Faircracker SUMMER 2020
Page 45 Greetings from The Capital City!
First and foremost I hope each of you are well and healthy. To say things have been a little challenging might qualify as the biggest understatement of all time. I am not sure that even the most pessimistic among us could have envisioned a scenario where our economy literally stopped, events were cancelled, and folks were strongly encouraged, if not required to shelter in place. As the dust has begun to settle on the initial impacts from COVID-19, we find ourselves arguing the science of social distancing, the protectiveness of mask and, how the heck we get back to some semblance of normal activities. Oh, did I mention Hurricane season has officially begun!
Notwithstanding the health impacts, the financial impacts of COVID-19 are going to linger well into the future. For ex-
ample, the state’s revenue collections in April were off by $875 million and, although May’s numbers have not been re- leased, we can assume May isn’t going to be any better than April. Hopefully as the state moves to “phase II” opening, the economy will begin to recover, and businesses will get back to a relative normal.
Normally by this time of the year, the Governor would have received a good percentage of the bills passed during the
session as well as the budget yet, I have not heard anyone describe 2020 as normal. To date, the Governor has only received a couple of bills from session and he has not “officially” been presented the budget. It is reasonable to assume the Governor will sign a budget prior to the start of the state’s fiscal year which begins July 1. We expect, given the state of the economy, the Governor’s pen to get quite a workout in the budget as the line-item veto authority will most likely be used liberally. To this end, we encourage individual members who have projects or funding in the budget to contact the legislators who sponsored the appropriation.
Moving forward, it is difficult to predict how much impact COVID-19 will have on the state’s budget. If there is a bright
spot, it is that the state was on solid financial footing with a healthy reserve. My suspicion, is the level and severity of cuts moving forward will be based on how Florida’s economy recovers with the remaining summer months and second- ly, will be directly tied to the amount of money provided to the state from Washington DC. Quite simply we will be some- where between a nice trim up haircut and a straight razor shiny head haircut.
On a more individual note, many of you had to make the decision, or were forced, to postpone or cancel events. In
many cases, that decision and the loss of revenue makes looking to next year even more challenging. Clearly, things will be different moving forward and if you have not already started, it would probably be a good time to begin thinking what your events will look like moving forward. What types of measure might be required or encouraged for the safety of all who attend and participate? No doubt this is going to do one unique adventure!
Thank you for the opportunity to work on your behalf and, as always, please do not hesitate to call if we can be of assistance.
Respectfully,
The CAS Government Services Team Dale, Connie & Jim
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