The people have spoken!

Happy post election Wednesday!

I stayed up late last night into this morning to watch the results around the country. I dont get too involved into national politics on this page as I am too busy as it is... not sure I can manage entirely new conversations.

However, briefly... one side woke up happy this morning. The other side didnt. But that is historically what happens during midterm elections. The party of the presidency usually loses at the midterms.

And that happened once again... and it was a pretty loud message. States that have not had democratic senators/governors for multiple decades now have democratic senators and governors. The blue wave showed up. South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa... states that have not had national democratic leadership for multiple decades now have democratic leaders.

Think of that for a moment.. Texas has a democrat for senate AND governor.

Never thought I would see that.

Pretty strong message being sent there. You can decide what that message is.

Enough on that.

Florida did not have too many surprises in terms of who won. Donalds is our new governor. Moody and Lee keep their senate and house seats. Simpson, Ingoglia, Uthmeier and Grow will keep their seats. No surprises or upsets there.

Locally, the biggest race (in my opinion) was the Crystal River City Council race. There, Mindi Hastings beat Jack Reynolds by 124 votes.

This race follows the recent trend in the county commission races. The candidate who raised the most money, by a large margin, lost the race. Reynolds raised over $24,000 for a position that pays $500 a month. That money rivals a county commission race.... and this is a race to help lead a city of around 3600 people.

Pretty crazy.

But that is proving, more than ever, that more than money is needed to win these positions... when historically the money was needed.

Perhaps it is the source of the money. Reynolds, like Schlabach and Bays, was backed by some pretty prominent people in the community. Does that cause the candidate to lose votes? Do voters see the list of donors and then decide to vote for their opponent based on who is on that list?

I think that is a fair question to ask. All three candidates had very similar names on their lists. Worthington won her race with many of those names as well, but it was by a very small margin.

Perhaps that also changes how they decide to contribute in the future.

The other races show an interesting trend. The person listed first on the ballot won the race. Looking back at 2024, these smaller, lesser known races tend to be won by the person listed first on the ballot.

Interesting.

Not to say that is the only reason... just observation. I can certainly see someone picking a Mosquito Control Board seat by just picking the first name.

Does someone want to change their name in 2028 and test the theory for me?

Congrats to those winners.

But perhaps the biggest thing of the night.

Amendment 3 passes.

Property tax reform is coming in the 2028 budget year.

That means Steve Howard and commissioners have A LOT of work to do on the budget. It is estimated that the county will see a revenue decline of around $46million per year from the general fund when the full exemption is reached. The impact to 2028 budget will be around $32 million.

That means it is time to cut some things... a lot of things. $32 million is A LOT of money to take out of the budget. It will be interesting to see what they decide to cut or where they start looking for money.

The low hanging fruit and the easiest cut is roads.

However, expect to see talks of more MSBUs coming to life. This could be how roads are paid for going forward. Also, some aspects of public safety could be funded by a MSBU, removing that expense from the general fund... but charging homeowners directly via the MSBU.

Hopefully, the commissions bring back another workshop and work through how they think it should look. Better to start doing that now than wait for the beginning of the budget process.

But we shall see. The new board will be seated in about 2 weeks. Going to be a tough task for the 2 new commissioners right out of the gate.

Have a great day everyone!