LMA NEWSLETTER April 29, 2019

Final Passage

This past week I had the privilege of sitting in the Senate gallery with CEO Bob Ritchie of American Integrity Insurance Company and a longtime supporter and client of Lisa Miller & Associates.  Joining us were many other colleagues and consumers to watch the debate on final passage of the Assignment of Benefits Reform Bill …

Governor to Sign AOB Reform Bill

End of long wait to stem abuse

The seventh time proved to be the charm for commonsense reforms against unscrupulous vendors and their shady attorneys as the Florida Senate last week passed its Assignment of Benefits (AOB) reform bill.  The bill is identical to one passed in the Florida House earlier this month and Governor …

Florida Supreme Court Reversing Prior Rulings

AOB case is on the docket

The “new” Florida Supreme Court is attracting attention from judicial observers for reversing two decisions made by the previous court just a few months ago.  While neither of the new decisions is of any great note by itself, the reversals are indicative of the changing majority of the state’s …

Bill Watch

Recap of Week 8 & Preview of Week 9 of Session

Welcome to the final week of the 2019 Florida Legislature.  Budget chiefs in the House and Senate spent this weekend trying to reconcile their two chambers’ budget proposals to create a finished budget of around $90 billion.  What they cannot agree on by this …

Florida Asking for More Federal Hurricane Money

Real estate market picking up

Now that Hurricane Michael has been upgraded to a Category 5 storm – only the fourth on record – Governor DeSantis is asking the President to increase the federal cost sharing of recovery from 75% to 90%.  Meanwhile, Florida is keeping pressure on Congress to pass a long-delayed multi-billion relief …

Florida Continues Its Fast Growth

Two of the Top 10 metros for growth right here

Florida had some of the top 10 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. last year according to new Census data.  Some of those areas grew more from people migrating from offshore than from other states.  Only Texas grew by more people than last year.   …

Encouraging Tech Startups

AOL’s Steve Case is coming to Florida

An important factor for organic economic growth, especially involving high-tech industries with higher paid jobs, is the availability of venture capital.  That’s always something Florida has struggled with, especially compared to our peer populous states, but is top of mind for AOL co-founder Steve Case, who is coming …

A Uniting Front

This week is the last week of the Florida legislative session.  I often complain to my colleagues and readers about how frustrating this process can be and I keep telling myself and others that it is the greatest process in the world. No matter how dysfunctional or how bad some of the public policy may …