Florida

Florida Becomes Twenty-First State With Universal Licensure

Published

6 months ago

July 17, 2024

Florida Becomes Twenty-First State With Universal Licensure

Recently enacted legislation will allow licensed professionals who relocate to Florida to get to … [+] work more quickly in the state.

getty

During the nearly six years that Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) has been in office, Florida has moved from a battleground state to a solidly red state. Unlike counterparts such as Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) — who has had to overhaul an uncompetitive tax code and fight for a number of other reforms to make her state more economically competitive — Governor DeSantis had the fortune of taking the helm of a state that, thanks to efforts and achievements of predecessors like Jeb Bush, already had one of the nation’s most attractive tax and regulatory climates.

The legislative session that recently concluded in Tallahassee demonstrated once again that, despite assuming leadership in a state that already boasted many policy advantages, Governor DeSantis and state lawmakers have not let that be an excuse for complacency. In fact, since Governor DeSantis took office, every year he and state lawmakers have pursued reforms to provide more tax relief, further expand school choice in a state that has long been a leader in education choice, and enact regulatory reform that makes Florida a less costly place to do business. The 2024 session was no different.

In signing Senate Bill 1600 on June 28, for example, Governor DeSantis made Florida the latest state to reduce barriers to employment by recognizing occupational licenses from other states. Twenty states have already enacted similar legislation, commonly referred to as Universal License Recognition (ULR), but as the nation’s fastest growing state, Florida needed this reform more than any.

Arizona lawmakers enacted the nation’s first ULR bill in 2019 and the benefits are already evident. In the five years since then-Governor Doug Ducey (R) signed the first ULR bill into law, more than 10,000 licensed professionals across a host of industries and trades have begun working in Arizona thanks to this reform.

In an opinion piece published in the June 14 edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Skylar Zander of Americans for Prosperity noted how SB 1600 builds upon licensing reform enacted four years ago, when Governor DeSantis signed the “‘Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act.” That reform, Zander explained, “removed barriers of entry to certain professions licensed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation,” adding that SB 1600 “will do even more to get people to work and reform our occupational licensing system, so we can continue to flourish here in the Sunshine State.”

This easing of regulatory barriers to employment in a way that will make it easier for new residents to get to work, note SB 1600 proponents, will benefit more than the doctors, nurses, physician assistants, dentists, dental hygienists, and other licensed professionals who will now be able to get to work in Florida more quickly. SB 1600 is also helpful to the millions of people who already live in Florida, both longtime residents and recent transplants, who will be benefit from an increased supply of health care providers.

SB 1600 will help rectify the shortage of care providers afflicting many parts of the state. More than 5.5 million Floridians, for example, currently live in places that have been designated as Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Enactment of SB 1600 will help rectify shortages of such crucial care providers.

With this action in Florida, nearly half of the country now has a ULR law in place. And for dentists and dental assistants specifically, this expanded access rises even further thanks to legislative action in nine states to join the Dental and Dental Hygienists Licensure Compact, a national agreement that enables dental professionals to practice in other states participating in the Compact if they are already licensed in a signatory state. At the current pace, most of the country will have either ULR or the DDH Licensure Compact by the end of this decade.

In addition, enactment of SB 1600 in Florida further solidifies ULR — along with the expansion of school choice and movement to flat income tax rates — as one of the top state policy trends of the past decade.

It took five years to go from zero to more than 20 states with a universal licensure law. Expect this trend to continue and for lawmakers in Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states that have grown nearly as rapidly as Florida to be most inclined to consider this reform in 2025.

Source link

Click to comment

Florida

Macy's is closing 66 stores in 2025, including these in South Florida

Published

7 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Macy's is closing 66 stores in 2025, including these in South Florida

Macy’s is moving forward with its planned closures of stores in South Florida and across the country, the company announced Thursday.

Sixty-six locations were listed to close, most during the first quarter of 2025, though some had already been shut down.

In South Florida, the closures only affect the furniture stores at the following locations:

4501 North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale
13640 Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines
13251 South Dixie Highway in Miami – already closed in 2024

But if you’re a faithful shopper, fear not. The company said these three furniture businesses are relocating to a nearby full-line location.

Additionally, these locations are closing or have already closed in Florida:

9339 Glades Road in Boca Raton – This furniture store already closed, and will relocate to a nearby full-line location.
801 North Congress Avenue Suite 100 in Boynton Beach at the Boynton Beach Mall
298 Westshore Plaza in Tampa at the WestShore Plaza
820 West Town Parkway in Altamonte Springs
3501 South Tamiami Trail Suite 600 in Sarasota

For that Altamonte Springs location, a going-out-of-business sale is planned for the first quarter of 2025.

In the announcement, Macy’s said the closures were part of their Bold New Chapter strategy.

“This plan is designed to return the company to sustainable, profitable sales growth which includes closing approximately 150 underproductive stores over a three-year period while investing in its 350 go-forward Macy’s locations through fiscal 2026,” their news release reads.

Go here to see the list of all 66 closing Macy’s locations.

Source link

Florida

SpaceX readies for next Starlink launch from Florida coast. Here’s when

Published

16 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

SpaceX readies for next Starlink launch from Florida coast. Here’s when

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – SpaceX is readying for its next Starlink mission launch from Florida’s Space Coast on Friday morning.

In a release, the company announced that a Falcon 9 rocket will carry 21 more Starlink satellites into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

SpaceX officials said that liftoff is targeting 11:21 a.m., though backup opportunities will run until 2:15 p.m.

More opportunities will also be available on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. if needed.

The 45th Weather Squadron forecast shows that the chance of weather interfering with Friday’s launch attempt is less than 5%. However, that risk rises to 20% if pushed to this weekend.

Regardless, SpaceX reports that this is set to be the 25th flight for the first-stage booster used in this mission, which has previously been used to launch CRS-22, CRS-25, Crew-3, Crew-4, TelkomSat-113BT, Turksat-5B, Koreasat-6A, Eutelsat HOTBIRD-F2, Galileo L13, mPOWER-A, PSN MFS, and 13 other Starlink missions.

News 6 will stream the launch live at the top of this story when it happens.

Source link

Florida

Lawsuit seeks to push DeSantis to call special elections for Florida Legislature seats

Published

24 hours ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

Lawsuit seeks to push DeSantis to call special elections for Florida Legislature seats

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of violating “his mandatory statutory duty,” the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order DeSantis to set special elections for two legislative seats that opened as part of a political shakeup after President-elect Donald Trump’s win in November.

Former Rep. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, stepped down from the state House District 3 seat last week, and state Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, will exit his Senate District 19 seat on March 31 as they run in special elections for congressional seats.

The lawsuit filed in Leon County circuit court Thursday argued that DeSantis not setting special elections for the legislative seats will leave voters in Rudman’s district without representation “for the entirety of the 2025 session” and voters in Fine’s district without representation for about half of the 60-day legislative session, which begins March 4.

Voters “have a clear legal right to have the governor fix the date of a special election for each vacancy,” and the governor “has a clear legal duty to fix the dates of the special elections,” attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida wrote in the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the case are Christina Forrest, a voter in House District 3, and Janet Laimont, a voter in Senate District 19.

“When a vacancy arises in legislative office, the people have the right to fill that vacancy in a special election,” the lawsuit said, pointing to a Florida law. “The reason is obvious: No Floridian should be deprived of representation because of the death, resignation, or removal of their representatives. But left to his own devices, the governor would deprive the residents of SD 19 and HD 3 of their constitutionally protected voice in the Capitol.”

The lawsuit said DeSantis “clear legal duty is ministerial and nondiscretionary in nature.” It seeks what is known as a “writ of mandamus” ordering DeSantis to set the special election dates.

“Each resident of the state has the right to be represented by one senator and one representative. These legislators are their voice in the halls of the Capitol,” the ACLU lawyers wrote. “The vacancies in these districts arose over 40 days ago. No other governor in living memory has waited this long to schedule a special election.”

Mark Ard, a spokesman for the Florida Department of State, said in an email that the agency “continues to work with the supervisors of elections to identify suitable dates for special elections” in the legislative districts.

“The election dates will be announced soon,” Ard wrote.

Fine and Rudman announced their plans to run for Congress in late November, as Trump began to fill out his administration.

Rudman is seeking to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned in Congressional District 1 after being tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general. Gaetz later withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general amid intense scrutiny related to a congressional ethics report.

Fine is running to replace U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, who will serve as Trump’s national security adviser. Waltz will step down in Congressional District 6 on Jan. 20, the day Trump is sworn into office.

DeSantis quickly ordered special elections to fill the vacancies created by Gaetz and Waltz, the lawsuit noted. Special primary elections for the congressional seats will be held on Jan. 28, and special general elections will take place on April 1.

Rudman’s former state House district is made up of parts of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, while Fine’s Senate district consists of part of Brevard County. DeSantis’ delay in setting special election dates in the districts also has drawn attention because they are in areas dominated by Republicans.

Previous governors’ “routine practice” was to “quickly call a special election for the resigning legislator’s seat and hold it concurrently with the special election for the higher office,” the lawsuit said, referring to the congressional seats as being the higher office.

In the two decades before DeSantis took office, 15 legislative vacancies occurred because a state lawmaker resigned to run for another office, according to the lawsuit. DeSantis’ predecessors set special elections to fill the resigning legislators’ seats on the same dates as the elections in which the legislators resigned to run, or earlier.

“But lately, Governor DeSantis has more often chosen to deviate from Florida’s longstanding practice of timely special elections, in violation of his mandatory statutory duty,” the lawsuit said.

As an example, the ACLU lawyers pointed to DeSantis’ drawn-out response to the 2021 death of U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Broward County Democrat.

DeSantis “failed to call a special election for 30 days — longer than any Florida governor had ever taken to call a special election in at least the prior 22 years, and possibly ever in the history of the state” to fill Hastings’ seat, the lawsuit argued.

DeSantis ultimately ordered a special election to fill Hastings’ seat — more than nine months after the congressman died.

DeSantis in 2021 also waited more than 90 days to order special elections to fill three seats vacated by legislators who sought to replace Hastings.

“The governor did not call special elections until he was forced to — after residents of the districts petitioned this court for mandamus relief,” Thursday’s lawsuit said. “Following months of inaction, the governor called elections within days of this court ordering him to show cause why the writ should not issue.”

In 2023, DeSantis waited 38 days to set a special election for a legislative vacancy.

“Yet again, the governor did not call the election until he was forced to — after this court ordered the governor to show cause why mandamus should not issue in a lawsuit brought by a district resident,” the ACLU’s lawyers wrote.

Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily:

Source link