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Orlando Metro
Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake. Orange County commissioners voted 6-1 on Oct. 19 to give the Dr. Phillips Center $350M of hotel tax, two weeks before voters reshape the board. Brightline’s trains to South Florida kept running while 17 parent companies went to Chapter 11 over about $2.5 billion of holding-company debt, and a federal judge holds the final hearing on a rescue loan to the company that runs the trains Oct. 29. When a team asks the hotel tax or a local sales tax to underwrite a building, the Tampa deal is the read-across.
Orlando Metro stories
Statewide read-across
- Politics · TallahasseeRealtors gave $21.5 million to pass Amendment 3. One Gainesville firm got 98 cents of each dollar spentNearly all of the Realtors' campaign spending has gone to SGS Inc., a Gainesville firm that Orlando Weekly reports is owned by longtime GOP operative Patrick Bainter. Three committees fight the measure, and one was formed by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, CubaHeadlines reported.
- Teams · TallahasseeFlorida State fires Mike Norvell and takes on a buyout that runs to 2031The team had three wins and five losses this season, after two seasons without a bowl game, the postseason reward for enough wins. Reports put the public university's bill at about $47 million to $50 million, and no record yet says whose money pays it.
- Politics · TallahasseeJolly asks Byron Donalds to pledge to divest his family's school firms. Erika Donalds calls it sexistFlorida picks a governor Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Democrat David Jolly wants Republican Byron Donalds to give up his family's interests in charter school companies if he wins. Erika Donalds, Byron's wife, runs those companies and says they are hers, not his.
- Houses · StatewideUthmeier sues the firm behind home-listing flood scores, calling them deceptiveFlorida's attorney general says First Street's scores call some homes major flood risks where federal flood maps show minimal hazard, and cost sellers sales. First Street has not answered, and no court has ruled.
- Politics · TallahasseeKalshi and the Seminole Tribe paid Byron Donalds's PAC on the same dayDonalds's PAC, a political committee that takes donations, got $500,000 from the tribe and $250,000 from Kalshi on Oct. 13. Five days earlier, the tribe backed New Jersey against Kalshi at the Supreme Court.
- Politics · StatewideBrightline's parent companies are in bankruptcy, but its trains run. A judge weighs the rescue Oct. 29Brightline is Florida's private Miami-to-Orlando railroad. The company that runs its trains is not in bankruptcy and borrows the rescue loan, and about $4.4 billion of muni bonds sit behind it.
- Politics · TallahasseeRegulators' own staff says deny Duke's data center plan as filedA new Florida law says data centers and other giant power users must pay the full cost of serving them. In the law's first test, the state regulator's own experts say Duke has not shown its plan does that.
- Politics · TallahasseeSenate President Albritton will vote no on Amendment 3, the tax cut his Senate put on the ballotBen Albritton voted for the property tax cut in June. Now he opposes it, while Realtor groups pay for the campaign to pass it.
- Business · StatewideBrightline promised its Tampa bondholders full principal. Their bonds trade, and are valued, far below faceObjections to Brightline’s bankruptcy financing are due Oct. 22, and the final hearing is Oct. 29. First Eagle, whose manager says par is preserved, marked its fund’s junior Tampa-backed bonds at 28 cents July 31.
- Houses · Statewide ballotAmendment 3 skips your school tax, and school boards are on the same ballotThe state’s own estimate shows Amendment 3 takes nothing off the school line of any county’s property tax bill, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). On the same Nov. 3 ballot, at least 13 school boards, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach among them, ask voters to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and Florida Realtors have written $19.5 million for the yes side (school board records; Division of Elections).
- Business · StatewideBrightline’s parent companies are in bankruptcy. The trains still run, and its bond insurer and muni funds are lining up $490M to see it throughSeventeen Fortress-backed Brightline parent companies filed Chapter 11 in New Jersey on Sept. 24 over about $2.5 billion of holding-company debt; the company that runs the trains did not file. Judge Mark Edward Hall approved rescue financing of up to $257.7 million on an interim basis, with $190 million available now, and the final hearing is Oct. 29. The plan keeps muni bond principal in place but calls for deferred interest payments.
- Storm money · PanhandlePensacola’s Isaias cleanup: DeSantis asks Trump for a major disaster declaration, and Escambia reverses its administrator to bring back its biggest debris haulerFlorida has asked President Trump for a major disaster declaration covering Public Assistance in 15 Panhandle counties and Individual Assistance in eight, Escambia among them; FEMA’s data still showed no approval on Oct. 18 (Executive Office of the Governor; Florida Division of Emergency Management; OpenFEMA). Escambia commissioners voted Oct. 15 to put AshBritt back on debris pickup, with Commissioner Steven Barry voting no, after Administrator Wes Moreno had cut the county to two haulers; the county’s repair bill is about $64 million, $54.87 million of it debris removal (WEAR-TV). Moody’s RMS now puts U.S. private insured losses at $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion, best estimate $3.5 billion (Moody’s; Artemis). Citizens had 9,052 policies and $3.56 billion of exposure in eight Panhandle coastal counties as of Aug. 31 (Citizens).
- Teams · Tampa BayRays bond vote ties 3-3, then a sick councilman dials in to pass itTampa City Council deadlocked 3-3 on Thursday, Oct. 15, on asking a judge to approve up to $80 million in bonds for the city’s share of the Rays ballpark. Then Bill Carlson, absent with a stomach bug, joined virtually and it passed 4-3, with Lynn Hurtak, Charlie Miranda and Guido Maniscalco voting no (Tampa Bay Times; Florida Politics). The vote borrows nothing. Issuing bonds takes a separate council vote, the city attorney says Tampa is obligated for the $80 million either way, and the first $20 million payment is due in January (City of Tampa; Florida Politics). A binding vote on the community benefits deal is set for Oct. 29, per FOX 13. Meanwhile the Rays won Games 4 and 5 in Cleveland to lead the ALCS 3-2, with Game 6 at the Trop Monday night (MLB Stats API).
- Teams · Tampa BayBucs float a two-thirds public tab for Ray Jay as the first seat bid comes in under budgetThe Buccaneers have floated covering one-third of a $1B Raymond James renovation, with the public paying the rest (Sports Business Journal and Pewter Report, citing the Tampa Bay Times). Tampa Sports Authority staff recommended Hussey Seating at $19.27M against a $30M seating budget, but the board’s Sept. 29 action was still unpublished as of Oct. 18 (TSA). Hillsborough adopted its budget Sept. 24. The recommended budget carries $83.7M for the stadium, and the adopted documents are not yet posted (county; Tampa Bay Times). The Bucs owe their lease decision by Jan. 31, 2027 (WUSF).
- Politics · StatewideByron Donalds’ PAC has now sent Florida’s GOP $35 million, $4 million of it this monthThrough Oct. 9, Donalds’ PAC had spent $99.6M by our sum of state records, including $35M to the Republican Party of Florida in 11 payments ($4M on Oct. 5). With his campaign account he has spent $110.7M, which Florida Politics puts at “more than $110 million.” GEO Group and Fighting for Florida’s Families each gave the PAC $1M in the week ended Oct. 9. Polls reported Oct. 13 run from Donalds up 11 to a tie (Division of Elections; Florida Politics; Newsweek). The Seminole Tribe, which has given Donalds’ PAC $5.5M, is suing DraftKings, whose subsidiary gave the PAC $500,000.