CITRUS CRUSADER

By John Labriola - Citrus County decided its most important local races in the August primary, but the county could play a decisive role in this November's election in determining who wins the tight gubernatorial race between Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly, as well as other close statewide races. While Republicans are likely to maintain comfortable majorities in both chambers of the State Legislature, the governor wields substantial executive power, and Jolly, if elected, could reverse many of the conservative reforms of Gov. Ron DeSantis, even without legislative support.  Jolly would most likely appoint liberal justices to the Florida Supreme Court, who could overturn several laws recently upheld by the court, including the Heartbeat Protection Act, which protects the lives of unborn children after six weeks in the womb. He also would likely appoint a liberal Board of Education, which could reverse many recent decisions, including requiring districts to remove ...

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission honored Charlie Kirk with a proclamation at its meeting on Tuesday.  A large number of supporters accepted the proclamation, including incoming Commissioner Stacey Worthington, who showed her support by being part of the photo with commissioners and residents. The proclamation, which recognized Kirk's contributions to civic engagement and the freedom of speech on the occasion of his birthday, which is on Oct. 14, was requested last month by Chairwoman Diana Finegan and agreed to by commissioners after a number of residents urged the commission to honor Kirk.  The commission's move was a repudiation of the liberal Library Advisory Board (LAB), which voted 8-1 in August to reject a Charlie Kirk library book display because the majority apparently felt his Biblical advocacy made him "divisive." Rhys Campbell, who made the failed motion, was the only member of the LAB who showed up in support of the proclamation. The commi...

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission approved its 2025-26 budget at its final budget hearing last week. The general fund budget, which pays for the county’s day-to-day operations, is based on the rollback rate of 6.7382 mills, which is down from this year’s 6.9898 mills. A mill is $1 in property taxes for every $1,000 of taxable value. The rollback rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year, excluding revenue from new construction.  Commissioners also adopted the rollback rate for the library budget and the health department, while keeping the tax rate the same as the previous year for fire rescue and transportation. As a result, the aggregate tax rate of 8.6085 is .58 percent above the aggregate rollback rate of 8.5591. The final budget includes $12.6 million in road improvements, which includes $1.6 million in administrative cuts that were made after commissioners decided to adopt the rollback rate in July.  C...

By John Labriola - Citrus County will join a number of other communities in Florida in proclaiming Oct. 14 as the Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance in honor of his birthday.  The decision to honor the slain Christian conservative icon came at the Citrus County Commission's Sept. 8 meeting, nearly a year after Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, 2025.  The anniversary prompted several residents to urge the commission to approve a library display for Kirk following an 8-1 vote last month by the Library Advisory Board (LAB) to reject one . The LAB's vote came two days after the commission adopted a library display policy that banned political displays but that Commission Chairwoman Diana Finegan said would allow a display of books by Charlie Kirk as a "historical" figure. "The man deserves something in the library," said Ray Kalavsky of Inverness, noting that while rejecting a Charlie Kirk display, the LAB also supported continuing a Martin Luther King display, wh...

By John Labriola - Prospects this year for a library book display on slain Christian conservative icon Charlie Kirk went from dim to virtually nonexistent last week as the Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) voted 8-1 to reject a motion to recommend a Kirk display during the week of his birthday on Oct. 14.  The vote came just two days after the Citrus County Commission unanimously approved a library display policy stating that "displays will not feature political, religious, or sexual content." It had been over eight months since commissioners voted to ask staff to finalize the policy, but the vote took place during a lame duck meeting after two commissioners – Diana Finegan and Rebecca Bays – lost their reelection bids, and after the library system had already planned its displays for October, which are determined a few months in advance.  Before voting for the policy, Finegan said it would still allow book displays of both Martin Luther King and Charlie Kirk bec...

By John Labriola - A lot of people are asking what happened in Tuesday's election to make Citrus County Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Diana Finegan both lose their reelection bids. While some are attributing their losses to voters' weariness with overdevelopment, that explanation doesn't make sense given the fact that one of the candidates who lost was seen as pro-development and the other was seen as anti-development. The same is true for the winners, with one having the reputation of opposing developers and the other of supporting them.  So what was it then?  Since Bays lost by 9 points to educator Holli Herndon (36 to 45 percent), and Finegan barely lost to Stacey Worthington, it would probably be easiest to start with Bays. It's a maxim in politics that leaders should reflect the values of the people they represent if they wish to remain in power, but Bays repeatedly betrayed the conservative citizens who make up the vast majority of Citrus County voters.  In 20...