CITRUS CRUSADER

By John Labriola - Thanks to a new state law requiring supermajorities to raise taxes, the Citrus County Commission for the first time in years last week adopted the rollback rate of 6.7382 mills for the 2026-27 general fund budget.  Commissioner Jeff Kinnard initially moved to adopt the 2025-26 tax rate of 6.9898 mills, the rate recommended by the county administration, which still would have raised taxes on most homeowners because of rising property values. The motion failed because Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Janet Barek voted no, denying it the supermajority it would have needed to pass. Bays then moved to adopt the rollback rate, which was approved 4-1, with liberal Commissioner Holly Davis voting no. The rollback rate is the property tax rate that would generate about the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year, leaving out revenue from new construction and other additions to the tax roll.  But because of all the new construction, the county will still c...

By John Labriola - The Aug. 18 primary elections are around the corner, and with mail-in ballots having already arrived in voters' hands, it's time for recommendations. The marquee election this year is the governor's race, with Ron DeSantis stepping down after eight highly successful years due to term limits. Several qualified candidates have entered the race to replace him, so the Citrus Crusader will hold off on recommendations for governor until the general election. In the contest for Chief Financial Officer, our former state senator Blaise Ingoglia has done an excellent job of exposing financial irresponsibility in local government as he builds support for this November's constitutional amendment to eliminate most homesteaded property taxes. The Crusader recommends keeping BLAISE INGOGLIA . In the race for state representative, it was disappointing to hear Tod Cloud come out against the property tax amendment at a recent candidate forum. Although Cloud has taken c...

By John Labriola - Inverness has joined the rest of Citrus County in banning new marijuana dispensaries. The Inverness City Council last week voted 4-1, with Councilwoman Jacquie Hepfer opposed, to adopt on final reading an ordinance that prohibits future marijuana dispensaries from locating within city limits. The ordinance, which takes effect immediately, won't affect existing dispensaries, which will be allowed to remain. The move came several months after the Citrus County Commission voted to ban new marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated Citrus County, and two years after the Crystal River City Council voted to keep future dispensaries out of Crystal River, as the county has become saturated with medical marijuana "treatment centers" over the last several years. There are currently nine in the county, including two in the city of Inverness, two immediately outside Inverness city limits, four in the city of Crystal River, and one in Homosassa. It's the second t...

By John Labriola - Nearly 10 months ago, Charlie Kirk was murdered by an LGBT extremist for expressing his Christian beliefs while answering students' questions on a university campus. The assassination shocked the nation and prompted President Donald Trump to award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his courage. Many communities around the country – including Sumter, Marion, Hernando, Lake, Collier, Manatee and Walton counties in Florida – also honored Kirk by naming roads after him, and more Florida counties are moving to declare Oct. 14 the Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance in honor of his birthday, including Gilchrist County, which also plans a week-long library display of Kirk's books. But because of leftist political pressure, Citrus County, which at least on paper is overwhelmingly conservative, has so far avoided honoring Kirk in any way. Last October, the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) rejected a motion by board member Rhys Campbell to crea...

By John Labriola - The Inverness City Council approved on first reading last week an ordinance to prohibit future marijuana dispensaries within city limits. The vote was 4-1, with Councilwoman Jacquie Hefper opposed. If adopted on final reading on July 7, the ordinance would revive a ban first put in place in 2017 but repealed by the city two years later. The move came six months after the Citrus County Commission passed an ordinance to stop additional marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated Citrus County, as the Crystal River City Council had done a year earlier within its city limits. When the Inverness City Council last considered the ordinance this February, it decided to instead look into treating marijuana dispensaries as a special exception requiring city approval on a case by case basis, but that option died when the Florida Legislature failed to pass a bill to allow it.  "We in no way want to restrict the ability of qualified people that medically need th...

By John Labriola - This June marks the fifth year in a row that the Citrus County library system has not celebrated LGBT Pride Month. The obnoxious propaganda displays of rainbow flags and sexually perverted books have been history since county residents loudly protested them in 2021.  In the last five years, the county also has ended its membership in the far-left American Library Association , removed a pornographic " LGBT teen novel " from library shelves, and canceled the library system's subscription to the woke BookPage magazine, inspiring other counties to do the same. But all these gains could be reversed if liberals disguised as "Republicans" take back the majority on the county commission this summer. So far, all the candidates running for the commission are registered Republicans, but not necessarily conservatives. If no Democrat or third-party candidate enters the race by June 12, the Aug. 18 Republican primaries for Commission Districts 2 and 4, bo...

By John Labriola - The three candidates for the District 4 Citrus County Commission seat spent an hour discussing issues and answering questions at a candidate forum in Lecanto on Monday hosted by the Citrus County Republican Party.  Commissioner Rebecca Bays, who is up for re-election, is facing challengers Holli Herndon, a local educator, and Jennifer Grogan, who pastors a church with her husband Paul Grogan, a two-time independent candidate for county commission. Herndon, who spoke first, said she decided what positions to take in her campaign by asking residents whose opinions she values, but her answers made it clear that the people she values most are liberals. Herndon was asked if she would support the libraries having a temporary display of assassinated icon Charlie Kirk's books and if she would vote to name a county road after him as Sumter, Marion, Hernando, Lake and many other Florida counties have done. She replied that most of the people she asked told her t...