Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 9-24-19

Features
Tampa City Council Passes Mayor Castor’s 2020 $1 Billion Budget
Mayor Castor holds press conference Wednesday with City Coun- cil members present at Fire Station #1 to announce that funds were approved in the budget for upgrades at the station.
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
In preparing the first City of Tampa Budget since be- coming mayor in May, Mayor Jane Castor re- ceived the full approval of the Tampa City Council. Tuesday evening (Sept. 17th), the Coun- cil approved the budget unan- imously. The budget takes effect on October 1, 2019.
“Our FY 2020 budget is a big step forward for our city-- one that will allow us to tackle real issues, strengthen our community, and ensure all neighborhoods benefit from our success. It is a budget that balances needs and wants with ensuring our financial stability. It addresses many years of deferred mainte- nance and cuts to services, moves forward on transporta- tion, invests in housing that Tampa can afford, takes sus- tainability seriously, and em- powers our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Jane Castor.
“This budget reflects the optimism I have for Tampa's future, and for the futures of
generations of Tampanians to come,” she said.
In under 140 days, Mayor Castor has passed the city’s largest infrastructure project with the P.I.P.E.S. project, passed $15 an hour for city employees, established Bridges to Business, where city hall comes to the neigh- borhoods to help small busi- nesses succeed, and established four out of the five advisory teams with focused community collaboration on transportation, development services, workforce develop- ment, and affordable housing.
Since becoming the new City Council Representative for District 5, Orlando Gudes has rallied for im- provements in East Tampa.
“All the mayoral candi- dates and city council candi- dates talked about the needs for East Tampa. I plan to hold them accountable for all of the moves we make,” he said.
“I’m ecstatic about what’s happening and how we all plan to work to make this a better place for everybody” he concluded.
Supervisor Of Elections To Celebrate National Voter Registration Day
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Tuesday, September 24th, Craig Latimer, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, and his staff will celebrate Na- tional Voter Registration Day and his birthday. The event will take place in the cafeteria at Steinbrenner High School, 5575 W. Lutz Lake Fern Rd, Lutz, FL 33558, from 12 noon to 1 p.m.
Latimer said, “We hold voter registration drives at the high schools twice a year, but Steinbrenner High School reached out to us with a specific request to help them celebrate
CRAIG LATIMER Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections
National Voter Registration Day next week. They obviously didn’t know it’s my birthday that day,
but I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that, too!”
Registered voters in Hills- borough County are encouraged to check their information at www.VoteHillsborough.org/Are YouReady to make sure their voter information is current. Those who need to register should visit www.VoteHillsbor- ough.org/Register.
Latimer said his office has a number of different voter reg- istration drives scheduled throughout the county. Anyone wishing to join the national cam- paign on social media, can do so by using #NationalVoterRegis- trationDay and #VoteHillsbor- ough hashtags.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 7