10 big issues from Florida’s 2024 legislative session

After a flurry of last-minute votes on bills, Florida lawmakers Friday passed a $117.46 billion state budget and ended the 2024 legislative session. The budget, which remains subject to line-item vetoes by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will take effect with the July 1 start of the 2024-2025 fiscal year. The Senate voted 39-0 to approve the budget, after the House passed it in a 105-3 vote. The budget for the current fiscal year, which started July 1, totaled $119.1 billion. More from the News Service of Florida and the Tampa Bay Times.

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NextGen: Good vibrations

Blake Richardson grew up around a North Florida fire station. His dad was (and still is) a firefighter in Fernandina Beach, where Richardson saw firsthand the joy but also the stress the job brought. When visiting the station during his high school years, he’d hear the heart-racing alarms and thought of a potentially healthier way to alert the firefighters but put the idea in the back of his mind. [Source: Florida Trend]

IRS launches free Direct File pilot in Florida for simple tax returns

The IRS Direct File pilot is now available in Florida, offering residents the opportunity to file their federal tax return for free, bypassing the need for commercial software. "We're testing it. We're starting very small. That's why we only have twelve states participating right now. We want to know how it goes, if it works for taxpayers and we'll analyze it and take it from there," said Alejandra Castro from the IRS. [Source: NBC Miami]

See also:
» Opinion: IRS’ new, free online tax filing tool is a crucial step in unrigging the economy

‘Bypass surgery for the Everglades’: Scientists detail latest on restoration efforts

The EAA Reservoir and allotment of federal and state funds are both critical pieces to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which Congress authorized in 2000. According to the National Park Service, the plan is supposed to “restore, preserve, and protect the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection.” It’s the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Florida lawmakers loosen teen work rules

A toned-down but still controversial proposal that would loosen decades-old work restrictions for 16- and 17-year-old youths is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis The House and Senate gave final approval to the bill (HB 49) in the final hour of the 2024 legislative session, readying it to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Critics argued that the bill --- while not as broad as initially sought by the House --- would hinder students' education. They said it could lead to increased distractions and school absenteeism as students might work more than 30 hours a week during the school year. [Source: CBS News]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Sunny state turned cloudy: A Boca Raton lawsuit illustrates ‘erosion’ of Florida’s public records law [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Florida’s Sunshine Law requires government meetings and documents to be open to the public, unless the law carves out a specific exemption. Although the law is most frequently used by lawyers, journalists, political candidates and others with a professional interest in obtaining records, it is available to one and all. But while making a public records request is something anyone in Florida can do, hiring a team of lawyers to make sure the government fulfills the request is not.

› Some Central Florida malls are thriving, others are struggling to pay the bills [WOFL]
All across the nation, we hear about malls closing or being converted into something new. But over in Altamonte Springs, City Manager Frank Martz says the half-century-old mall is doing just fine. "One of the reasons why leveraged investment in Altamonte does so well that we're not planning for today," said Martz. We planned for today 30 years ago, and today we're planning for 30 years from now."

› ‘It’s life-impacting:’ Florida veterans receive millions in backpay, plus monthly benefits [Click Orlando]
Some Seminole County veterans now have extra money in their pockets thanks to Seminole County Veterans’ Services. According to the county’s Veterans’ Services office, it was able to obtain $5 million in backpay for veterans in 2023 from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. That does not include the monthly payments these veterans will receive moving forward.

› Spring break marches on in Miami Beach with fewer crowds, more restrictions [Miami Herald]
Spring break crowds shuffling along Ocean Drive and enjoying the sun on Miami Beach’s sandy shores haven’t yet measured up to the throngs of people who attended spring breaks of years past. On Saturday, locals and visitors alike were met with the city’s strict restrictions and a heavy police presence. By 10 p.m., the crowd appeared smaller than on the average Miami Beach weekend night, even more so for peak season.

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› Legoland Florida rolls out new Ferrari attraction [Orlando Sentinel]
Legoland Florida theme park has moved into the fast lane. Its new Ferrari Build & Race attraction is now open to the public. Opening-day visitors put the new space through its paces. They intensely assembled small cars using red and black Lego bricks, ran them through ramps and other physical challenges and then scanned their models into a simulator to see whose vehicles could do three laps around a virtual Ferrari course fastest.

› Brevard threatens to stop lifeguard coverage at six sites if cities, towns don't split cost [Florida Today]
Lifeguards could disappear from some of Brevard County's busiest beaches unless the county and three beachside cities come to an agreement on who should pay for the guards. Brevard County commissioners are backing a plan to stop providing lifeguard coverage to six beaches in Cocoa Beach, Indialantic and Melbourne Beach, unless the municipalities chip in 50% of the cost.

› If Miami can tunnel its way to the port, why not build a train tunnel in Fort Lauderdale, expert asks [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Christopher Hodgkins, the guy who helped build the award-winning Port of Miami tunnel, sat back and watched while Fort Lauderdale’s mayor championed a Tesla tunnel to the beach — an idea the mayor now admits was a pipe dream. Hodgkins says he knew right away that plan wouldn’t work, but he kept quiet. Then he noticed headlines about Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and his fierce opposition to Broward County’s plan to build a bridge for commuter rail through downtown Fort Lauderdale.

› 536 Tampa jobs cut after IT company loses $2.8B contract at MacDill [Business Observer]
A Texas technology company with operations at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa is laying off 536 employees after losing a $2.8 billion IT and networks services contract with U.S. Special Operation Command. Dallas-based Jacobs Technology Inc. says in a letter to state officials that its current contract expires May 16 but that it began cutting staff March 1. The company, however, told the state there is a possibility the new contractor, Peraton, will keep some of the employees.