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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana edition)
Welcome back
On Oct 24, Mike Furen, a popular Sarasota land-use attorney and chairman of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsburg, PA, lapsed into a coma. Last week, Furen was back at work, at least part time.
iIt was very scary there for a while,i Furen says. iMore so in the beginning for my wife than for me. But I believe Iim well on my way to recovery.i
The cause of Furenis 36-hour coma is still unknown. The good news: Furen has been told that eventually he should return to full health with no lingering impairment.
iIt has been very humbling and frankly overwhelming how kind everyone has been,i he says. iI just want to say, eThank you to all of the wonderful people for their kind words, best wishes and prayers.i Iim sure they played a huge part in my recovery.i
Economist speaks
The Manatee Chamber of Commerce is again bringing noted Florida economist Henry Fishkind to Bradenton for a 2005 forecast.
Fishkind will present his views on local, regional and national economic trends at a Jan. 12 breakfast in the City Center Auditorium. The former University of Florida professor, who now operates his own Orlando consulting firm, also addressed the chamberis annual economic review breakfast last January.
Call the chamberis Economic Development Council at (941) 748-4842 for more information.
Florida: middle of the pack
No wonder Dorothy wanted to take Toto back to Kansas o itis the most economically free state in the nation.
Earlier this month, the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank, released its 2004 U.S. Economic Freedom Index, a scoring of states that measures the economic effects of regulatory and fiscal policies on each stateis residents.
Authored by a PRI researcher and two Clemson University researchers who did the nationis first economic index in 1999, the index takes into account more than 100 variables that measure such areas of government as taxation, regulation, the judicial system, government employment levels and the amount spent on welfare. From this information, the researchers determined that Kansas is the most economically free state. Kansas was 10th in the 1999 rankings.
Why do the rankings matter?
The authors of the index say that a 10% improvement in a stateis economic freedom score yields, on average, about a half-percent increase in annual income per capita. For instance, PRI says, iIf all states ranked as free as Kansas, the annual income of an average working American would rise 4.42%, or $1,161, putting an additional $87,541 into his or her pocket over a 40-year working life. This would be a sizable addition to individualsi private retirement accounts.i
As the table shows, Florida falls nearly in the middle. While the state scores well in the fiscal, judicial, government size and welfare categories, the Sunshine State is regarded as a regulatory nightmare in terms of property rights. No surprise at that conclusion.
Nor is this a surprise: The Northeast states, where taxation and regulation are heavy, have the lowest rankings. Itis no coincidence, either, say the authors, that the least economically free states typically have the lowest economic growth rates and the greatest outmigration of population. To view the entire report, go to www.pacificresearch.org.
Etc...
i Itis almost make-it or break-it time for the revised Metropolitan development plan. On Dec. 15, the Sarasota City Planning Board is scheduled to vote on the rezone request for a high-rise condominium to be built at the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Gulfstream Avenue. The new plan requests an increase in the allowable units (144 from 128) and on-site parking spaces (216).
i On Dec. 6, the Sarasota City Commission is set to consider a resolution to extend the possible uses of tax increment funding in the downtown masterplan to pay for affordable housing, community policing innovations, public parks, public works projects and historic preservation projects. City staff emphasized that the resolution would only create the option of tax increment funding; any actual funding requests would have to be approved by the city commission. The meeting is the first hearing for the resolution.
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