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Thursday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
Busy holiday travel season could set a record
AAA projects a record 6.6 million Floridians will travel 50 miles or more during the holiday travel period, now through New Year’s Day. That’s almost 3.4% more than last year, which was the previous record high. And that doesn’t include snowbirds flocking to Florida from out of state, AAA said. Breaking it down: 6 million will travel by car, 356,790 by plane and 266,303 by other means like rail, bus or cruise line. [Source: Jax Today]
Why are so many South Florida consumers signing up for more credit cards?
South Floridians are among the nation’s most prolific consumers in signing up for new credit cards, a trend that may not bode well for household financial stability in a period of high inflation. In a national survey, LendingTree, the online loan marketplace, found the Greater Miami area “has the 8th-most residents who opened a new credit card in the first half of 2023,” according to a statement. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Groups putting abortion on the Florida ballot believe they have the signatures they need
Groups behind the push to put abortion rights on the Florida ballot next year have reached a major milestone: They believe they have collected all the signatures needed to put it to a vote. The petition aims to place a state constitutional amendment to protect the right to an abortion on the 2024 ballot. It would protect abortion rights in Florida up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is generally when a fetus is considered viable. More from WLRN and the Tampa Bay Times.
Florida CFO Patronis wants $5.5M to expand state’s Division of Consumer Services
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis wants to expand what he calls one of the state’s best-kept secrets: The Division of Consumer Services. The division helps Floridians with almost any kind of insurance issue. At a time when everything, including insurance, seems to cost more money, and the state of Florida is in the midst of a property insurance crisis, Patronis said he’s asking the Florida Legislature for $5.5 million to increase the Consumer Services Division’s size so it can provide more face-to-face assistance for insurance needs of all kinds. [Source: News 4 Jax]
Florida not ready for recreational weed’s effects on traffic crashes, panel says
If Florida voters get the opportunity to legalize recreational marijuana use next fall, the state will need to develop better ways to catch impaired drivers and avoid increases in traffic crashes. That was the consensus of panelists who participated in a discussion of the likely effects of legalizing recreational weed on insurance-related issues last week at the Florida Chamber’s annual Insurance Summit in Orlando. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Space Florida’s new President and CEO is on a mission
Space Florida has a new President and CEO. Robert Long is now tasked with the mission of growing the state’s aerospace industry. “We want to make sure that the commercial industry can thrive here.” Long said. “Not just from the Space Coast, but from across the entire state.”
› State-led audits uncover financial irregularities in three north Florida small towns
Auditors and analysts didn’t pull punches in reports about the performance of officials in three small North Florida towns when they appeared this month before a Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. The two-and-a-half hour meeting highlighted questionable bookkeeping procedures and the spending of tens of millions of public dollars in Greenville, Mexico Beach and White Springs — communities of fewer than 1,500 each.
› Crucial impact fee discussion in Manatee gets costly, complicated
As Manatee County continues to grow, there is an ongoing — and heated — conversation about impact fees centered on who should pay to improve the infrastructure and who benefits. Accusations of wrongdoing and misplaced loyalties cloud what should be a fairly mundane discussion about how the fees will be calculated.
› onePulse quietly sells land next to nightclub property to private buyer even as Orlando takes over memorial plans
As it moves toward its own liquidation, the onePulse Foundation has quietly sold two parcels of land next to the Pulse nightclub property that were once key to its planned memorial to the 2016 mass shooting, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. The price was $1 million.
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