This is what may be the finest example of chutzpah thus far in the year 2024.

The story was written by my favorite education journalists in Florida, Leslie Postal and Annie Martin. They specialize in exposing scams.

A state legislator sought permission to make her home tax-exempt, claiming it was part of Central Christian University, whose campus is elsewhere. The “university” has 15 students. Until last year, Rep. Amesty was the university’s vice-president; her father, who lives in the home, is the president. Her request was denied.

The Orlando Sentinel reported:

The small university run by Rep. Carolina Amesty’s family lost its bid Monday to make the $1.6 million home where she lived during her first campaign exempt from property taxes.

The school had sought an educational exemption on the five-bedroom pool home near Windermere where Amesty, an Orlando-area Republican, lived with her parents until last year.

Central Christian University filed for the exemption in 2023 while it was delinquent on its prior year’s taxes. At the time, Amesty was the university’s vice president.

A special magistrate ruled in November that Central Christian had not shown the home in an upscale golf course development was anything but a private family residence for Amesty’s parents and recommended Orange County deny the sought-after tax exemption…

Amesty, who is running for reelection this year, has been the subject of two Orlando Sentinel investigations, the first involving the unpaid taxes on the home and unpaid utility bills on a shuttered restaurant she owns.

The second story, published last month, showed five men who said they’d never worked for her family’s small, unaccredited university were listed as faculty members in catalogs the school submitted to the Florida Department of Education. Amesty also notarized an employment form indicating that a veteran educator worked there, but the man said he never signed the form.

During her first campaign for the Florida House, Amesty frequently touted her role at Central Christian, although she is no longer an employee there, her attorney told the Sentinel earlier this year.

At the November hearing before the magistrate,  Amesty and other Central Christian officials argued that the house should be exempt because Amesty’s father resides there and uses it for some university business.

They compared the home to the presidents’ houses at Rollins College and the University of Miami.

But the magistrate said there was no evidence Central Christian, which last summer told the state it had 15 students, used the 5,400-square-foot home for university activities…

The testimony at the hearing, the magistrate wrote, “did not support that the Property was 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.”

Central Christian late last year paid its delinquent 2022 property taxes, which totaled more than $18,000, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser’s website.

The school also paid its 2023 tax bill, which was about $25,000, the website shows.