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St. Johns Water Management District faces 26% funding cut
The St. Johns River Water Management District will be cutting its annual property tax collection by $85.3 million for the 2011-2012 fiscal year in accordance to a law signed by Gov. Rick Scott May 26. SB 2142, which requires the Legislature to annually review the preliminary budget and the authorized millage rate for each water management district, also sets the district’s ad valorem revenue 26 percent lower than the current fiscal year’s amount. The district is working on a tentative budget and millage rate to present to its governing board by July 14, according to Teresa Monson, a spokeswoman for the…
Wear flip-flops, get a free smoothie
Flip-flop season is almost here, and to celebrate, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is offering a free 24-ounce Jetty Punch smoothie to the first 500 customers wearing flip-flops at each store in honor of National Flip-Flop Day June 17. The event benefits Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families in Casco, Maine. There are 12 Tropical Smoothie Cafes in and around Jacksonville. To find the one nearest you, click…
BitRaider LLC moving to Louisiana
A Jacksonville-based digital distribution company has announced it will move to Louisiana. BitRaider LLC, which has offices on Jacksonville’s Southside, plans to move to Baton Rouge, according to a notice posted on the company’s website. The digital media company, which markets online video game technology, will begin operations in Louisiana this summer, The Associated Press reported. The move will relocate 22 employees to the Louisiana Technology Park. Louisiana has been aggressive about attracting video game and software companies by offering a 25 percent tax credit for digital interactive media expenditures made in the state, according to Louisiana Economic…
HITT to build $5.5M Navy Federal branch
HITT Contracting Inc. received a city of Jacksonville building permit yesterday to build a $5.5 million branch and regional office building for Navy Federal Credit Union. The work at 11270 St. Johns Industrial Parkway S., off St. Johns Bluff Road, involves 10,200 square feet of space and associated site work. The architect listed on the permit is Thomas Talbot Winborne of Norfolk, Va. For more information, contact HITT Contracting, based in Falls Church, Va., at (703)…
Florida ranks 39th for manufacturing jobs
Florida has lost 154,900 manufacturing jobs over 10 years, ranking 39th in the nation, according to an On Numbers analysis of new federal data. Only Alaska gained manufacturing jobs during that period — and that was just 100, the analysis by The Business Journals showed. Click here for a state-by-state breakdown of the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor…
Florida had 2nd most government jobs in past decade
Big government got even bigger in Florida over the past decade, but the trend is changing. Florida added 94,700 government jobs between April 2001 and April 2011 — second-most in the United States, according to an On Numbers study of employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state had 1,129,900 government jobs as of April 2011. But the trend has changed over the past year. Florida lost 4,900 government jobs between April 2010 and April 2011. Government jobs include all jobs at the federal, state and local…
BofA unit to pay $20M settlement
A division of Bank of America Corp. will pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of wrongfully foreclosing on 160 service members by not checking on their military status. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the suit against BAC Home Loans Servicing, formerly known as Countrywide Home Loans Servicing. The complaint alleged that Countrywide did not consistently check the military status of borrowers on whom it foreclosed through at least May 31, 2009. The suit was filed in the Central District of California, where Countrywide was…
Scott vetoes cut WJCT budget by 9%
Northeast Florida’s public radio and television affiliate lost about $522,000 in state funding, or about 9 percent of its annual operating budget, as part of Gov. Rick Scott’s budget veto package released today, according to WJCT President and CEO Michael Boylan. Calling the cuts “significant,” Boylan said WJCT will launch a coordinated effort to educate its viewers and listeners on the need to cushion the funding loss or suffer possible programming cutbacks. The cut was part of a $4.8 million elimination of state funding for public broadcasting contained in Scott’s veto…
Scott vetoes $14 million in area projects
Gov. Rick Scott vetoed over $14 million in projects directly related to Northeast Florida out of the $615 million in cuts to the state budget announced Thursday. The biggest item on the veto list for the Jacksonville area is $10 million sought for restoration of the St. Johns River. The University of North Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville requests for infrastructure improvements, $1.97 million and $1.77 million respectively, also were vetoed. WJCT, which operates N.E. Florida public radio and television stations, lost $522,000 in state funding, its share of the…
Watch video of warplane that could be built in Jacksonville
Click here to watch a video of the A-29 Super Tucano, which Embraer wants to build in Jacksonville. From a Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce press release: Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and Embraer, which has its U.S. headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale and recently selected Jacksonville International Airport as its location to build the light attack aircraft, are jointly bidding on a U.S. Department of Defense LAS contract. If they are awarded the contract in June, the aircraft, the A-29 Super Tucano, will be built in Jacksonville, creating high quality engineering and technical…