November 2018 Public Policy & Economic Development Newsletter

November 2018

Hill Ward Henderson has as its cornerstone an obligation and a commitment to our valued clients to provide the highest degree of integrity, professionalism and competence to ensure the timely, efficient delivery of high quality legal services. The dividend to our firm has been the long-term relationships we have developed with our clients and with the Tampa community.

How to Win Florida

Florida is the ultimate swing state, the land of the political cliffhanger. Donald Trump also won it by 1 percent over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Barack Obama won it by 1 percent over Mitt Romney in 2012. George W. Bush famously (or, for some, notoriously) won it by just 537 votes over Al Gore in 2000. I f you add up the 50 million votes Floridians have cast in the past seven presidential elections, a mere 20,000 votes separate the two parties—about 0.04 percent.

How to Win Florida

Clearwater Special Referendum, Constitution Revision Commission Amendments, State-wide Races

Clearwater Special Election Referendum Question

Proposed Amendments to the Florida Constitution

Tampa Bay Times 2018 Florida Voter Guide

News Updates

Did you know that more than a quarter million Floridians have registered to vote since the Primaries?

Business Florida: Boundless Opportunity Awaits

Florida has always been a magnet for dreamers and doers. It was, after all, to this place that explorers from the old world came to plant their first permanent settlement in the new. And it was from this place a little more than four centuries later that another band of explorers left to plant their footprints on the moon.

Today, dozens of dreamers and doers stake their futures on Florida each year by relocating or expanding their businesses here.

Why here, why now?

Got a letter saying your Florida voter registration needs updating? Don’t panic (yet)

Her friends and family told her not to vote by mail.

They had read news stories warning of rejected ballots across the county, and decided the risk was too great.

But Laura Redwine was busy, and besides she had nothing to hide. She'd already voted by mail in the 2018 primary, she said, her first time casting a ballot in Florida after she moved here last year. She bubbled in her picks and sent the form.

Then she got a letter from Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. It said officials needed an updated signature from Redwine, on a Florida Voter Registration Application, which was included in the envelope. The letter was dated Oct. 26 and reached her the week before election day, long past the registration deadline for what she considered a critical midterm.

Pushing toward a turnout record for a Florida midterm: 3.7 million votes in

Voters keep voting in Florida as turnout soared past the 3.7 million mark on Wednesday.

Having already exceeded the total early and vote-by-mail turnout in the last off-year election in 2014, Florida now takes aim at the overall 2014 turnout of 6 million voters.

Voter Turnout Record

Business Pulse Survey

We want to know what the Tampa Bay area needs, or needs more of.

What is Tampa Bay missing? Responses can be related to anything from sports to tourism to travel.

Take the Survey HERE

Looking ahead: Florida TaxWatch publishes guide for ‘whoever’ wins gubernatorial election

While Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum have fundamental differences in how state government should be shaped for the next four years, each will face the important task of ensuring it continues to operate.

That’s why the nonpartisan research and policy group Florida TaxWatch is again publishing its “ Governor’s Transition Decision Handbook ,” a cheat-sheet aimed to help the prevailing gubernatorial candidate move seamlessly from the campaign to the official office.

Tax Watch

There's a lot more to Homestead Exemption than people realize.

Proposed Changes mean even more to consider.