The board's compromise adds the term "scientific theory" not just to evolution but to other areas of science, including the theories of atoms, cells and electromagnetism. This was done for one purpose: to allow the confusion over the term "theory" to cloud the legitimacy of evolution as the only accepted scientific explanation for life's origins. The scientific theory of plate tectonics doesn't inspire the same religiously grounded backlash. ...

Some legislators and religious conservatives will not accept the decision and can be expected to continue to fight before local school boards or in the courts. But that would be counterproductive, and it would not help Florida students gain the scientific knowledge that is essential to compete in a sophisticated, global economy.

Cuba

The Sun Sentinel editorial board: "Fidel Castro's resignation means the long awaited and desired transition in Cuba has formally begun. Unfortunately, it begins with the United States in a wallflower role, sitting on its hands waiting for the next turn of events." "Transition in Cuba formally begins".

The Daytona Beach News Journal editorial board: "It's almost always been something of an absurd, personal enmity between Cuba and the United States -- between Fidel Castro, who assumed power in 1959, and every American president since, as if a communist Cuba in the Western Hemisphere were a supreme insult to American hegemony. Fidel Castro's resignation as president, unfortunately, isn't likely to change anything on either side of the 90 miles that separate the two countries." "Changeless Cuba".

The Tallahassee Democrat editorial board:"It's long past time to undo an economic embargo whose basis now lies only in politics and pride, not pragmatism."

Designed to weaken the dictatorship, the embargo has had the opposite effect. It has provided the Castro regime with a convenient excuse for Cuba's economic shortcomings while simultaneously attracting financial support from other countries, including U.S. allies.

Other nations see the embargo for what it is: a muscle-flexing U.S. foreign-policy failure that has only hurt the Cuban people and their relatives here, American business interests and, most importantly, the democratizing effect of economic and cultural trade.

Can anyone say "China"?

As many Florida political and business leaders have learned but far fewer are willing to publicly acknowledge, supporting the embargo — or at least not opposing it — is the path of least resistance. The exile community has never been shy about flexing its political muscle, and the embargo has been a litmus test for those who want to remain in its good graces.

Charlie goes prime time ... he hopes

"Gov. Charlie Crist will break with tradition March 4 when he gives the annual State of the State address at night in hopes of reaching a statewide TV audience. But his timing could pose a problem. Crist is aiming to give the speech at 6 p.m., a time when most stations are delivering a local newscast." "State of State set for shift to night".

Uninsured Floridians

"Many uninsured Floridians would be guaranteed a chance to buy health insurance at what Gov. Charlie Crist hopes could be as low as $150 a month under a plan the governor put forth Tuesday." "Crist proposes plan to make health insurance cheaper for poor". See also "Crist wants to extend health insurance in Florida" and "Health care plan a catchall".

More of the same

"Crist's list of priorities for his second legislative session looks a lot like his list from last year. It includes continued work at reining in property taxes, making property insurance more available and affordable, expansion of mandatory physical education and teacher bonus programs he enacted, and a focus on finding clean energy in an effort to prevent climate change." "Crist's session priorities in second year a lot like first year".

"The Senate leader also wants tuition control"

"A decade after Florida voters did away with an elected education commissioner, Senate President Ken Pruitt wants voters once again to pick the state's top educator. And he wants voters to designate the Legislature to control tuition at state universities, a move aimed at settling a legal battle with the Board of Governors." "Pruitt wants state to return to elected education chief". See also "Pruitt wants voters to choose education commissioner again".

Ronda

"Storms wants to stop beautifying state government buildings. It's not the principle of the thing, she says, it's the money." "Sorry, artists, but yours is not a government job".

Who needs judges anyway?

"Traffic court would stop. Abuse cases and child-custody hearings would be postponed. Banks would face long delays getting foreclosed homes back on the market. And alimony, divorce and commercial litigation hearings would come to a halt." "Cuts could halt courts, judges warn".

Charlie's "bad idea"

The Daytona Beach News Journal editorial board: "Crist's proposal to undo decades of health-care planning has many health leaders scratching their heads. Nobody seems to know where this proposal came from, or why it's popping up in states from Alabama to Pennsylvania. But almost everyone who cares about the state's overall health-care system agrees: It would be a bad idea. ... a juicy plum to profit-driven companies who would love to set up shop here and skim the cream from the state's health-care spending, performing high-priced procedures while ducking the obligation to care for Medicaid and low-income recipients." "A step backward".

Charlie's mouthpiece

"Following a steady stream of changes at the very top of his administration, Gov. Charlie Crist announced the appointment of a new press secretary. Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kurt Browning, will assume the post in a few weeks, Crist said." "Crist taps Ivey for new press secretary".

It is altogether possible that by the end of the day, Florida once again could be held up to the rest of the nation as more backward than Dogpatch, making even Mississippi look like a golden age of Enlightenment.

Florida's Board of Education, a title treaded upon very cautiously here, is set to vote on adopting new science standards for public schools.

But what should have been a relative no-brainer for the board to rationally acknowledge that evolution is the scientific cornerstone when it comes to the study of biology and its extended disciplines, instead has become a canonical kerfuffle among various Bible thumper groups who want to treat Charles Darwin's research with all the legitimacy of a race track tout sheet.

This is 2008. Isn't it? Sigh.

Is it any wonder the United States runs the risk of being surpassed by Burkina Faso, the Bermuda Triangle and the Planet Zolton 7 when it comes to science instruction?

See 'ya

"Rubio's political future still in question".

Ending private university subsidies

"Not only are Florida universities cutting back on enrollment by about 17,000 students, but private colleges will lose $102 million in state grant money that used to help students pay for tuition. The grants averaged about $3,000 a year, and Gov. Charlie Crist recently eliminated them from his proposed budget." "Private colleges face tuition aid cuts".

Changes

"After nearly half a century as Cuba's president, ailing leader Fidel Castro resigned the position early this morning, saying in a letter in online official media that he would not accept a new term when the newly elected parliament meets Sunday." "Castro resigns Cuban presidency". See also "Cautious optimism in Little Havana".

Mike Thomas' enduring man crush

Our monthly dose of Jeb-FCAT worship from Mike Thomas: Students excel on AP exams, thanks to FCAT - "The FCAT introduces critical thinking by requiring students to draw conclusions from what they have read, not just regurgitate facts from the text."

Thomas overlooks his own newspaper's observation that "Half the high schools in Florida — including several in the Orlando area — are 'dropout factories,' with thousands of students disappearing before their senior year, according to a new report." He also neglects observations like these, again form his own paper:

Florida, [Christopher Parkinson, a biology professor at University of Central Florida,] added, needs better science education because too many students arrive in college unprepared. "They don't understand science," Parkinson added. "They don't know how to think their way out of a paper bag."

Democracy 101

"In 2007, special interests of all sorts spent more than $34 million lobbying Crist and his executive-branch agencies — and well over $63 million lobbying the Legislature, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of reports filed through last week shows."

But while the companies and industry groups spending top dollar to influence the Legislature remained largely unchanged from the previous year, those with business before the Governor's Office looked much different.

When Jeb Bush was governor in 2006, HMOs, the American Tort Reform Association and vendors vying for privatized state contracts were among the top spenders on executive-branch lobbying.

But tort reform and privatization aren't Crist priorities. Instead, utilities were tripping over themselves to influence the governor's demands to start reining in greenhouse gases.

Digging

"The more scrutiny the state's management of a local government investment fund receives, the more questions are raised about the handling of a crisis that could cost taxpayers millions. There is growing evidence that fund managers kept quiet about troubled investments last year and failed to follow their own guidelines for disclosing them. The state needs to keep digging." "Investment crisis needs digging".

CD 13

Democrat Jan Schneider "who has run three times before unsuccessfully, repeated that if she does jump in, she is leaning toward running as independent though she will maintain her Democratic Party registration." "The independence of Jan Schneider".

CSX

The Tampa Tribune editorial board: "CSX Transportation's demand that Florida assume liability for any accidents on a proposed Orlando commuter line should be enough to scuttle the deal. The agreement to purchase 61 miles of CSX track for commuter rail in Orlando and shift freight traffic east into Polk County and elsewhere heavily benefits the railroad. Yet the company wants even more. CSX is asking too much." "A Possible CSX Deal Breaker".

have launched a full-scale assault on the proposed standards by tapping rank-and-file churchgoers, intelligent-design activists and a high-powered lawyer [sic] involved in the nationally watched Terri Schiavo euthanasia case.

Mainstream scientists are urging the board to pass the standards as drafted and reviewed by experts, including Nobel Prize laureate Harry Kroto. Kroto says the drive to call evolution just a ''theory'' or teach alternate ''theories'' is religiously -- not scientifically -- motivated by ''creationists,'' and it confuses the definition of the word theory. In common usage, a theory is a guess. In science a theory -- like relativity -- has the weight of fact because it's a well-tested concept.

Clarity

Adam Smith: "We residents of the Hanging Chad State learned in 2000 that election tallies have margins of error. But seven years later, it's still hard to swallow the constant reminders of how badly the world's biggest democracy handles close elections." "Democrats, how about some clarity?". See also "Superdelegates should wait until after the primaries and caucuses before committing" and "Florida's superdelegates stay silent, flexible".

Ocean-front residents go for Rudy

"In Volusia and Flagler counties, money couldn't bring love -- or votes -- for Rudy Giuliani. The former New York City mayor dominated the other presidential candidates last year in raising money in Volusia and Flagler, hauling in at least $131,000 to help fuel his campaign, federal records show. ... New York Sen. Hillary Clinton led the Democratic candidates, raising at least $31,000, and also won the largest number of primary votes in the two counties." "Giuliani won area's dollars, but trailed in votes".

"Incredible shrinking GOP"

"Once considered fertile ground for Republicans fighting Democratic dominance in Palm Beach County, state House District 85 is becoming a barren land for the GOP - and a sign of larger, troubling registration trends for local Republicans. Despite months of effort, Republicans haven't been able to recruit a candidate for the mid-county House seat that Democratic Rep. Shelley Vana is leaving to run for county commission. The state GOP, which once called District 85 a top target, doesn't rank the seat as one of its top 15 or 20 priorities for 2008." "State GOP no longer sees Vana's district as top target". More here: "County's incredible shrinking GOP".

When will these Bushco bastards just go away?

The Palm Beach Post editorial board: "Anyone - and that includes this newspaper - who has been hoping that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission would get serious about tax "reform" is unhappy. The commission has been a bust."

Charged in the state constitution with meeting at regular intervals to examine how Florida collects money to run government, this commission has focused on collecting less money to run less government.

Less government, though, is keeping Florida's schools near the bottom when it comes to per-pupil spending. Less government is forcing Florida universities to freeze and perhaps reduce enrollment. Less government is undercutting juvenile-justice programs that could improve public safety. Less government is keeping children from having health care. Less government is preventing more parents from getting their children into pre-school. Less government is threatening to hurt the fight against gangs.

The proposals that have emerged, however, are narrow. Former Bush education adviser Patricia Levesque wants to legalize vouchers for religious schools, a fight that the ex-governor lost in court. One idea that has passed calls for conservation lands to be exempt from property taxes. While supported by some environmental groups, the proposal came from commission member Brian Yablonski, a former Bush adviser who is now a vice president for one of the state's biggest landowners, the St. Joe Co. While Mr. Yablonski told the St. Petersburg Times that he hadn't "engaged" his employer on this, it's not hard to imagine St. Joe proposing development surrounded by tax-free conservation lands.

Commission member and former Senate President John Mckay understands the push to cut property taxes. But his proposal to eliminate the property tax for schools - an $8 billion savings - by closing sales tax loopholes and raising sales taxes by 1 cent, was ambushed by another Bush veteran, Tony Villamil. He argued that it would hurt Florida's competitiveness. So the commission debates a tax cap modeled on the Colorado system that voters created, then repealed because services had suffered.

The Trib fights for oppressed employers

The Chamber of Commerce types, d/b/a the Tampa Tribune editorial board argue that unpaid FMLA time off is just too much of a hardship on employers: "Loophole In Family Leave Act Is Big Enough To Park A Bus".

You would think the editors would have something more important to write about.

Big of 'em

"Lawmakers today begin looking at ways to protect Florida's springs." "Lawmakers try to save Florida's springs".

After Florida drove a stake into his heart ...

... poor Mittie went off the deep end. This is off-topic, but Tom Blackburn hits one out of the park this morning: "Mitt Romney's departure from the Republican presidential marathon included the incredible suggestion that a Democratic president would "surrender to terror." Not only that. A Democrat would 'retreat and declare defeat,' the wealthy investor said. Wow, how would someone who would do that get any votes?"

Mr. Romney is reputed to be intelligent.

If intelligent Republicans talk that way, maybe they really believe it. If they believe it, this country is in trouble closer to home than Iraq. The country may be becoming ungovernable. ...

If you ever wonder where Washington's gridlock comes from, look no further. People who should know better blabber themselves into thinking that there no longer is any loyal opposition. There are only enemies.

Finally

"Weeki Wachee Springs becomes state park".

Too bad she's not a legacy

"The Florida Atlantic University sophomore has a 3.9 grade point average and has dreams of going to a larger Florida university, but she recently learned because of state budget cuts those aspirations may not come true at FSU." "Budget cuts mean rejection at FSU".

Sea Cows

"Researchers assess Florida's manatee population and threats".

The move is being encouraged by the campaign of Hillary Clinton,, who stands to pick up 105 delegates after winning 50 percent of the vote in the Florida primary. Obama would gain just 67 delegates after winning 33 percent of the vote. Democrat John Edwards,, though no longer in the race, would get 13 delegates.

All registered Democrats are allowed to vote in the caucuses for a delegate.

The national Democratic Party has refused so far to reinstate Florida's delegates, although pressure to do so, particularly from Clinton supporters, is mounting.

Florida Democrats are convinced that the delegates they choose on March 1 will eventually get seated at the National Convention in Denver in August despite tough talk from the national party.

Playing defense

John Kennedy and Aaron Deslatte:

The GOP had once targeted freshmen Democratic Reps. Tim Mahoney and Ron Klein, both of whom captured GOP seats centered in Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2006. Now, the party could have to spend big just to not lose ground in South Florida, where incumbents in three Miami-Dade districts face tough races.

That's on top of the three Central Florida seats, including Weldon's, that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report says could be competitive for Democrats this year.

Long distance Dem

"Since his election, Michael Scionti has spent months serving in Afghanistan [on his third deployment since his election in November 2006.] But he keeps up on the home front. ... Scionti, a Democrat who represents parts of Hillsborough County, including West Tampa, Town 'N Country and Seminole Heights, is running for re-election this fall." "When politics isn't local".

Will Scionti be swiftboated, or do the GOPers only do that to America-hating "cowards" like John Kerry who win silver stars in combat

GOPer apparatchiks effect Stalinist coup

"When it comes to who's on this year's ballot, Florida Republicans are fighting hard to resist their ideological preference for free markets. Last week, a full-court press of Central Florida's GOP leadership helped clear the field for state Sen. Bill Posey of Rockledge to replace retiring U.S. Rep Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic." "GOP wrangles to hold seats in a competitive environment".

The money trail

The Palm Beach Post editorial board: "Amendment 1 dealt with property taxes in Florida, not nuclear power. Soon, though, Amendment 1 could have a lot to do with nuclear power in Florida."

First, flash back to 2005 and 2006. In 2005, then-Attorney General Charlie Crist intervened in Florida Power & Light's request to the Public Service Commission for an increase in the basic monthly rate. After negotiations, FPL had to postpone at least until 2009 any such rate increase. In 2006, Mr. Crist intervened again when FPL wanted a surcharge to cover hurricane repair costs. FPL got only two-thirds of what it wanted, costing the company almost $570 million.

Later in 2006, when Mr. Crist was running for governor, FPL gave $500,000 to Tom Gallagher, Mr. Crist's primary opponent. Retaliation? Of course. Dumb? Of course. After Mr. Crist won, FPL clumsily tried to give him half a million for the general election. Mr. Crist, flush with money, could afford to look virtuous by saying no.

Cut to 2007. Now-Gov. Crist wanted voters to approve the tax-cutting Amendment 1. Backing it was a political action committee led by the state's Realtors. FPL gave $1 million to the committee. The governor did not criticize that contribution.

In January, the Public Service Commission heard FPL's case for two more reactors at its nuclear plant in Miami-Dade County. If the commission approves it, the request goes to Gov. Crist and the three members of the Florida Cabinet. Federal regulators also have to go along, but rejection by the governor and Cabinet would kill it.

Late call

"The 2004 and 2005 hurricanes were bad for Florida. The state will owe the federal government roughly $500 million more than budgeted over two years for Medicaid, the health-care plan for the poor." "Late call hurts Florida".

Hispanic vote

"In Florida's own primaries last month, Hispanics pushed Sen. John McCain within striking distance of the Republican nomination. In the neck-in-neck Democratic race, Hispanic voters have stood solidly with Clinton, but may finally be flirting with the candidacy of Obama, who has enjoyed little support from them so far." "Presidential candidates seek support from Hispanics".

Can't back down ...

"This year, Robert Wexler is backing off a little from the race for supervisor of elections in Voting La-La Land, otherwise known as Palm Beach County." "Wexler can't take a pass on elections chief".

"Fight for civil rights is never-ending"

The Daytona Beach News Journal editorial board: When it comes to the civil rights movement, "one thing was different about Florida"

Gov. LeRoy Collins, elected as a segregationist in 1955, was a pragmatist. He may not have liked the Supreme Court's Brown decision, but he respected the court's authority and recognized the mayhem that resistance would create. Collins sought ways to diffuse tension and set a tone of moderation in turbulent times. When the bus boycotts came to Tallahassee in 1956, he got a law passed that gave him broad authority to mediate. He successfully ended the practice that forced blacks to sit in the back of buses, and the law he championed was used nearly a decade later by Daytona Beach's Dan Warren, former state attorney, to ease racial tensions in St. Augustine.

Collins' biographer Martin A. Dyckman quotes the governor as saying in 1959, "We can never stop Americans from struggling to be free."

Still, Florida failed to move forward as quickly as it should have. Jim Crow laws were still being written in the 1950s. And many of its schools remained segregated well into the 1960s.

The Civil Rights Movement was at its pinnacle in the 1960s and clearly had long-term effects, stimulating the women's movement and offering models of courage for others, including the most recent target of discrimination, immigrants with brown skin.

Fighting for civil rights is a never-ending struggle. Battles are won, but new ones emerge. It is easy to become content with rationalizations for institutions like slavery, far harder to sustain the energy to seek the justice, equality and dignity that were part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream.

At the trough

"Over the next two weeks, lawmakers have scheduled more than two dozen events around the state."

Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee hosted a $1,500-per-person fundraiser Saturday night at the Tampa Bay Lighting-Washington Capitals hockey game at the Forum.

The Florida Mainstream Democrats, a political committee that supports Democratic legislators, is hosting a $1,000-per-person party Wednesday at the capital city watering hole Clyde's & Costello's. ...

Senate Republicans are hosting a lunch Friday at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival at the Hotel Victor, hosted by Senate President Ken Pruitt and President-designate Jeff Atwater.

"Pruitt's sneering reaction"

The St. Petersburg Times editorial board:"Universities are now laying off faculty, courses are being curtailed, and eager young students are being caught in the squeeze. In just the past three years alone, the share of first-college students whose applications are accepted has dropped from 67 percent to 57 percent. This fall, the total 300,000 university system enrollment may shrink by as many as 17,000 students. Translation: "

More graduating seniors and successful community college students will be denied a seat in their state universities.

This disaster wasn't created overnight, and it won't be solved in a single session of the Legislature. Yet it is not clear whether the 2008 Legislature will even try.

Rubio did invite the 11 public university presidents to the capital last week, and his willingness to listen is commendable. But neither Rubio, nor Senate President Ken Pruitt, nor Gov. Charlie Crist is doing anything tangible to help. Pruitt even had the hubris to ridicule the presidents' offer of a five-year, $1-billion compact between the universities and the Legislature - a process used successfully in California.

"One would assume," Pruitt snapped, "that these are goals they have been pursuing all along with the $3.6-billion they are receiving now."

The multiyear compact is being proposed by the university system Board of Governors and presidents as a way to bind both the universities and the Legislature to certain obligations each year. The intent is to create a predictable stream of revenue for universities while holding them to a rigorous set of performance standards.

This kind of arrangement holds great promise as a method to rebuild university resources, but Pruitt's sneering reaction suggests it has little chance in the Capitol. That's unfortunate.

Dumb and Dumberer and Charlie's magic trick?

Is it really possible that McCain is dumb enough to even consider selecting the dumberer, serial bar flunker Charlie Crist as his running mate? Bill Cotterell takes a close look at the issue this morning. [As an aside, note the usual cabal of fourth tier lap dogs - like Greer, Lemieux and Ballard, who doubtless dream of access to the VP's office for their clients - all think Charlie would be a fab VP].

Our look at Cotterell's analysis of the matter, will be framed by the three parts of a magic trick, as explained in the film "The Prestige"; recall from the that

first, there is the setup, or the "pledge," where the magician shows the audience something that appears ordinary but is probably not, making use of misdirection. Next is the performance, or the "turn," where the magician makes the ordinary act extraordinary. Lastly, there is the "prestige," where the effect of the illusion is produced.

Many around the Capitol scoffed last spring when legislators exempted federal offices from Florida's "resign to run" law, so that a sitting governor might audition for Washington without giving up his day job.

Crist's endorsement two days before the state primary gave Sen. John McCain a push to eclipse Mitt Romney, [and once and for all dash the hopes of poor Rudy].

semi-serious speculation turned to ponderous prognostication. Could the man known as "Chain Gang Charlie" just 10 years ago, in a hopeless mismatch with then-Sen. Bob Graham, have the gravitas to enter the history books among the likes of Hanibal Hamlin and Catcus Jack Garner?

"I've always said Gov. Crist is the future of the Republican Party," Greer said. "He would be an asset to any administration."

Attorney George LeMieux, the political confidante Crist dubbed "the maestro" for his role in past campaigns, said ... "it's all about electoral votes and Gov. Crist absolutely takes Florida off the table." ...

Crist was dogged by vice-presidency questions at a mid-week news conference, after a Cabinet meeting and following a Washington luncheon with Republicans in Congress. Tradition and common sense demand an aw-shucks modesty of Academy Award nominees, beauty pageant contestants and vice-presidential possibilities, so Crist coyly insisted it was an honor just to be mentioned.

"I'm focused on Florida; I mean, it's very flattering to have even the discussion of it, but frankly, it's premature," he said. "It's not something I'm focused on, not something I think about."

Would it be hard to resist if asked? Crist chuckled and said, "I don't know. Nobody's asked." ...

Lobbyist Brian Ballard, who is close to the governor, said Crist ... "isn't too moderate to sooth conservative doubts about McCain. ... You look at 'Chain Gang Charlie,' who just passed a $9 billion tax cut, and if Charlie Crist isn't a conservative, then I don't know what people are looking for," Ballard said. "Gov. Crist is the one person who could put Florida in the bank for McCain."

While we're on the topic of "dumberer"

"Some of the educators who helped devise Florida's new science standards said Saturday that they object to a last-minute alternative put together by the state Department of Education, which would insert 'the scientific theory of' before the word evolution."

They said the phrase compromises scientific knowledge merely to mollify those who oppose making the teaching of evolution a requirement in Florida's public schools.

Please, board members, spare this state's beleaguered school system any more embarrassment.

That evolutionary theory is not already an integral part of public-school science education is a travesty that has hurt generations of Florida students. They perform far below average on national science tests. When the science component of the FCAT was counted for the first time last year, school grades based on the state's standardized test plummeted. In 2005, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute gave Florida an F for the current standards and singled out the superficial treatment of evolution as an example.

These embarrassments were only magnified in Orlando last week when public meetings were held on this way-belated curriculum plan. Opponents, several of them school-board members from around the state, argued that evolution is "just a theory" and therefore should not be taught as fact. Biblical explanations of creation, they claimed, are every bit as valid as Charles Darwin's theory.

That's just plain wrong.

The truth is that there is a big difference between the everyday notion of a "theory" and a recognized "scientific theory."

Suddenly, there is grave concern over holes in the fossil record. Suddenly regular citizens are experts in entropy and in what constitutes scientific "theory."

Castor

"One superdelegate is U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, 41, in her first term representing the 11th District that includes much of Hillsborough County and parts of Pinellas and Manatee counties.We asked Castor about the process and this unusual primary season. Here's what she had to say in an interview with Times staff writer Janet Zink:" "I am a super-delegate".

Another "unwelcome surprise"

"Homeowners expecting to pocket an average $240 property tax savings this year might be in for an unwelcome surprise: their tax bills could be cut by a lot less, or might even inch up."

The reason: a little-noticed nuance in Florida's Save Our Homes annual cap on tax assessments dubbed the "recapture rule," which mandates that, for many homeowners, their taxable values will rise even if their home's market worth falls. That mechanism kicks in so long as a home's market value remains above its taxable value.