Citrus numbers unchanged as disease fight continues

Florida’s struggling citrus industry opened the new year without seeing changes in production estimates for this growing season, as state lawmakers begin to decide how much money to pump into agriculture issues. While the industry is expected to top production from the 2022-2023 season, which was hampered by a hurricane and a winter freeze, the new numbers continue to reflect what a top lawmaker and citrus grower described as being “crushed” during the past two decades by the disease citrus greening. [Source: News Service of Florida]

Moving to Florida might not be the tax play it's cracked up to be - unless you're loaded

Income taxes, or the lack of them, are just one component of the state- and local-tax toll, a new report observes Florida, Texas and Tennessee have become hot real-estate markets in recent years, in part because they offer the allure of low taxes and cheap living costs. But a new analysis of how much state and local taxes cost rich and poor residents in those states throws cold water on the assumption that moving to such states is a tax-smart move. More from Morningstar and Marketwatch.

Fertilizer bans, growth controls: Key environmental bills as Florida Legislature meets

From Key West to Pensacola, Florida’s environment is facing a surge of threats. Like last year, there’s no shortage of environmental issues Florida’s elected officials could address with their proposals, some of which seek to wrest control of environmental regulation from local governments. More from the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald.

Lawsuits against Florida’s top property insurers decline. Is it a sign reforms are beginning to work?

Lawsuits against top Florida property insurers declined overall between 2022 and 2023 and insurers say they would have declined even more if Hurricane Ian had not struck the state in September 2022. Insurers say it’s a clear sign that the legislative reforms enacted in 2022 are starting to work even if premiums have not yet followed suit. The South Florida Sun Sentinel analyzed data from a state website that records lawsuits served to insurance companies, including those that sell property and casualty, auto and health coverage. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Florida could ask Congress to force beach nourishment issue

At the prompting of two Pinellas County lawmakers, Florida could formally urge Congress to tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to change the policy positions that have delayed the nourishment of Pinellas’ severely eroded beaches. Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Kim Berfield, R-Clearwater, filed the House memorial on shore protection last week. The state has little power in the beach nourishment dispute, which has mostly played out between the county and the Corps, a federal agency. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Sarasota County School Board set to join national lawsuit against social media companies [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Sarasota County Schools could join more than 20 other Florida school districts in a lawsuit against social media companies, according to an item posted on the district's next meeting agenda. The Sarasota County School Board convenes Tuesday evening, and if the item is approved the district would join a class-action lawsuit against the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Youtube.

› Air taxis are coming. But is South Florida ready? [South Florida Business Journal]
Once the stuff of science fiction, flying taxis are now close to being a reality. But cities aren’t ready for them. At least, not yet. A growing number of companies plan to introduce electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to South Florida in the next three years. Experts say the region’s intense traffic congestion, suburban sprawl and poor public transportation options make it a prime market for the vehicles, which take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly like a regular plane.

› Mote named top revenue generating cultural nonprofit in Tampa Bay region [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and CEO Dr. Michael Crosby were each recently recognized by two area publications for significant contributions. Mote was named the top revenue-generating cultural nonprofit for the Tampa Bay region by the “Tampa Bay Business Journal.” Crosby was named a 2023 Living Legend by “Florida Trend” magazine when it released its Florida 500 list of influential business leaders in the state.

› Orlando Museum of Art faces financial crisis in wake of Basquiat scandal [Orlando Sentinel ]
Rocked by the Basquiat scandal, the Orlando Museum of Art is facing a financial shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars, seeking help from government and private individuals to keep it afloat and facing public calls for leadership changes from a former volunteer, interim director and trustees. According to a person who attended a meeting with executive director Cathryn Mattson last month, Mattson said the museum was in dire financial straits, having exhausted reserve funds and lines of credit; had arranged a payment plan with its attorneys because of mounting legal bills; and was looking at a budget shortfall for the coming year that could reach up to $1 million.

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› Fort Lauderdale makes ‘forever’ deal with Bahia Mar developer to rake in more cash; critics call it a bad move [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
The 100-year lease deal that paved the way for a private developer to build luxury condo towers on taxpayer-owned land at Bahia Mar just got more lucrative. But there’s a catch. Fort Lauderdale will still own the land, but is forever giving up the “air rights” to a parking podium that will perch on 7 of the 16 acres of dry land at Bahia Mar, longtime home of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

› JAX Chamber backs regulated drinking on Downtown Riverwalk [Jacksonville Daily Record]
The JAX Chamber is saying “cheers” to a proposal to allow a restricted form of legalized drinking on the Downtown Riverwalk. The chamber issued a statement Jan. 12 in support of Ordinance 2023-0863, which would create state-sanctioned “specialty centers” on the Northbank and Southbank where alcohol can be purchased and consumed. The proposal sprang from a Chamber-sponsored trip in 2021 to Tampa, which created specialty centers along its riverwalk.

› ‘It’s mental’: Royal Caribbean achieves big-time status with Icon of the Seas [Orlando Sentinel]
Dwarfing a lineup of older ships docked at PortMiami, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas certainly looked the part as it now holds the title of world’s largest cruise ship. The larger-than-life approach doesn’t quit on the inside, either. During a media tour of the ship Thursday, the cruise line’s new class of ship that arrived to South Florida this week flexed its interior trappings, a combination of new offerings with familiar ones seen on the Oasis class, which are now just baby sisters to Icon.

› This old Miami mall is getting a modern mega entertainment center. Here’s a peek inside [Miami Herald]
“Retailtainment” is a term coined in the shopping mall industry to describe the trend of combining entertainment “lifestyle” venues like contemporary arcades that include the latest video games, bowling alleys, racing tracks and dining areas or mega fitness centers that resemble resorts and placing them alongside traditional mall stores. Miami International Mall, a nearly 42-year-old, 1.1 million-square-foot shopping center in Doral, seizes that growing market with the addition of Elev8 Fun.