Fraudulent certification of a sales tax exemption is a third degree felony in Florida, and if you look at the Florida Department of Revenue's website, it is subject to MANDATORY punishments which are much stricter than even the punishments for other sales tax fraud. People who were just sloppy have been thrown in jail for sales tax violations in Florida -- here we have an intentional, systemic and corrupt practice, which the superintendent went on the radio justifying as a way to avoid the sales tax. If that doesn't satisfy the intent requirement of the criminal law, I don't know what does. On top of that, to the extent the cards were used to avoid sales tax in other states, you have sales tax fraud in all of those states as well. Next, if the cards were used to book airfare or hotels, you have potential tax fraud with respect to all of those taxes, which can be local, state or even federal. Tax fraud, especially in this economy, simply cannot be tolerated. When our kids are losing valuable or even critical educational services all over the country, how can we have a superintendent who goes on the radio advocating tax fraud?!? As a voter, I demand that every single affected taxing authority get notified, and all penalties assessed. Nothing angers me more than when people who make a lot of money turn around and cheat the very system that enabled them to prosper. Is there anything lower class than that?

eliminate the use of our Key West fire trucks for the guys running errands to publix, the banks, and taking the scenic route past the beach during spring break. The super market runs are almost daily and its shameless. How many miles do those vehicles get per gallon? The dept should be commended for a great job on Duval St this week, but lets all watch our backs while anyone from the State is looking at the books. At least take one of the darn pick up trucks we bought you!

There are only 22 Blackberry accounts in the school district, the 197 is the total number of phones, including school bus drivers, maintenance dept. workers and all of the schools put together, so please get your facts straight.

In the real world of business, if you break the rules, you get fired. In the real world, this would have been discovered within a few months of it happening and consequences delivered. This is not the real world however, this is the Keys where the Bubba System is in full swing on a daily basis. We need to stop the current system and get into the real world.