I have been on the board of Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe for the past two years. I have learned so much about our home insurance crisis and the root cause of why our insurance rates are so high.

In just days, we have to close our books on another quarter of the campaign. This is an opportunity for us to show the strength and momentum we have built. I need to ask – can you make a contribution to help us show our strength?

At this month’s BOCC meeting, Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Libraries, Kimberly Matthews, presented the County staff’s current progress and plan for public participation in determining the number of ROGO permits Monroe County will ask to be awarded by the State of Florida at the end of this year. Community feedback on this decision is essential in determining how many ROGO permits to request.

Thank you so much to everyone that was able to attend our event at The Gardens Hotel! We are so happy for the amazing turnout and that so many in the community care about the future of the Florida Keys.

At this month’s BOCC meeting County staff proposed a tentative increase of the non ad valorem tax for residential solid waste collection, distribution and recycling rate for the fiscal year 2024-2025 of 10%, or $45.71, for a total cost of $502.86 per household. This was the amount the staff felt was appropriate for the increase in costs for Waste Management.

Yesterday we filed our first quarterly campaign finance report and we are thrilled to say that we reached our goal of 100 donors in the first quarter and we out-raised our opponent Jim Scholl 6 to 1!