• Live entertainment venues, theaters and museums have a financial lifeline with the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, a program through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
WMFE’s Joe Byrnes joins Intersection to discuss how the program will be able to help keep venues afloat locally.
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• Florida added nearly 20,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent. That’s good news, but the state has only regained a little more than half of the jobs lost when the pandemic struck.
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• Central Florida’s tourism-based economy is still reeling from the impacts of the pandemic, but Visit Orlando’s new CEO is optimistic about the future.
Casandra Matej, who stepped into the role in February, joins Intersection to discuss where Orlando’s tourism economy is headed in 2021.
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• The $1.9 trillion-dollar America Rescue Plan – or ARP – has new incentives for states to expand their Medicaid programs. The federal government will pay nearly 100 percent of the expansion cost for two years, then 90 percent ever year, providing health insurance for 800,000 Floridians who now have none. Governor Ron DeSantis and state Republican leaders remain opposed, but economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind says Medicaid expansion would boost Florida’s economy.
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• President’s Biden’s $1.9 trillion-dollar American Rescue Plan – ARP for short – is now law. Economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind says the state of Florida will get 10.2 billion dollars, and there’s also money for every county and most cities statewide. Fishkind says the “transformational” ARP includes direct aid to households, as well as support for local nonprofits, small businesses, and hard-hit industries – like tourism.
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• A new report from Florida’s Department of Revenue says taxable sales in December 2020 were a whopping $176 million higher than in December 2019. It sounds like Florida residents had plenty of money to spend. But economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind says that’s not really the case – the report simply highlights how the pandemic has nearly wrecked certain parts of the economy, while barely touching others.
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• The US House of Representatives has passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion dollar American Rescue Plan. And now, economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind says the Senate must do the same…because it’s vital for the US economy and particularly important for Florida. Fishkind also takes on what he views as misconceptions about the stimulus – for instance, the argument that the package is too big. He says funds from the previous stimulus are already earmarked or spent.
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