Florida News – Highlights from around the state – April 9th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity launched a completely new mobile ready website on Wednesday, created by Pegasystems, replacing the previous vendor – Deloitte Consulting. This after numerous failures of the previous site led to countless Floridians unable to file for unemployment benefits for up to three weeks. Governor DeSantis has asked DEO Director Ken Lawson to create a plan to provide benefits retroactively for those who were unable to complete applications during the previous site’s failures.
- Governor DeSantis signed tax cuts passed during the state legislative session into law including a disaster preparedness sales tax holiday from May 29th through June 4th, and a back to school sales tax holiday from August 7th - 9th.
- DeSantis announced he’d like to use a rapid 5-minute COVID-19 test on any international travelers entering Florida. He’s consulting the Trump administration about the potential for rolling the program out in the near future.
- Operators of 47 community health care centers involved in coronavirus testing and treatment across the state are set to get the first wave of federal money from the recently passed CARES ACT tomorrow.This as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said those eligible for stimulus money who are setup with direct deposit with the IRS will begin to receive deposits next week.