By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Property owners in Osceola County who have seen the value of their properties fall over the last year – which is pretty much every property category except agricultural – likely will see lower county tax bills.

The County Commission Wednesday morning in a 3-2 vote tentatively set the general fund tax, which comprises the largest chunk of county tax bill, at $6.90 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from the 2009-10 tax rate of $6.34. Commissioners in the end could still adopt a lesser amount, however.

Even with the higher rate, county officials said, many tax bills would still go down because of the 15.7 percent erosion of property values countywide.

By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County Commissioners Monday will decide how to word a Nov. 2 referendum asking voters to authorize the county to collect a 1 percent sales surtax to fund transportation projects.

Commissioners this past Monday were undecided on whether to include in the enabling ordinance for the referendum a list of road projects letting voters know how the sales tax revenue would be used. They also were undecided on whether to include mass transit as a funding target. Commissioners also must decide when the tax would expire.

By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

Standing in the front of the four-story building with its ocean-blue windows and green-built features, officials with the Toho Water Authority celebrated the grand opening of the utility's new home that will house staff from several offices around town under one roof.

Located at 951 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., employees will begin moving into the new 54,000-square-foot facility Aug. 6. It will be open for business Aug. 8.

The authority, established in 2003 by a special act of the Florida Legislature, serves 73,000 water, 71,000 wastewater and 10,000 reclaimed water customers in Kissimmee and unincorporated areas of Osceola and Polk County, including Poinciana. The group held a special ribbon-cutting ceremony at the building Thursday, allowing people to tour the new facility.

By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Facebook — a great online tool for catching up with old friends and sharing experiences and pictures with family who live great distances away.

But, if you think that's all you’re communicating to the world if you're not careful, then maybe you're the tool.

Facebook, first launched in 2004, and geared solely to college-age students (to register, a user needed a school-based e-mail address), enables users to choose their own privacy settings to control who can see what parts of their profiles. Users can limit access to their comments, “friend” lists, pictures and backgrounds to just their online friends.

But, independent programmers have shown that during site upgrades, Facebook often resets settings to the default “Everyone” without the user’s knowledge.

Veterans museum, new Osceola County Historical Society museum still in the running

By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County commissioners Monday narrowed down the list of projects that could be funded with $19 million of tourist development tax reserves, with a veterans museum, the historical society and Osceola Heritage Park updates still in the running.

Commissioners, however, wanted another week to review the final offers from three developers to build up to 16 playing fields that would be used as a way to accommodate more amateur sporting events in the county and to generate additional overnight stays, and thus more tourist tax revenue.

News-Gazette Photos/Martin Maddock

Children visiting the Kissimmee Sports Arena Saturday evening for the rodeo were able to take part in the calf scramble, which had a $75 cash prize. The rodeo, which will be held monthly, includes events such as team roping, bull riding, barrel racing, slack barrel racing and slack calf roping. Cowboys from throughout the state came to compete for cash prizes.