the CRA board, has approved the agency’s 2021-2022 budget for $879,814.

That’s a sizable increase from the previous budget, which was $578,244. That boost is partially due to an increase in the agency’s ad valorem revenues during recent years. In the fiscal 2021-2022 budget, the agency’s tax increment financing (TIF) revenues are proposed to be $562,848 — up from $428,630 in 2020-2021 and $315,410 in 2019-2020, respectively. “What we’re doing is working,” CRA

Director Gail Hamilton told the CRA board during a Sept. 27 meeting at Zephyrhills City Hall.“The values continue to increase, the market doesn’t hurt us any at all, so what we’re doing as far as residential is going well, it’s working.We’ve got some new commercial projects going in the coming year.” However, Hamilton acknowledged retail spacing “continues to struggle” in the hisSee CRA, page 13A

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HA AV VE YOU HEARD ABOUT A Carson Carollo, a recent Hernando High School graduate, is a cast member in the horror film, 'Bed of Nails.'

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Redistricting proposals Gov. DeSantis calls for special session advance for a vote In this monthly video series, Trevor and Nicole of our marketing team recap some of our top stories from each month. These videos are published on our Facebook page AND website at the end of every month, so be sure to check it out!

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Unlike redistricting 10 years ago, voting districts will be different this time for the Pasco County Commission and the Pasco County School Board By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com

By the numbers Proposed commission districts: District 1: 113,431 District 2: 112,918 District 3: 111,299 District 4: 111,763 District 5: 112,480

By B.C. Manion bcmanion@lakerlutznews.com

the same district boundaries as the county commission.That’s what it did the last time redistricting occurred. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get to work with the county,” Harding said.“It’s unfortunate that we now have to have two separate maps.” Redistricting occurs every 10 years, based on the population figures collected in the decennial census. The figures are used to apportion the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Florida Legislature redraws the districts from which Florida voters elect their members of their U.S. House of Representatives, state senators and state representatives. The Florida Constitution also requires county commissions to develop a redistricting plan every decennial census to keep

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called for a special session of the Florida Legislature to take aim at a federal plan to force businesses of 100 employees or more to require their workers to be vaccinated. “We have a situation in our country now, where very much, the federal government is trying to use the heavy hand of government to force a lot of these injections,” the governor said, during a news conference in Clearwater on Oct. 21. “And, you have a lot of folks that actually believe that decision should be theirs, and believe in having basic medical freedom and individual choice, and that your right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots,” he continued. “And so, attorney general (Ashley Moody) and I — we are working — we want to contest that contractor mandate in court, as well. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right plaintiff, in terms of what we can do. You know a lot of these contractors probably aren’t going to do it themselves because they know there will reprisals, if they do it. “But that has an impact on thousands and thousands of people in the state of Florida. “We’re also, when it comes out, going to contest the mandate they’re going to im-

See REDISTRICTING, page 13A

See LEGISLATURE, page 13A

Total Pasco County population: 561,891 Average population per district: 112,378

The Pasco County Commission has selected its preferred map for new voting districts for the five seats on its board. And, the Pasco County School Board is set to make a similar choice at its Nov. 2 meeting. Both government bodies also are planning public hearings on the issue. The county commission’s public hearing is being advertised for Dec. 7; the school board’s is expected on Nov. 16. The school board’s desire to weigh in on the redistricting discussion before the county board made a choice, however, didn’t happen. The school board had taken up the issue at its Oct. 5 meeting, addressed it again on Oct. 19. School board member Megan Harding thanked the district’s Deputy Superintendent Ray Gadd for trying to arrange an opportunity for the school board and county board to work together on redistricting. The school board had hoped to establish

of the legislature


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