Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate on Thursday rolled out a tax break package that includes offering sales-tax “holidays” and a small discount on property insurance premiums.

The proposal, which would trim state and local revenue by $439.6 million in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, is a companion to a proposed $117.46 billion budget lawmakers are poised to pass Friday.

“We have some very good items in this tax package,” Senate Finance and Tax Chairman Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, said.

Insurance tax credits would lead to 1.75 percent savings on residential property insurance premiums. Ingoglia said average savings are projected at $60 per household, rising to $75 for residents who also have flood coverage.

Floridians have seen property insurance rates soar in recent years to an average of $4,000 per year.

The package also includes breaks for railroads and corporations that employ people with disabilities.

It doesn’t contain a House proposal to reduce further a commercial-lease tax that businesses have long sought to eliminate. The tax went from 5.5 percent to 4.5 percent last year and is slated to drop to 2 percent in June. The House wanted to reduce it to 1.25 percent for a year. read more

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — A group of 40 state attorneys general have sent a letter to Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta expressing “deep concern” over what they say is dramatic uptick of consumer complaints about account takeovers and lockouts.

The attorneys general called on Meta to do a better job preventing account takeovers — when malicious actors take a users’ accounts, lock them out by changing their passwords, and post their own material, read private messages, scam contacts and engage in other harmful or illegal behavior.

The letter asks Meta to take “immediate action to increase mitigation tactics and respond to users whose accounts have been taken over.” It also asks the Menlo Park, California-based company to provide information on the number of account takeovers over the past five years, the suspected causes of the increase in account takeovers and safeguards it has in place.

“Consumers are reporting their utter panic when they first realize they have been effectively locked out of their accounts,” says the letter dated March 5. “Users spend years building their personal and professional lives on your platforms, posting intimate thoughts, and sharing personal details, locations, and photos of family and friends. To have it taken away from them through no fault of their own can be traumatizing.” read more

Samantha Masunaga and Sean Greene | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

Abygail Liera sympathized when she first read about people who were “quiet quitting,” refusing to go above and beyond at their jobs.

But it wasn’t until a few months later that she understood.

The resident of Los Angeles’ Winnetka neighborhood got a new boss and was expected to train him, but when she asked for a raise, she said she was told, “We’ll see.” Her boss discouraged open and honest feedback, making her work environment feel toxic and disrespectful.

“I remember reading it, and I’m like, ‘Damn, this sucks that people have to go through this,’ ” said Liera, 32, of the news article on quiet quitting. “At the same time, I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what that feels like.’ But now I do.”

Since the pandemic, work-related phrases such as “quiet quitting” or “Great Resignation” have taken over the internet — and are now part of our everyday vocabulary. Social media is filled with work-related memes and videos that describe “rage applying” or “lazy girl jobs.” People share tips on Reddit about how to effectively — and surreptitiously — “polywork,” or hold multiple jobs at the same time. read more

By Sara Rathner | NerdWallet

As you’re growing up, you learn about money from the people who raise you. Their lessons are based on their life experiences, which means there’s likely some bias built in.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing — you may have a savvy aunt who taught herself to manage her own money after a divorce, or a parent who cautioned you about debt because they struggled to pay down theirs. Hearing their stories can spare you from making financial mistakes. Even with all that history, though, you’re likely to make some financial decisions that will cause your relatives to wince.

Credit cards in particular can be a touchy subject in families where older generations avoid them out of the fear of costly debt, while younger generations embrace them for their rewards and convenience. Managing credit cards when it feels like you’re being “bad” can be difficult. Still, it’s totally OK to forge your own financial path based partially on family lore, and partially on your own goals and experiences. read more