F lorida N ews S ummaries
Florida bill would let businesses sue local governments if an ordinance hurts profits
• Despite warnings from a parade of city and county officials from across the state that a Senate preemption bill could put taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in damages when nuisance businesses face regulation, a Florida Senate committee Thursday approved the measure on a mostly party-line vote.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 11-7 for Senate Bill 620, which would allow businesses from pill mills to puppy mills to sue local governments if they lose up to 15 percent of their profits or revenues because of a local ordinance attempting to regulate them. • The bill is sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, a St. Augustine Republican, but is the brainchild of Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Trilby egg farmer and 2022 candidate for state agriculture commissioner.
Source: Tampa Bay Times, January 21, 2022
Florida tops 30 million tourists in fourth quarter
• Florida attracted nearly 30.9 million visitors during the final three months of 2021, the second consecutive quarter of drawing more tourists than in the comparable period of 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic slammed into the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. • The estimate could bring the overall number of tourists during 2021 to 122.3 million, which is less than the record 131.069 million visitors in 2019 but a 54 percent increase from the pandemic-ravaged 2020.
• Domestic travelers accounted for 94 percent of the visitors in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 96 percent for the entire year. Florida reported 4.958 million overseas travelers in 2021, which was up from 2.047 million in 2020 but down from 9.801 million in 2019.
Source: Florida Trend, February 15, 2022
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Florida & Metro Forecast / Winter 2022
Rents reach ‘insane’ levels across U.S. with no end in sight
• In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor. com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms.
• The biggest jump occurred in the Miami metro area, where the median rent exploded to $2,850, 49.8% higher than the previous year.
• Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL ranked second and third with increases of 35.0% and 34.1% Year-Over-Year. Median rent rose to $2,038 and $1,807 respectively.
Source: AP News, February 20, 2022
