The return of Nancy Meyer as our publisher and the appointment of Julie Anderson as our editor has proven just how indispensable a vibrant and aggressive Orlando Sentinel is to Central Florida. In January alone, the Sentinel lost 130 years of journalism expertise. The Orlando Sentinel built an award-winning, nationally recognized team with incomparable institutional knowledge and unrivaled connections to Central Florida - and it has been gutted, with senior journalists and talented young reporters pushed out as our corporate management in Chicago and our largest shareholders have been rewarded. In the last 15 years, our newsroom has shrunk from more than 300 to fewer than 90. Our sports, arts and culture reporting is unmatched, and our coverage through El Sentinel, Pro Soccer USA and GrowthSpotter demonstrates our commitment to serving all corners of our city.īut as Orlando grows, we are doing more with less. We hold local leaders accountable, celebrate our region’s triumphs, and reveal its failures. The past-due amount of more than $18,200 has been cleared, the property appraiser’s website showed Tuesday.We, the journalists of the Orlando Sentinel,įor more than 100 years, Orlando Sentinel journalists have worked to tell the story of Central Florida. The university recently paid its delinquent 2022 property bill. In May, Amesty moved to another address in the same community, voter registration records show. That living arrangement prompted controversy during her campaign and the home’s unpaid 2022 tax bill was a part of an Orlando Sentinel investigation of Amesty published in August. “Instead, the testimony and evidence provided that the Property is primarily used as the personal residence of the CCU President.”Īmesty, newly elected to the Florida Legislature in 2022, lived in the house with her parents during her campaign and her first session in office and used that address when she filed her 2024 re-election documents with the state in January. In her written opinion, Azam said the university needed to show that the house was used “frequently and regularly” by students and faculty and “is an integral part of the educational institution.”Ĭentral Christian did not show that, she wrote. “The burden of proof is not on our office,” she added. “The dispute of whether the home is used for educational purposes is inaccurate,” Amesty added.īut Ana Torres, general counsel for the property appraiser’s office, told Azam the university didn’t indicate the property was used for purposes other than housing its president on its initial application for a tax exemption or at any other time prior to the hearing. The home was used for “fundraisers, events, meetings, a lot of meetings that can’t happen on campus,” with board members, faculty and foreign dignitaries, she said. ![]() Neither Amesty nor her father could be reached immediately for comment.Īmesty, whose district includes a section of west Orange and northern Osceola County, spoke at the hearing in early November and urged Azam to side with the university. 7 ruled in favor of the property appraiser, recommending that the office’s decision to deny the tax exemption be upheld.Īsima Azam, an Orlando attorney who served as the magistrate, wrote that the testimony provided by university officials “did not support that the Property is regularly or frequently made available to students or faculty for classes, meetings or workshops, or that students or faculty regularly visited or made use of the Property.”Īzam’s recommendation now goes to the county’s Value Adjustment Board, which will make a final decision on tax appeals at its April 15 meeting. Florida law requires properties to be used for educational purposes to qualify for the tax exemption Central Christian wanted.Ī special magistrate who heard the university’s appeal on Nov. The unaccredited university, which this summer told the state it had about 160 mostly online students, said the house serves the same function as the presidents’ houses at Rollins College and the University of Miami, which are exempt from property taxes.īut the Orange County Property Appraiser disagreed, saying evidence showed that Central Christian’s home was a private residence for Juan Amesty, the school’s president and founder. Without an exemption, the university owes about $25,000 in property taxes this year on the 5,400-square-foot home in Keene’s Pointe on the Butler Chain of Lakes, according to the property appraiser’s website.
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