Uthmeier, now under fire for his role in the Hope Florida scandal, has previously threatened mayors, county commissioners, and state attorneys with removal from office for failing to meet his legal standards.
Author Archives: Kate Payne
Kate Payne is The Florida Trib's state government reporter.
She’s spent her career in nonprofit newsrooms in Florida and Iowa and her reporting has run the gamut, from interviewing presidential candidates on the campaign trail to middle schoolers in the lunch line.
Kate has won awards for her political reporting, sound editing and feature writing and was named 2024 journalist of the year by the Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Kate’s previous newsrooms include the Associated Press, Iowa Public Radio and WLRN Public Media in Miami. Her stories and photographs have been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR and PBS, and her reporting on the death penalty has been cited in a filing at the U.S. Supreme Court.
You can reach Kate at kate.payne@floridatrib.org
Posted inState Government
Where are they now? Key actors in Hope Florida scandal got promoted
Despite finding the $10 million was misappropriated, the grand jury said there was “insufficient evidence” to charge anyone criminally – because no one would admit to orchestrating the scheme.
Posted inState Government
New state law to protect consumers from data center costs faces its first test
Data centers have become a political lightning rod across the country, galvanizing a bipartisan outpouring of opposition from residents alarmed by the sheer scale of the energy and water needed to run the facilities, which are used to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Posted inFlorida
DeSantis-appointed Blaise Ingoglia wins primary to keep CFO post
Though appointed and not elected to his current position as CFO, Ingoglia has not shied away from using his post to publicly ridicule the spending decisions of local governments.
Posted inFlorida
Charlie Crist, Ken Welch head to runoff in St. Pete mayor’s race
The spending on Crist’s mayoral campaign by some of Tallahassee’s most prominent lobbyists comes at a critical time: as St. Petersburg considers breaking free from its power supplier, Duke Energy, and creating its own city-run municipal utility.
Posted inFlorida
Trump-endorsed Donalds clears the field in governor’s race
From the jump, Donalds was the Republican favorite to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declined to endorse in the race.
Posted inElections
Charlie Crist, once a scourge of utilities, now reaps windfall from their allies
The committee backing Crist has received tens of thousands of dollars more from a daisy-chain of opaque political committees, including one whose registered address is a University of Florida fraternity house.
Posted inElections
Judge orders rewrite of ‘biased’ and ‘political’ property tax measure
The judge singled out the measure’s failure to communicate a major shift – enshrining ‘the Legislature’s right to control ad valorem tax spending.’
Posted inElections
What Byron and Erika Donalds’ gospel of school choice could mean for Florida
Byron and Erika Donalds are poised to fundamentally reshape education in the state of Florida. Guided by their Christian faith, they seek to “break the public school monopoly.”
Posted inState Government
Lawmaker vowed to quit if harassment claims were proven ‘true.’ That was then
State Rep. Fabian Basabe, found liable for sexual harassment, battery and defamation in a civil case brought by former staffers, had previously pledged to resign. But there is no indication that he plans to do so.