Florida News That Impacts You – December 8th, 2022
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida. Gas prices continued lower through the weekend.
- Gas prices are still falling, dropping another two cents per gallon to a statewide average of $3.21, which is 12 cents lower than a week ago. In Southeast Florida, prices range from an average low of $3.26 per gallon in Broward, to an average high of $3.44 per gallon in the Palm Beaches. Prices are now lower than those of a year ago for the first time in nearly two years.
- FPL customers are set to see another increase in rates over the next two months. The Florida Public Service Commission has approved a two-pronged rate increase for FPL to be phased in starting in January and to be completed in February which will amount to just over 7% for customers. A 4% increase will hit in January with the balance of the increase in February.
- Citing the impact of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, Florida’s incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo has created a new state Select Committee on Resiliency. The Committee will be tasked with specific oversight of the state’s resilience policy for the purpose of making legislative recommendations. In 2021 the state legislature created the Resilient Florida Program which acts as a public-private partnership between local governments, education establishments and private partners across the state to propose, fund and complete related projects.
- New analysis from Data analytics and consulting firm MCI Maps, demonstrated Governor DeSantis’ redistricting map, approved by the Legislature in a special session after he rejected their proposal, likely didn’t have a partisan impact on congressional seats in this cycle. The analysis demonstrated that the historic Republican performance in Florida would have mitigated the impact of slightly more favorably drawn districts for Republican candidates. After numerous legal challenges to the state’s map, the state Supreme Court upheld the DeSantis drawn map for this election cycle. Federal legal challenges to the map remain unresolved.