The coronavirus and the economy of the Sunshine State

It's unclear how the economic impact of coronavirus will ultimately compare to that of the Zika virus. Zika was localized, but it did lead to a drop in airline and hotel bookings for a short time in the late summer of 2016. But travel quickly rebounded, just as it did after the Great Recession. Over 100 million tourists visited Florida during the first nine months of 2019. [Source: WLRN]

Whatever happened to year-round daylight saving time in Florida?

Sunday morning, clocks across the United States will spring forward from 12:59 a.m. to 2 a.m., ushering in the 2020 season of daylight saving time. Florida lawmakers voted to make daylight saving time permanent in the state in 2018, passing the Sunshine Protection Act, which then-Gov. Rick Scott signed into law. Yet here we are, having made the switch to Eastern Standard Time back in November, with no plan formally in place to cement daylight saving time's permanence in the Sunshine State. So what's the holdup? [Source: First Coast News]

House votes to end public campaign finance for statewide candidates

The Florida House approved by a 100-15 margin Wednesday a Constitutional amendment that seeks to end the public campaign-financing system available to statewide political candidates. The current system allows candidates for statewide office to receive public matching dollars for individual contributions of $250 or less. [Source: Florida Politics]

Long before coronavirus, Florida caught Spanish flu. How bad was it?

As coronavirus cases spread across the world, so does global panic about the deadly outbreak. Some have even compared coronavirus to the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. While people should take precautions to protect themselves from the spread of coronavirus, it is vastly different from the pandemic that claimed between 50 to 100 million lives over a hundred years ago. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

High housing costs, low pay force Florida teachers to stretch limits

In the first analysis of its kind, USA TODAY Network reporters examined salaries and housing costs for teachers all over Florida. Reporters obtained salary data from nearly all 67 school districts and compared median teacher income to median rental costs. In nearly every corner of the state, teachers spend more than a third of their monthly income on housing costs. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Marco Rubio and Rick Scott want 10-year ban on drilling off Florida coast in Senate energy bill [Tampa Bay Times]
Florida’s two U.S. senators are pushing their colleagues this week to ban companies from drilling for oil in the east Gulf of Mexico for another decade, a moratorium that would extend well beyond President Donald Trump’s time in office.

› UCF-backed BRIDG in Kissimmee ousts CEO as it continues to seek private investment [Orlando Sentinel]
The manufacturing site BRIDG in Kissimmee, which has recently struggled to find investors for its 109,000-square-foot, high-tech, sensor research facility, has ousted its CEO. Former Lockheed Martin executive Chester Kennedy will be replaced on an interim basis by Brian Sapp, who had overseen partnerships and technical performance at BRIDG.

› Ultra’s March festival canceled over coronavirus fears in Miami [Miami Herald]
The 2020 Ultra Music Festival will be postponed — possibly for a full year, which would effectively cancel this year’s edition of Miami’s marquee electronic dance music event, the Miami Herald has learned. The decision to postpone, which sent shock waves through the electronic dance music community on social media, was made in a meeting Wednesday morning between Miami’s elected leaders and Ultra representatives.

› Lennar’s $15.4 million land buy paves way for up to 10,000 homes in Pasco [Tampa Bay Times]
Lennar has acquired the final portions of its planned Angeline development in central Pasco County for $15.4 million. The purchase of more than 2,200 acres closed in January and locked up the eastern-most portions of the former Bexley Ranch abutting the CSX railroad line in Land O’ Lakes.

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› Controversial union measure backed in Florida House [WJXT]
Amid heavy opposition from Democrats and organized labor, the Florida House on Wednesday passed a bill that would place new requirements on membership in public unions. The House voted 63-52 to approve the measure (HB 1), sponsored by Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa. The bill includes a series of requirements dealing with issues such as workers signing authorization forms if they want to join unions.

› Auto insurance rates in Orlando increase as much as 10% [Orlando Sentinel]
Most Florida drivers are paying at least $200 more for auto insurance this year — a 10% jump over last year, according to a company that tracks rates. Auto insurance rates are rapidly increasing in the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne metro areas — a whopping 77% since 2011, according to The Zebra’s 2020 State of Auto Insurance report.

› Green light on horizon for more downtown Miami parks [Miami Today]
It’s been a housing boom, following the Great Recession, that’s seen Miami’s downtown become home to nearly 100,000 residents and more than 100 residential towers. As more buildings go up and more people decide to live in the dense, vibrant neighborhoods of downtown and Brickell, residents’ call for more parks and open spaces could become all the more acute.

› From tiny downtown parking lot, St. Pete church blessed with millions [Tampa Bay Times]
As millions of dollars in downtown development pushed west, Christ United Methodist Church, struggling financially, decided to capitalize on the voracious appetite for land. The radical move to sell the congregation’s parking lot — once considered for an urban garden — has netted a multimillion-dollar fund to put the church on a path to stability.