Tag Archives: Q&A
Q&A with Florida State Representative Cyndi Stevenson, District 17
Q: Can you give us some highlights of the recently concluded legislative session?
A: Education is so important in St. Johns County and I’m pleased that we had an increase in funding of $257.30 per student over last year. This increase includes an additional $13.9 million in flexible funding, an additional $197,000 for safe schools funding and an additional $118,000 for school mental health assistance funding.
Q&A with State Attorney, 7th Judicial Circuit, R.J. Larizza
Q: Can you give us an update on some of the highlights of the recently concluded 2019 legislative session as pertains to criminal justice?
A: There were a number of changes enacted this session. First, there were changes to the grand theft/felony theft statute, which hasn’t been modified in decades. Previously, the threshold was $300 in stolen goods to be classified as grand theft. The legislature increased this to $750, to try to make it equivalent today to the old amount. The law does allow us to aggregate, so if we can prove that there is an ongoing theft ring of smaller thefts under the felony threshold, we can add them up to charge with grand theft.
Q & A with St. Johns County School Board Member, District 1, Beverly Slough
Q: School’s out, but the work for the school district continues. What can you share with us about what’s happening at this time?
A: Right now, we are trying to figure out the impact of the recently concluded legislative session. Two huge education “train bills” were passed, one that deals mostly with security and one that deals with practically everything else.
Q&A with St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes
Q: Can you give us some background on the bilingual ballot language requirements?
A: Last year, we were involved in a lawsuit with 32 other counties in Florida regarding voters from Puerto Rico who evacuated to Florida as a result of Hurricane Maria. They are U.S. Citizens, educated in American schools, but English is not their primary language. The 32 counties were required to provide Spanish sample ballots for the Nov. 6, 2018 General Election in all forms we make them available, such as on our website, mailed, or advertised and at all voting locations.
Q&A with Florida State Representative Cyndi Stevenson, District 17
Q: Now that session is completed, can you give us some updates?
A: We had a good session. There were lots of bipartisan bills passed, but there is still plenty of work to do.
