BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

HB 626 (Wright) and SB 659 (Harding) change the effective date of the Florida Fire Prevention Code so that the Code will take effect no sooner than six months after the latest occurrence of the publication of the updated Florida Building Code. (Branch)

HB 6057 (Eskamani) removes provisions requiring counties and municipalities to provide incentives to fully offset the costs of certain affordable housing contributions or linkage fees. (Branch)

SB 758 (Diaz) and HB 865 (Rizo) create the Charter School Review Commission within the Florida Department of Education. Of concern to cities, the bills would remove the requirement that any facility used as a charter school obtain a special exemption from existing zoning and land use designations. (Branch)

SB 1020 (Perry), SB 976 (Perry) and HB 635 (Maggard) prohibit local building code administrators, inspectors and fire safety marshals from making changes to certain building plans under specified circumstances once the local building department has approved and sealed the plans. 

In SB 976 only, the bill prohibits any governmental entity from requiring participation in a paid subscription service to access solicitations of competitive bids or proposals which must be publicly advertised. The bill requires that such solicitations be available on the publicly accessible website of the applicable governmental entity after the solicitation has been advertised. (Branch)

HB 423 (LaMarca) and SB 644 (Brodeur) does the following:

•Increase the minimum hours of training required in multifamily training programs for a fire safety inspector to qualify to take the building inspector or plans examiner certification exam.

•Allow those that have completed a four-year internship certification program with a private provider (instead of with a local government) to qualify to take the building inspector or plans examiner certification exam.

•Prohibit the Florida Building Code Administrators and Inspectors Board from requiring employment with a local government as a condition for the issuance of a provisional certificate.

•Clarify that applicants that use private providers can only be charged permit fees based on the costs actually incurred by the local government to process the permit.

•Require that local governments give private providers equal access to permitting and inspection documents. 

•Require building officials to issue occupancy or completion certificates within 10 days of a "deemed granted" certificate.  (Branch)

HB 6093 (Gregory) repeals Section 212.031, Florida Statutes, which subjects the renting, leasing, letting or granting a license for the use of any real property to sales and use tax. (Hughes)

SB 974 (Gruters) revises the statutory limits on liability for tort claims against the state and its agencies and subdivisions (which include cities). The bill seeks to increase the current statutory limits for claims from $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident to $1 million per person. Beginning July 1, 2023, the legislation would tie the revised limit to a consumer price index to automatically increase with inflation every year. The bill will retroactively apply these new limits to any pending claims that have not been settled by the effective date of the bill (July 1, 2022). (Cruz)

SB 1056 (Hutson) revises the criteria of the homestead property tax exemption to state that the rental of a portion of a dwelling claimed to be a homestead while the dwelling is physically occupied by the owner does not constitute the abandonment of the dwelling as a homestead. (Hughes)

HB 839 (Fischer) and SB 1152 (Rodriguez, A.) increase the property tax discount percentage rates for early payment of all property taxes assessed on the county tax rolls. (Hughes)

HB 417 (Fernandez-Barquin) and SB 572 (Garcia) revise factors that a property appraiser must consider in deriving just valuation for a property. For example, the property appraiser may not consider the highest and best use if the necessary zoning changes, concurrency requirement or permits to achieve the highest and best use are not in place on January 1 of the assessment year. (Hughes)

HB 645 (Gottlieb) and SB 992 (Book) require employers of full-time law enforcement, corrections and corrections probation officers to extend employer-paid health insurance benefits to the officer's surviving spouse and each dependent child if the officer dies in the line of duty as a result of exposure to a pandemic disease that is the subject of a public health emergency. These bills apply retroactively to March 1, 2020. (Hughes)

HB 283 (Duran) and SB 460 (Rodriguez) provide for an exception from assessment of homestead property at just value upon transfer of property if the property is transferred to a child or a grandchild of the deceased owner. (Hughes)

SB 828 (Hutson) requires local governments who operate critical infrastructure to have those systems and controls comply with and meet operational standards as defined in the ISA/IED 62443 series of standards as determined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework by July 1, 2024. ISA/IED 62443 standards are an international series of standards for industrial communication networks and systems developed by the International Society of Automation. The bill also requires local governments who operate these systems to conduct an annual risk assessment and create a mitigation plan. Systems that fall under these requirements include, but are not limited to, public transportation, water and wastewater treatment facilities, public utilities, public services subject to jurisdiction by the Public Service Commission, and public buildings. By July 1, 2026, when local governments procure automation and control system components, services, or solutions, or when contracting for facility upgrades for critical infrastructure, the local government must require those new components or services to meet the ISA/IEC 62443 standards. Additionally, the bill specifies civil penalties for non-compliance if a local government does not make a good-faith effort to comply with these standards and an incident occurs. (Taggart)

SB 1264 (Brandes) provides for the periodic increase in the additional property tax exemption on a homestead property if SJR 1266 or a similar constitutional amendment is approved by the voters at the 2022 general election. This bill would provide for recalculations of the additional homestead every five years and indexes the exemption amount to the House Price Index for Florida. (Hughes)

SJR 1266 (Brandes) and HJR 923 (Fischer) propose an amendment to the Florida Constitution to provide for the periodic increase of the twenty-five thousand dollar exemption on a homestead property’s assessed value that is greater than fifty thousand dollars. (Hughes)

HB 6029 (Sabatini) preempts cities, counties and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles from installing, maintaining or utilizing red light cameras effective July 1, 2025. (Branch)

SB 1124 (Gruters) creates the "Wage Mandate Preemption Act," which revises prohibitions relating to political subdivisions, including municipalities. The bill prohibits a political subdivision from enacting a wage mandate on an employer in an amount greater than the state minimum wage. This bill does not apply to employees of the political subdivision or if federal law requires the payment of a minimum wage to persons working on projects funded by federal funds. (Hughes)

SB 994 (Diaz) and HB 849 (Fernandez-Barquin) create a statewide regulatory scheme for the licensure, regulation and inspection of retail pet stores by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The bills specify that local governments may adopt ordinances that regulate but do not prohibit the operation of retail pet stores or the breeding, purchase, or sale of household pets, provided that the ordinance is not in conflict with the statewide regulations specified in the bills. The bills clarify that ordinances adopted prior to June 1, 2021, are "grandfathered" in addition to ordinances adopted prior to June 1, 2022, which impose a moratorium on new pet stores or are solely regulatory in nature. Additionally, the bills impose new requirements on animal shelters, including disclosing bite history prior to the animal's adoption and a prohibition on intentional breeding of animals for sale. 

SB 996 (Diaz) sets the initial and renewal fee for a retail pet store license by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation at $25 per licensed location. (Taggart)

HB 707 (Learned) and SB 1158 (Jones) define "home kitchen operations" as a person or business entity that sells directly from their home to the consumer any food product (excluding raw milk and raw oysters). The bills exempt these operations from the requirements imposed on traditional public food service establishments. Additionally, the bills specify that local governments are preempted from directly regulating these operations; however, they must comply with any applicable home-based business regulations. A home kitchen operation cannot exceed annual gross sales of $250,000. (Taggart)

HB 6029 (Sabatini) preempts cities, counties and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles from installing, maintaining or utilizing red light cameras effective July 1, 2025. (Branch)