This week, I attended the grand opening of the new Cheney Brothers location in Port St. Lucie. As your CFO, I am proud to say that Florida's economy is stronger than ever, while reaching record levels of job creation and budget reserves. This new distribution center has already created 260 jobs for Port St. Lucie residents, and they are expecting to create over 500 jobs by next year. This is fantastic news for the local economy. Congratulations to the entire team at Cheney Brothers on opening this beautiful new location in Port St. Lucie, and I look forward to attending many more grand openings in Florida in the years to come.

On Tuesday, I issued a consumer alert, providing tips to protect Floridians from tax related fraud and scams as the federal tax preparation season begins. Scammers are constantly coming up with new ways to try and separate you from you from your hard-earned money or personal financial information. Unfortunately, the tax paying season is the perfect opportunity to try to scam someone by posing as the IRS or by offering fake tax preparation services. The best way to avoid being scammed is to know the warning signs of tax fraud so you can avoid becoming a victim. If you or a loved one feels you have become the victim of tax fraud report it immediately at FraudFreeFlorida.com. 

Lastly, I was happy to announce that more than $32 million in unclaimed property was returned to the pockets of Floridians during the month of January. I am proud to say that this is all thanks to the hard work of my team at the Division of Unclaimed Property. Florida currently has unclaimed property accounts with a total value of nearly $2.7 billion just waiting to be claimed. I want every cent of unclaimed property to be returned to its rightful owner, that's why I encourage every Floridian to search now for yourself, your friends, your loved ones, and even your business at FLTreasureHunt.gov. It's your money, claim it today! 

Sincerely,

Jimmy Patronis Chief Financial Officer State of Florida

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