March 28, 2024

Wednesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 5/17/2023

Small details fill big Florida budget

Florida lawmakers this month passed a record $117 billion budget that covers more than 500 pages and includes high-profile issues such as money for schools, health care, environmental projects and road construction. But also tucked inside the spending plan are more than 1,500 projects pushed by individual lawmakers and fine print that details how tax dollars must be used. The budget, which will take effect July 1, still needs approval from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has line-item veto power. More from the News Service of Florida.

Florida Trend Exclusive
Redevelopment: A clean start

Across Florida, neglected and contaminated sites once considered too expensive and troublesome to redevelop are being transformed into economic and community assets. "Redevelopment in an area that hasn't happened before, it takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of resources. Things aren't going to happen overnight. When we signed the contract, it was 2016. We started construction at the end of 2022," says longtime local developer Fred Pezeshkan. More from Florida Trend.

Consumer Price Index hikes in South Florida outpace nation

South Florida’s consumer prices rose 9% for the 12 months ended in April, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week, far faster than the 4.9% increase for the US as a whole, which has felt 10 straight months of cooling inflation since it peaked at 9.1% nationally last June. While a 9% price rise is light years faster than South Florida increases in earlier years, it is slower than any 12 months here since December 2021. More from Miami Today.

Carnival Cruise Line to bring new Italian-themed ship Venezia to Port Canaveral

Carnival Cruise Line will expand its fleet to five ships in Port Canaveral with the arrival in late 2024 of the Italian-themed Carnival Venezia. The line announced the rebranded ship originally built for sister cruise line Costa Cruises as Costa Venezia will spend the winter Caribbean sailing season out of the Central Florida port starting Dec. 18, 2024. The 135,225-gross-ton ship is currently undergoing a facelift in Spain that will include a unique black-and-yellow paint job as part of what Carnival is marketing as Fun Italian Style. More from the Small details fill big Florida budget Orlando Sentinel.

Tampa Bay needs affordable housing. Why do luxury condos dominate?

As longtime residents struggle to find affordable housing, some have criticized the proliferation of luxury condos and apartments in St. Petersburg and Tampa. They fear that these projects are driving up housing costs for the entire community. Others say our cities need more growth, not less, to solve the housing shortage and bring prices down. More from the Tampa Bay Times.

Business Profile
Port St. Lucie welcomes innovative human milk processing company

LactaLogics, a mission-driven company dedicated to bringing more human milk to babies, is opening its headquarters and processing facility in Port St. Lucie. “Although breast milk is vital to the health of premature infants, most rely on cow’s milk-based formula for nutrition due to the lack of access to human milk,” LactaLogics co-founder Chelly Snow said. “To address this need, LactaLogics plans to collect excess milk from qualified donor moms across the United States and then gently process the milk to meet the unique needs of premature infants.”

» More from Florida Trend.

 

Transportation Trends
Keep on truckin'

FleetForce is expanding in Florida this spring with six new training and testing centers. The truck-driving school, based in Sarasota, projects it will be able to graduate 3,000 commercial drivers annually, to help reduce a shortage that trucking trade experts say is close to 80,000 nationally. FleetForce’s new centers will be at colleges in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Niceville, Daytona Beach, Ocala and New Port Richey. It also has operations in Winter Haven, Venice, Palm City, Lake City and Gainesville.

» Read more from Florida Trend.

Tags: Daily Pulse, Afternoon Pulse

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Florida Trend Video Pick

Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices
Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices

Central Floirda chocolate shops are left with a bitter taste as cocoa prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.

Video Picks | Viewpoints@FloridaTrend

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