BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 524 (Hutson) amends various provisions of the Florida Election Code. The bill prohibits the use of ranked-choice voting to determine election or nomination to elective office and voids existing or future local ordinances authorizing the use of ranked-choice voting. It removes the limitation on the amount of aggregate fines that may be assessed against a third-party voter registration organization and revises the candidate oath regarding outstanding fines, fees or penalties owed for certain ethics or campaign finance violations. The bill authorizes a supervisor of elections to designate up to two additional early voting sites per election. (O'Hara)

HB 202 (Farmer) – Small Business Website Development Grant Program

HB 217 (Trabulsy) and SB 946 (Trabulsy)– Film, Television and Digital Media Rebate Program

HB 247 (Salzman) – Florida Main Street Program and Historic Preservation Tax Credits

HB 359 (Eskamani) – Agreement for Best Practices in Economic Development

SB 1098 (Brodeur) and HB 835 (Duggan) – Smart Region Zones

HB 6059 (Eskamani) – Confidentiality of Economic Development Agreement Information

SB 800 (Albritton) and HB 685 (Drake) authorize municipalities to exempt by ordinance the public service tax on electrical energy for qualified purchasers determined by the Department of Revenue (DOR). The bills also provide a sales tax exemption for building materials being used to revitalize real property located within an opportunity zone. The bills specify that the sales tax exemption will be distributed in the form of a refund on previously paid taxes if the property owner, lessee, or lessor files an application with the local government that the opportunity zone is located in. The bills specify the information that the applicant will be required to provide in their application to the local government and give the local government 10 business days to certify the application for completeness and transmit it to DOR. The applicant is also required to forward the application to DOR. Applications for a sales tax refund must be submitted to DOR within six months of the real property being deemed "substantially completed" by the local building inspector. Applicants are limited to one application per property, and the amount must exceed $500. Additionally, the bills expand this tax exemption to include electrical energy being used by a business that operates in an opportunity zone for up to 50% of the tax imposed if the municipality chooses to adopt an ordinance. The bills also modify some parameters of the Rural Job Tax Credit Program by removing the minimum number of employees and increasing the tax credit per employee from $1,000 to $2,500. The bills also create the Rural Opportunity Tax Refund Program intended to provide tax relief for new, qualified targeted businesses that bring economic diversity and high-wage jobs to rural areas. In order for a qualified targeted business to receive this tax benefit, the municipality where the business will be located must adopt a resolution recommending the applicant be approved. (Taggart)

SB 434 (Hooper) and HB 489 (Chaney) delay the scheduled repeal of the Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation (Visit Florida) and the Division of Tourism Marketing of Enterprise Florida, Inc. SB 434 delays the repeal from 2023 to 2031, while HB 489 delays the repeal from 2023 to 2028. (Taggart)

HB 499 (Gregory) requires agreements between a governmental entity and a professional sports team or sporting event entered into after July 1, 2022, to include a requirement that the U.S. National Anthem be played at the beginning of each sporting event if the agreement includes a financial commitment from the governmental agency. The government that enters into the agreement would be responsible for enforcing this requirement. The bill also specifies penalties for the sports entity for failure to comply. (Taggart)

SB 352 (Hooper) – Construction Liens

HB 263 (Bell) – Notice of Commencement Requirements

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)