BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/SB 60 (Bradley) and CS/CS/CS/HB 883 (Overdorf) would prohibit code enforcement officers from investigating and enforcing a potential code violation if the complaint is received anonymously. The bill requires any person who reports a violation of a code or ordinance to provide their name and address to the local government before any enforcement proceedings occur. The bills were amended to still allow for enforcement of anonymous complaints if they pose an imminent threat to public health, safety or welfare or imminent destruction of habitat or sensitive resources. Nothing in the bills prohibit a code enforcement officer from proactively enforcing a code violation. CS/CS/CS/HB 883 was substituted to CS/SB 60. CS/SB 60 passed the Senate (27-11) and the House (81-35). (Taggart)

CS/HB 663 (Salzman) and CS/SB 1294 (Brodeur) deal with the regulation of “cottage food” operations, which encompass any person or entity that produces or packages certain foods at their residence intended to be sold. The bills increase the current sales cap on cottage food operations from $50,000 to $250,000. The bills restrict local governments from regulating cottage food operations. The bills were amended to specify that they must comply with all local home-based business ordinances. CS/SB 1294 was substituted to CS/HB 663. CS/HB 663 passed the House (91-24) and the Senate (30-10). (Taggart)

CS/HB 1053 (Overdorf) and CS/SB 102 (Burgess) will have the effect of limiting or prohibiting various civil actions and class action matters by local governments including recent class actions involving opioids, PFAS and predatory lending. CS/HB 1053 authorizes the attorney general to unilaterally declare any conduct or harm that adversely affects the interests of citizens of at least five counties in the state a “matter of great governmental concern.” It requires local governments to notify the attorney general of the commencement of “any civil action” and authorizes the attorney general to determine the local government civil action involves a matter of great governmental concern. CS/HB 1053 authorizes the attorney general, within one year of publishing notice of a determination that a matter is of great governmental concern, to file a civil action on behalf of the citizens of the state on the matter. The attorney general’s determination operates to stay any civil action of a local government on the same matter. The bill requires any funds recovered by the attorney general be deposited into the General Revenue Fund and requires a state court to dismiss as moot a local government civil action that is based on the same matter as the attorney general’s action and resolved by settlement or judgment of that action. CS/SB 102 authorizes the Legislature by concurrent resolution to declare any circumstance that has caused economic or similar harm to governmental entities in 15 or more counties to be a matter of great governmental concern. Upon such a declaration, the attorney general would have sole authority to file a civil action on behalf of the affected governmental entities. The bills authorize the attorney general to intervene in any pending civil proceeding in federal or state court (including pending appeals) and dismiss, consolidate, settle or take any action he or she believes to be in the public interest. A declaration by the attorney general that a matter is of great governmental concern will operate to abate or stay any pending civil action unless and until the attorney general takes an action in the proceeding. The bills require governmental entities that are parties to any action that has been declared a matter of great governmental interest to notify the attorney general of the existence of the action and provide that any settlement or resolution of a proceeding by a governmental entity after the attorney general’s declaration and without the attorney general’s consent is void. The declaration of a matter of great governmental concern is not “final agency action” subject to review under the Administrative Procedure Act. The bills provide a process by which governmental entities may apply to a court to recover attorney fees and costs incurred prior to the attorney general’s declaration, but they fail to identify a source of funding, responsible party or conditions for obtaining such recovery. (O’Hara)

HB 1393 (Davis) and SB 1808 (Powell) revise the indication criteria for an “abandoned residential property” to make the process for abating nuisance properties easier and less costly to local governments. The bills revise the process for a local government to notify a mortgagee or mortgage servicer of a nuisance residential property and directs them to abate the nuisance until ownership of the property has been transferred through the foreclosure process. If the local government steps in to abate the nuisance property, the bills allow the local government to recover the costs of abatement by placing a lien on the property, which may not be foreclosed. The bills specify that the local government may request reimbursement for the cost of abatement from the mortgagee or mortgage servicer, which must be paid within 20 days. (Taggart)

CS/CS/CS/HB 1103 (Maggard) and SB 1624 (Albritton) require certain independent special districts that levy a non-ad valorem special assessment to contract with an independent entity to conduct performance audits. These bills also require the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to conduct performance audits of certain classifications of independent special districts and report the performance audits by a specified date. CS/CS/CS/HB 1103 passed the House and Senate. If approved by the governor, the bill is effective October 1, 2021. (Cruz)

HB 487 (Duggan) and CS/CS/SB 1274 (Perry) increase the acreage thresholds for adopting comprehensive plan amendments using a small-scale development amendment. HB 487 passed the House and Senate. If approved by the governor, the bill is effective July 1, 2021. (Cruz)

HB 1101 (Persons-Mulicka) and SB 1380 (Rodrigues) amend the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act to facilitate private property owner to bring a lawsuit against a government entity. Under current law, with a few exceptions, a property owner must file an application with a government entity before being able to initiate a Bert Harris Act lawsuit. These bills authorize the filing of a Bert Harris Act lawsuit based upon the adoption of an ordinance, resolution, regulation, rule or policy. (Cruz)

CS/CS/CS/HB 337 (DiCeglie) and CS/CS/CS/SB 750 (Gruters) are comprehensive impact fee bills. The bills restrict what are allowable expenditures of impact fees revenue and cap by how much impact fees can be raised on a yearly basis. Impact fees are collected by local governments to fund local infrastructure to meet the demands of population growth. The bills also ease the restrictions on expenditure of impact fees revenue to allow for the purchase of fire department vehicles, emergency medical service vehicles, sheriff’s office vehicles, police department vehicles and the equipment necessary to outfit the vehicles for their official use. As amended, the bills will require, within 12 months before the adoption of an impact fee increase, a local government to: conduct a demonstrated-need study justifying the increase and expressly demonstrating the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the limitations, hold at least two publicly noticed workshops dedicated to the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the limitations and approve the impact fee ordinance by at least a two-thirds vote of the governing body. CS/CS/CS/HB 337 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. The bill is effective upon becoming law. (Cruz)

CS/HB 403 (Giallombardo) and CS/CS/SB 266 (Perry) preempt the regulation of home-based businesses. The bills provide that local governments may not enact or enforce any ordinance, regulation or policy or take any action to license or otherwise regulate a home-based business in a manner that is different from other businesses in a local government’s jurisdiction. The bills authorize business owners to challenge local government actions and authorize the prevailing party to recover specified attorney fees and costs. Local governments may regulate a home-based business for issues related to noise, vibration, heat, smoke, dust, glare, fumes, odors as long as these regulations are not more stringent than those applied to a home where no business takes place. CS/HB 403 passed the House (77-41), where compromise language was stripped from the bill, then passed the Senate (19-18). The bill will take effect July 1, 2021, if signed by the governor. (Cruz)

CS/CS/CS/SB 496 (Perry) and CS/CS/CS/HB 59 (McClain) are comprehensive growth management bills. The legislation requires local governments to create and include a private property rights element in their comprehensive plans. The bills say the consent of certain property owners is not required for development agreement changes under certain circumstances. Under certain circumstances the legislation authorizes developers to exchange approved land uses, subject to demonstrating that the exchange will not increase impacts to public facilities. The bills require the Department of Transportation to afford a right of first refusal to previous property owners under specified circumstances. The bills were amended to provide that, in certain situations, a city or county will have additional time to amend their comprehensive plan to comply with the requirements of the legislation. As amended, a city or county can now wait until the next time they amend their comprehensive plan or until their seven-year review of their comprehensive plan is due to comply with the new private property element. CS/CS/CS/HB 59 was substituted for CS/CS/CS/SB 496. CS/CS/CS/HB 59 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. If signed by the governor, the bill is effective July 1, 2021. (Cruz)

CS/CS/HB 421 (Tuck) and CS/SB 1876 (Albritton) amend current law to provide procedures and remedies to landowners whose property is inordinately burdened by a local government regulation. Of concern to cities, the bills amend the term “action of a governmental entity” to now include the passing of an ordinance or regulation that diminishes a property owners property value, even if that ordinance or regulation is not applied to the property. This change will allow a property owner to initiate a Bert Harris claim without applying for a permit and being denied by a government entity. The bill allows a property owner to retain the ability to bring a Bert Harris lawsuit even if they sell their interest in the property in question. The bill amends the attorney fee provisions of the Harris Act to favor property owners. Lastly, the bill shortens the time frame governments will have to respond to Harris claims from 150 days to 90 days. CS/CS/HB 421 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. The bill is effective October 1, 2021. (Cruz)

CS/HB 1139 (Smith) and CS/SB 1520 (Boyd) provide that a utility easement is an interest in real property and subject to certain actions unless otherwise provided in the instrument creating the easement. These bills revise rights that are not affected or extinguished by marketable record titles and require persons with certain interests in land that may be extinguished by this act to file a specified notice to preserve their interests. (Cruz)

HB 255 (Geller) and SB 1338 (Torres) – Legislation by Initiative

HB 6021 (Eskamani) and SB 1020 (Torres) – Rent Control Measures

HB 499 (Benjamin) and SB 576 (Jones) –  Prohibited Landlord Practices

SB 1068 (Taddeo) and SB 567 (Bartleman) – Local Housing Assistance Plans

HB 1543 (Koster) and SB 1150 (Harrell) – Low-income Home Accessibility Program

HB 1469 (Smith) and SB 2002 (Taddeo) –  Florida Commercial Rent Stabilization Fund

HB 13 (Killebrew) and SB 510 (Hooper) specify that funds deposited in the State Housing Trust Fund and the Local Government Housing Trust Fund may not be transferred or used for any other purpose. (Taggart)

HB 81 (Casello) and SB 224 (Berman) – Sales and Use Tax Exemption

SB 302 (Taddeo) and HB 637 (Tant)  – Small Business Saturday Sales Tax Holiday

SB 598 (Perry) – Back-to-school Sales Tax Holiday

HJR 85 (Rizzo) and SJR 156 (Diaz) – Joint Resolution: Homestead Assessment Limitation for School Levies

HB 87 (Rizzo) and SJR 158 (Diaz) – Homestead Assessment Limitation for School Levies

HB 597 (Woodson) and SB 1256 (Polsky) – Homestead Exemption for Seniors 65 and Older

SB 734 (Gruters) – Sales Tax Holiday for Disaster Preparedness Supplies 

HB 749 (Mooney) – Small County Discretionary Sales Surtaxes

HB 1125 (Fischer) and SB 1390 (Gruters) – Capital Investment Tax Credit

HB 1209 (Fetterhoff) and SB 1408 (Burgess) – Department of Financial Services

HB 1429 (Avila) and SB 2008 (Diaz) – Tourist and Convention Development Taxes

HB 6047 (Altman) and SB 842 (Baxley) – Aircraft Sales and Lease Tax

SB 58 (Rodriquez) – Hospitals' Community Benefit Reporting

SB 806 (Book) – Tax Exemption for Diapers and Incontinence Products

SB 986 (Hutson) – Tax Exemption for Disabled Veterans

SB 1254 (Bean) and HB 1519 (Duggan) – Ad Valorem Assessments

HB 649 (Fernandez-Barquin) and SB 996 (Garcia) – Petition for Objection to Assessment

HB 5001 (Appropriations) and SB 2500 (Appropriations) – General Appropriations Act

HB 5003 (Appropriations) and SB 2502 (Appropriations) – Implementing the 2021-2022 GAA

HB 1007 (Killebrew) and CS/SB 1358 (Gruters) revise the method of determining the value of timeshare property by the county property appraiser. The bills require the county property appraiser to defer to the taxpayer for the determination of whether the number of resales is adequate. CS/SB 1358 died in committee. (Hughes)

CS/SB 506 (Garcia) and CS/CS/HB 195 (Persons-Mulicka) require new reporting requirements for nongovernmental entities that receive a least 50 percent of their revenue from a governmental entity or expend at least $750,000 of government funds in any fiscal year. The bill provides that, before receiving funds from a governmental entity, a nongovernmental entity that received state funds in the previous year must submit to the governmental entity an attestation verifying that the nongovernmental entity has submitted the required report. Beginning January 15, 2022, a governmental entity may not expend, transfer or distribute funds to a nongovernmental entity until the nongovernmental entity has complied with the reporting and posting requirements. CS/CS/HB 195 passed the House (119-0) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (Hughes)

SB 516 (Rodriguez) and HB 927 (Tuck) specify the methodology for the assessment of the structures and equipment used in aquaculture. The bills allow the property owner to request removal of its agriculture classification if the tax assessed based on such methodology exceeds the tax assessed based on the value of the structures and equipment. (Hughes)

HB 7061 (Ways and Means) is the tax packages for the 2021 Session. The bill includes a sales tax holiday for back-to-school, disaster preparedness and “recreation” purchases. The bill expands the current property tax discount from 50% to 100% for certain multifamily projects that provide affordable housing for low-income families. Other property tax changes in the bill include clarifying the application of an exemption from ad valorem taxation for portions of property used for charitable, religious, scientific or literary purposes; requiring the tax collector to accept late payments on the first installment of prepaid property taxes; repealing the hospital community benefit reporting and creating two additional situations when a change in the ownership of homestead property would not result in the property being reassessed at just value. The bill also clarifies that when a property is damaged or destroyed by a calamity, ancillary improvements may also be repaired or replaced without the improvement being assessed at just value and that the assessment made for repaired or replaced property must be calculated based on the assessed value as of the January 1 immediately before the damage or destruction occurred. The bills also make a number of updates related to tax administration. The bill also implements HJR 1377, if approved by 60% of voters at the next general election, which will mean that changes to elevate certain homestead and non-homestead residential property do not increase the assessed value of the property under specific circumstances. HB 7061 passed the House (117-1) and the Senate (40-0) and is awaiting action by the governor. (Hughes)