Things To Do In SW Florida

Florida legislators will be called on again this year to navigate a solution to the state’s housing affordability crisis that balances the intent of the groundbreaking Live Local Act with the needs of cities and counties, after modifications last year were blasted for undermining the housing incentives in the law.

Florida approved the Live Local Act in 2023 as a response to record-high rent escalation immediately after the COVID pandemic, and multifamily developers jumped on board, taking advantage of zoning flexibility and tax breaks codified by the act.

But last year, the Legislature modified the law to allow cities and counties to deny property tax exemptions for “missing middle” housing — rental units restricted to tenants who earn less than 120% of the Area Median Income. And last year, every municipality in Central Florida that could opt out of the program did, so only a handful of apartment complexes qualified for the exemption.

Cities and counties could deal a huge blow to Live Local affordable housing projects read more

Disney executives shared more details Saturday about upcoming projects at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme parks, including a dramatic start for its “Monsters, Inc.”-based roller coaster.

The announcements were built into the “Future of World-Building at Disney” presentation at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. It was headed by Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, but there were appearances by multiple Imagineers, movie studio executives, knee-high droids and actor Robert Downey Jr.

The coaster, announced in August, will be a part of a “Monsters, Inc.” land designed for Hollywood Studios. Its theme will spin off from the elaborate door factory scene from the 2001 Pixar animated film.

“We can’t use the traditional lift hill where you kind of click and clack up an incline. It’s not going to cut it,” Michael Hudgen, Walt Disney World portfolio executive producer at Walt Disney Imagineering, said before showing an animation of the attraction’s loading area Saturday. read more

When you are young and don’t expect to retire for 30 years or more, I can understand why you make a great deal of conservative investments such as money-market funds or Treasury bills.

When you are retired, or close to retirement, these sorts of investments make much more sense, protecting you from the risks of over-valued and volatile equity markets.

Even Warren Buffett keeps a significant part of his portfolio in safe investments such as money market funds and Treasury bills when he feels the stock market may be overvalued.

Personally, I maintain a significant portion of my portfolio in equities, and I don’t try to predict highs and lows in the stock market. When the rates of return for conservative investments such as money-market funds are relatively high, I do maintain a portion of my portfolio in these investments. I do this especially after long periods of significant equity appreciation, as volatility risk in the stock market grows.

When the Federal Reserve becomes concerned about inflation, which was their concern last year, they used their influence to reduce short-term interest rates, and as a result the returns for safe, conservative investments such as money-market funds and Treasury bills fell somewhat in 2024. read more

By Kim Mercado, NEXT

When you start a small business, there’s one thing you need more than anything else: money. However, getting money to fund a business has been challenging for women, particularly women of color.

While women continue to make strides in raising more venture capital, they still only garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the U.S.

To source money for their new businesses, women need to look at multiple funding avenues. As NEXT points out, one opportunity is small business grants for women, which can get overlooked by traditional loans and lines of credit.

What are business grants for women?

Business grants provide money to set up or grow your business, and you don’t have to pay it back. Free money — sounds good, right?

Grant opportunities are different from business loans because you don’t need to repay them — no lenders or dealing with payback schedules.

The downside is that it can be harder to qualify for a business grant than for a small business loan. You have to be prepared to put some work into the grant application. read more

A $2,500 grant to help low-income seniors pay assessments for condominium repairs.

Exemptions from inspections and reserves for buildings under six stories.

Authorizations for condo boards to take out loans to pay reserves.

These are just a few of the ideas that lawmakers have submitted in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to help elderly condo unit owners on fixed incomes keep their homes as maintenance and insurance costs skyrocket.

None of the bills are guaranteed to make their way through the Florida Legislature over the next two months. So far, only one — a proposal to restrict state grants for storm hardening to buildings three stories and higher — has been heard by a committee.

After DeSantis made his request in September, some legislative leaders said they were opposed to “bailing out” condo owners, arguing that they spent years waiving reserve funding instead of anticipating inevitable repairs.

A year after the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside that killed 98 people, the Legislature enacted a new law eliminating the option to waive full funding of reserves for budgets approved after Dec. 31, 2024. read more