WOKC Local News – December 15, 2025, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. The local impacts. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. The governor proposed his $117 billion state budget this week. It calls for teacher salary hikes, more law enforcement officers, and $1.6 billion in funding for Everglades restoration, water quality, and conservation. He’s looking to eliminate some county health department jobs, too. And he will continue the Second Amendment sales tax holiday. $100 million goes towards the lower Kissimmee Basin stormwater treatment area and $200 million to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. Governor DeSantis says he’s budgeted $300 million for small, fiscally constrained counties like ours should property tax changes be made. There’s some communities, some counties that are fiscally constrained. We have 32 of them. And they’re more rural, and they don’t have the economic engine that an Orlando has or that a South Florida has or a Tampa or a Jacksonville. And so I’ve put in the budget, and I’m not saying it’s even going to be necessary, but I put in a budget enough money to completely, 100% reimburse any homestead property tax reduction for those fiscally constrained counties. Temperatures as low as 42 degrees recorded in Okeechobee County this morning. The cold snap means many people use space heaters to heat their homes. Fire Marshal Keith Burgault recommends that you keep these heaters in the middle of the room away from things that are flammable. Most of them are those little tiny portable space heaters, so we’re looking to make sure they’re secured somewhere out of reach for little kids and cats and dogs and critters. The city will continue to support the work of the Okeechobee County Economic Development Corporation. The contribution will be $40,000 this year. Kaylee King saluted the city about great work adding businesses in the Commerce Center. She says the park is nearly full. You know, it’s really been our mission to focus on target industry. That’s why we’ve been helping you in the industrial park, but we might have to start working on some quality of life because you’ve got nothing left. The Indiantown Village Council debated an extension of their listing agreement with Indiantown Realty. They’re selling property on Warfield Boulevard and could get as much as $3 million. The mayor was criticized for signing a non-disclosure agreement with complaints about transparency. Mayor Carmine DiPaola says the buyer wants to invest big money in Indiantown and he wants to improve the village. And it’s the same thing with this guy. It’s a hard sell to bring a project to Indiantown that’s probably going to end up being like $15 or $16 million. Okay, that’s a big investment to make in this village. An Ogochuyawoman gets three years in prison for methamphetamine trafficking. April Shoger pled no contest to one felony and one misdemeanor charge. She’ll also pay a $50,000 fine. She scored 56 months in prison. She had no prior criminal record. Deputies say they stopped her on a bicycle on March 3rd of this year in the area of Lakeshore Curve wearing all black clothes at 8.30pm and found 14 grams of methamphetamine in a backpack. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News. Thanks for watching.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).