Manatee Tax Collector Burton: Here are the 'facts' in dispute with school district over $1.5 million charge

"(T)his is about following the letter of the law as it is written," says Ken Burton.

Manatee County Tax Collector Ken Burton is offering a full-throated explanation of why his office is levying a “commission” fee of as much as $1.5 million on the School District of Manatee County for collection of the district’s special 1-mill property tax.

The bottom line, Burton wrote on the tax office’s website, is that he’s only following Florida la…