Our Favorite...Taxes!

Preston Trigg, Director of Administration at the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s office, came to shed a little light on yet another gate into the wonderful world of public records.

With the gray area of what is private and what is public in today's field of journalism, getting access to a plethora of what many may think of as private documents is easier than one may imagine.

Trigg went on to explain the various reasons property tax information is public and the benefits we as reporters can take advantage of to fully utilize these public records. It's suprisingly easy to find out who pays their taxes, what their taxes are and the worth of their home. Trigg went on to explain how this kind of information is important to find out who is playing the system.

When you think about it, it does make it hard to believe that someone making 100,000 a year can afford a 2 million dollar home. Something like this has "investigation" written all over it. Which leads to Trigg talking about following the money. It seems a lot in the world of public records deals with money. it is one of the biggest concerns of a lot of people, where is the money going or coming from?

There is no better way to keep track of what politicians or anyone scandalize may be doing with certain funds than through public records. Every class, we are given another valuable piece to the puzzle and I'm grateful to be able to get a better understanding of what is out there and how these simple records can change the way people behave.

It's important to keep our eyes open and alert but with ex-Investigative Reporters like Trigg around, pay your taxes cause you probably won't fall through the cracks when it comes to doing any dirty work.