Official knee-deep in debt [Tampa Bay Area]
Already facing the challenges of a lengthy 2008 presidential ballot, the retooling of his office’s voting system and his own re-election campaign, Hillsborough Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson has chosen this year to revamp entirely his finances and his living arrangements.
In the last eight months, he has sold the Plant City home he built in 2006, purchased a luxury high-rise condo in downtown Sarasota and created a corporation which bought and platted a six-lot, 19.98-acre tract where he says he intends to move.
The new purchases have saddled Johnson with debt totaling $1.32-million, about 10 times the $131,878 annual salary he draws as elections supervisor.
For all the spending, Johnson’s moves have set back his living conditions.