A. B. Newton — Local Government & Taxes Reporter

Orlando Citizen — Local Government & Taxes Beat

A. B. Newton

Local government and taxes reporter. Tom covers the commissions and councils that set Central Florida’s tax rates and budgets: the Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake County commissions, Orlando City Council, and the taxing boards in between.

His beat runs on primary sources: published agendas, adopted minutes, budget books, millage notices and official releases. An agenda item is reported as proposed — never as decided — until minutes or an official release record the vote. This beat is the Opinion desk’s raw material, so every figure is traced to the document it came from.

What he covers: property tax and millage decisions, county and city budgets, the tourist-development tax and who spends it, commission votes, and the public meetings where residents can actually be heard.

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A. B. Newton is a staff reporter of the Orlando Citizen newsroom.