Tuesday s Daily Pulse | 3/9/2021 Cash Crunch: Lawmakers challenge will be to balance the budget
Florida lawmakers returned to Tallahassee this month for a 60-day session that will focus in large part on the economic fallout from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Their biggest chore is filling a $2.75-billion budget gap driven largely by declines in sales tax dollars related to tourism and recreation. “The budget picture will be bleak, and funding will have to be more carefully prioritized around helping people recover and doing things that are most likely to re-stimulate the economy,” says Dean Cannon, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and president and CEO of GrayRobinson, one of the state’s largest law firms. [Source: Florida Trend]
In Daytona Beach, Florida, local businesses, hurting during the COVID-19 pandemic, are glad to see visitors flooding in for Bike Week, despite a potential surge in cases.
Owner Phaedra Lee said she was surprised when Daytona Beach police swarmed in last Wednesday to order her to remove her outdoor stage, tents, tables, seating and merchandise displays. They gave us one hour to remove everything, all under the pretense of not being allowed (in) the Bike Week Master Plan. We were not allowed to be included, she said.
Lee said she is being unfairly singled out. But the city cited Main Street Station during last year s Bike Week for failing to comply with an order for all outdoor music, vending and bars to cease on the final weekend of the event because of COVID-19. The business was fined and barred from having any outdoor activities during this year s Bike Week.