Opinion
Orlando argues with itself every day — at commission meetings, in school-board chambers, in the line at the DMV and the queue for the SunRail platform. The Opinion desk is where the Citizen argues in the open. Three columnists, three honest ways of seeing this city, and one shared rule: opinion is free here, but facts are checked. Every factual claim in every column on this page passed the editor-in-chief’s fact gate before it published.
Most days, the three of them write on the same question — the crossover. One local topic with real stakes for the people who live here, taken from three sides, each column linked to the other two and to the Citizen’s news coverage of the issue. They disagree genuinely. That is the point.
The Columnists
Clarence Howard — The Howard Ledger
The conservative voice. A Winter Park small-business owner of 28 years who trusts ledgers over press releases: a tax fenced for one purpose should stay fenced, growth should pay its own way, and every spending proposal gets two questions — who pays, and what did we promise them? Her positions and archive →
G. L. Dyer — Fair Share
The liberal voice. A former I-Drive hospitality worker and Orange County teacher who judges Orlando’s boom by what it does for the people who clean, cook, drive and teach in it: when a record tax haul and a record rent burden arrive in the same year, that is policy, not fate. His positions and archive →
Margaret Shepherd — From the Porch
The neighbourhood voice. A College Park lifer and neighbourhood-association veteran who measures every grand plan by what it does to an actual street: publish the ledger, hold both honest halves of an issue at once, and start with the small, checkable ask. Her positions and archive →
Today’s Crossover
Today’s topic: Orange County’s tourist development tax — the October 19 spending plan, and what a record $384.6 million haul should be allowed to pay for.
- Orlando Tourist Tax: Keep the Promise in Orange County’s $384.6 Million Ledger — Clarence Howard, The Howard Ledger: a dedicated tax is a contract; if Orlando wants transit or housing money, it should ask voters honestly.
- Orlando Tourist Tax: A Record Haul That Cannot Pay for the Bus Ride Home — G. L. Dyer, Fair Share: the fence was a choice written in Tallahassee, and Tallahassee can remake it for transit and workforce housing.
- Orlando Tourist Tax: Print the Ledger, Street by Street, Before the Next Vote — Margaret Shepherd, From the Porch: before the fence argument resumes, publish every committed dollar by neighbourhood and year.
Latest Columns
- Orlando Tourist Tax: Keep the Promise in Orange County’s $384.6 Million Ledger — Clarence Howard
- Orlando Tourist Tax: A Record Haul That Cannot Pay for the Bus Ride Home — G. L. Dyer
- Orlando Tourist Tax: Print the Ledger, Street by Street, Before the Next Vote — Margaret Shepherd
Columns appear here as the desk publishes — one crossover set a day. The full Opinion archive lives in the Opinion section.
The columnists are the Citizen’s opinion voices; their views are their own and do not speak for the newsroom’s reporting, which is held to the same fact gate without the opinions. Disagree with a column? That is what it is for — write to the Citizen via our contact page.