Dear Friends,

Today I was pleased to stand alongside Florida business leaders in a grassroots effort to help Floridians save money. Together we unveiled the Florida Backyard Card, a money-saving incentive for Floridians to spend their money wisely and locally.

Through the Florida Backyard Card, hundreds of businesses across Florida are offering incentives for their customers with benefits reaching beyond discounts and values.

The State of Florida is pleased to join the coalition of businesses rewarding customers through the Florida Backyard Card. With support from the Florida Lottery, the Backyard Card will be available at lottery retailers across the state. In addition, VISIT FLORIDA is managing www.FloridaBackyardCard.com, where consumers can download a card and search for the best deals in their backyard.

At www.FloridaBackyardCard.com, Floridians can enter their zip code and search for participating businesses to save on apparel, restaurants, groceries, home improvement, vacation rentals and many more goods and services.

When Floridians spend with local businesses, their dollars go to employee wages, building rent, utilities and state and local taxes which support schools and emergency services. Every purchase impacts our economy. In fact, 75 percent of Florida’s gross domestic product comes from consumer spending.

I am personally urging Floridians to go out today and get a backyard card from Florida lottery retailers across the state or online atwww.FloridaBackyardCard.com.

I already have mine and plan to use it well to help boost our economy.

Thank you and may God bless our beautiful state.

By LAMAR THAMES

Whether you like his ideas or not, you have to admire the way Clay County School Board Chairman Charlie Van Zant Jr. thinks outside the box in trying to come up with methods to cut expenses for the cash-strapped system.

Earlier this year, Van Zant broached the subject of a four-day school schedule. I think he knew he wouldn’t get much support for the unpopular idea but he put it out there anyway. 

Now, Van Zant wants to hear from the public about another idea he has: a longer school day that would result in fewer teaching days in the school calendar year.

Van Zant says there are two bills in the Legislature that would make it possible to change the actual numbers of days taught, thus possibly saving money. Scenarios running from adding 20 to 40 to 60 extra minutes a day could shorten the mandated 180-school year by X number of days if the Legislature passes versions of the two bills. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Friends,

 This week we have been celebrating Sunshine Week – recognizing Florida’s open government laws. We serve the people of Florida with openness and transparency every day. However, every year during this week, we strive to find new ways to make state and local government more accessible to the public.  To achieve this goal, today we launched a new Web site,www.FlaRecovery.com.

As you know, these are challenging times for our nation and for our state. Yet, I believe that Florida will weather this storm as we have weathered storms in the past. Brighter days are ahead. We know people are hurting, and that is why I am grateful for Florida’s fair share of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »