News Service of Florida
Florida State Capitol building, Tallahassee, Florida
A record number of travelers are expected to hit Florida roads and crowd airports during the Memorial Day holiday period. The AAA auto club on Tuesday forecast 2.5 million Floridians will travel more than 50 miles during the period. AAA estimates a 5 percent increase from 2023 in Floridians traveling by car and a 9 percent increase in air travel. Orlando, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are among the top U.S. destinations around the May 27 holiday. Other top destinations include Seattle, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and Anchorage, Alaska. “Memorial Day will be the start to a very busy summer of travel,” AAA Vice President of Travel Debbie Haas said in a prepared statement, adding that interest in traveling after the COVID-19 pandemic could make this year the busiest Memorial Day weekend in nearly two decades. Nationally, 43.8 million people are expected to travel for the holiday, up 5 percent from the Memorial Day period in 2023. As refineries finish maintenance and ramp up output, increased travel shouldn’t reverse a downward trend in gas prices, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “While gas prices stand slightly above where they were last year, I expect most Americans will see prices fall before the holiday weekend, and I’m optimistic the trend could extend into June and beyond,” De Haan said. The average price of regular unleaded gas in Florida on Tuesday was $3.48, down 9 cents from a week earlier and 4 cents from a month earlier, according to AAA.
Ads launched for pot amendment
Mothers, law-enforcement officers and veterans are among people included in a new $5 million statewide ad campaign aimed at boosting support for a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana in Florida, supporters of the measure announced Tuesday. Four ads will run on broadcast, cable, streaming, radio and digital platforms, according to the Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which has led efforts to pass what will appear as Amendment 3 on the November ballot. The ads say, in part, that regulated recreational marijuana is a better alternative to cannabis products sold on the black market. “A yes vote on Amendment 3 will improve the health and safety of Floridians. Access to regulated adult-use marijuana would help prevent illicit cartel-trafficked marijuana from making its way into Florida, as well as allow law enforcement to focus on violent crime,” a news release from the committee said. The Florida Supreme Court on April 1 approved allowing the proposed constitutional amendment to go before voters. Trulieve, the state’s largest medical-marijuana company, had contributed nearly $50 million to the effort as of March 31, according to the latest campaign-finance reports posted on the state Division of Elections website. Other Florida medical-marijuana companies also have started supporting the proposal. In March, Verano Holdings Corp., which operates as MÜV in Florida, contributed a total of $2.225 million, Curaleaf Inc. contributed $2 million, AYR Wellness Inc. and Green Thumb Industries each contributed $500,000, and Cresco Labs contributed $400,000. As of March 31, the political committee had raised nearly $55 million since the launch of the campaign in 2022, and had spent $40.6 million. Florida voters in 2016 approved a constitutional amendment that broadly allowed medical marijuana. Changes to the state Constitution require 60 percent approval from voters to pass.
Citizens nears 1.2M policies
The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. ended last week with nearly 1.2 million policies, though some customers could be headed to private insurers. Citizens had 1,196,736 policies on Friday, up from 1,191,940 a week earlier and 1,186,116 policies two weeks earlier, according to data posted on its website. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has become the state’s largest carrier in recent years as private companies dropped policies and raised rates because of financial problems. Citizens reached as many as 1.412 million policies in fall 2023 before seeing reductions because of what is known as a “depopulation” program, which moves customers into the private market. Regulators have approved proposals by Slide Insurance Co., Security First Insurance Co. and American Integrity Insurance Co. of Florida to take out batches of Citizens policies about May 21 as part of the depopulation program, state records show.