Things To Do In SW Florida

Florida’s tourism oversight district expects to rack up millions of dollars in legal expenses in the coming months as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ battle with Disney, paying some of its top litigators $795 an hour.

The biggest taxpayer by far footing the district’s legal bill: Disney itself.

“It’s almost an additional way of punishing Disney by using their own money to sue,” said Richard Foglesong, a Rollins College professor who wrote the book “Married to the Mouse” on Disney World’s origins. “It really is kind of odd, atypical. That Disney is paying on both sides of the lawsuit.”

The DeSantis-controlled Central Florida Tourism Oversight District projects it will spend $4.5 million on litigation next budget year on top of nearly $2 million that has already been spent.

To pay its expenses, the district draws upon the tax revenue it collects — just as any other local government would. DeSantis and the district have been fighting Disney in both state and federal court.

Disney and its affiliates pay about 86% of the 25,000-acre district’s property taxes, according to a 2022 financial report. The rest of the taxpayers are mostly hotels and businesses that benefit from the millions of Disney World visitors. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO (AP Business Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed.

Last month’s job growth marked an increase from July’s revised gain of 157,000 but still pointed to a moderating pace of hiring compared with the sizzling gains of last year and earlier this year. From June through August, the economy added 449,000 jobs, the lowest three-month total in three years. In addition, the government revised down the gains for June and July by a combined 110,000.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.8%, the highest level since February 2022 though still low by historical standards. But the rate rose for an encouraging reason: A sizable number of people — 736,000 — began looking for work last month, the most since January, and not all of them found jobs right away. Only people who are actively looking for a job are counted as unemployed. read more

Denny Tornatore realized fewer people were coming into his Italian restaurant in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood because they could no longer afford the meal out.

“I could see people struggling, and they weren’t coming out to eat as much,” Tornatore said.

So in August, Tornatore said he slashed prices across much of his menu. His lasagna went from $30 to $25. Garlic knots went from $12 to $10.

Tornatore’s Restaurant had raised prices “at least” four times since the onset of the pandemic, he said.

While his prices are not back to what they were before the food and labor cost increases that came with coronavirus, his decreases run contrary to a nationwide trend of rising costs to dine out.

Eating out cost 7.1% more in July than it did a year before, with full-service meals up 5.8%, while food at home only went up 3.6%, according to federal measures.

The number of customers coming through restaurant doors has been falling, with the National Restaurant Association’s June restaurant performance index showing 57% of operators reported a decline in traffic from the year before, the third straight month of decline. read more