BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/HB 1241 (Stevenson) makes various updates to the statutes administering numerous taxes. Of note, the bill requires, rather than authorize, tax collectors to accept late payments of prepaid property taxes through July 31 and deletes a late payment penalty. CS/HB 1241 passed the House (115-0) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (Hughes)

HB 1037 (Roth) and SB 1210 (Baxley) authorize property owners of assessed property who have not filed personal property tax returns to qualify for tax exemption without filing an initial return. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 50 (Gruters) requires retailers with no physical presence in Florida to collect Florida's sales tax on sales of taxable items delivered to purchasers in Florida if the retailer makes a substantial number of sales into Florida or provides for the taxation of sales facilitated through a marketplace provider. The bill also deletes a provision that exempts an out-of-state dealer that makes retail sales into Florida from collecting and remitting any local option surtax. The bill temporarily diverts the increased collections in sales tax, due to this bill, to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund until it is replenished to pre-pandemic levels. The bill reduces the business rent tax from 5.5% to 2% once the Trust Fund reaches its pre-pandemic balance. CS/CS/SB 50 passed the House (93-24) and the Senate (27-12) and was signed by the governor on April 19, 2021. Effective July 1, 2021, except as otherwise provided. Chapter No. 2021-002. (Hughes)

SB 132 (Hutson) allows the rental of a portion of a dwelling, claimed to be a homestead for tax purposes, while the dwelling is physically occupied by the owner does not constitute the abandonment of the dwelling as a homestead. (Hughes)

CS/SB 1330 (Rodriguez) and CS/HB 571 (Smith, D.) expand the current exemption from ad valorem taxes for property used for nonprofit homes for the aged. CS/HB 571 passed the House (111-0) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (Hughes)

SB 674 (Rodriguez) and HB 563 (Rodriguez) authorize counties and municipalities to adopt ordinances to grant ad valorem tax exemptions to property owners whose properties are used for the government or affordable housing. The property owner must have taken affirmative steps to prepare the property to provide affordable housing to persons or families that meet specified income limits to qualify for the affordable housing exemption. For the governmental exemption, a governmental or public purpose is served if a person provides a service that the state, any of its political subdivisions or any municipality, agency, special district, authority or other public body corporate of the state could properly perform or serve and if the governmental or public purpose would otherwise be a valid purpose for the allocation of public funds. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 1214 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 889 (Borrero) specify the conditions for retaining the ad valorem exemption of an exempt property. The bills require that revenue derived from the incidental use of the property must support the charitable, religious, scientific or literacy purpose that the property is used for. CS/CS/HB 889 passed the House (118-0) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (Hughes)

SB 154 (Diaz) amends multiple provisions related to local government financial transparency. The bill expands public notice and public hearing requirements for local option tax increases, other than property taxes and taxes adopted by referendum and new long-term tax-supported debt issuances. Each local government is required to prominently post on its website the voting records on any action taken by its governing board related to tax increases and new tax-supported debt issuances. The bill imposes requirements on county property appraisers and local governments relating to Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices, millage rate history and the amount of tax levied by each taxing authority on each parcel.

Additionally, local governments will be required to conduct a debt affordability analysis prior to approving the issuance of new long-term tax-supported debt. The bill requires the local government annual audit reports to include information regarding compliance with the requirements of this newly created section of law. Failure to comply would result in the withholding of state-shared revenues. The bill revises the local government reporting requirements for economic development incentives. It requires each municipality to report to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research whether the incentive is provided directly to an individual business or by another entity on behalf of the local government and the source of dollars obligated for the incentive (including local, state and federal). (Hughes)

SB 1702 (Hutson) and HB 1555 (Harding) revise the types of lessees whose purposes and functions are deemed to be governmental, municipal, or public purposes. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 1186 (Brandes) and CS/CS/HB 1379 (Chaney) implement SJR 1182 or HJR 1377 if approved by 60% of voters at the next general election. The bills specify that changes to elevate certain homestead and non-homestead residential property do not increase the assessed value of the property under specific circumstances. The bills require the property owners to provide certification. CS/CS/HB 1379 passed the House (118-0) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (Hughes)

HJR 1377 (Chaney) proposes an amendment to the Florida Constitution to authorize the Legislature to prohibit the consideration of improvements made to residential real property to improve the property's resistance to flood damage when determining assessed value of the property for the purposes of ad valorem taxation. HJR 1377 passed the House (118-0) and the Senate (40-0). (Hughes)

HB 61 (Roth) and SB 1238 (Roth) – Percentage of Elector Votes Required to Approve Constitutional Amendment or Revision

HB 7043 (Public Integrity & Ethics Committee) addresses public officer, public employee and third-party conduct regarding solicitation and negotiation of conflicting and potentially conflicting financial relationships, addresses post-service lobbying restrictions for certain state officers and revises executive branch lobbyist registration requirements. The bill prohibits public officers and employees from soliciting an employment or contractual relationship from entities from whom they are prohibited from entering into conflicting employment and contractual relationships. In addition, the bill requires public officers and employees to report or disclose particular solicitations and offers of employment or contractual relationships. The bill revises executive branch lobbying registration provisions to require electronic registration and affirmative consent of the principal to be represented by a lobbyist. (O’Hara)

HB 215 (Sabatini) prohibits a local government from using public funds to retain a lobbyist to represent the local government before the legislative or executive branch. It would permit a full-time employee of local government to register as a lobbyist and represent the local government before the legislative or executive branch. The bill would also prohibit any person, except a full-time employee, from accepting public funds for lobbying. It provides for the filing of complaints with the Florida Commission on Ethics and the filing of civil actions for injunctive relief, as well as sanctions and recovery of attorney fees by prevailing parties. (O’Hara)

HB 853 (Sirois) amends provisions of the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees relating to conflicting business and contractual relationships, voting conflicts, annual ethics training and financial disclosure requirements. For purposes of conflicting relationships and whether an officer or employee has a material interest in a business entity, the bill specifies that contractual relationships held by a business entity will be deemed to be held by the officer or employee if the entity is not publicly traded or the officer or employee is an officer, director or member who manages such entity. The bill amends voting conflict requirements to include special district and school board members and modifies participation requirements currently applicable only to appointed public officers to include elected county, municipal or other local public officers, special district or school board members. In addition to a prohibition on voting, such officer may not participate (i.e., discuss or debate) in the conflicted matter without first disclosing the nature of his or her interest. The bill expands persons required to file Form 6 (full) financial disclosure to include elected mayors and governing body members of municipalities having more than $10 million in total revenue. The Department of Financial Services is required to provide an annual report to the Commission on Ethics showing the total revenues for each municipality. A municipality’s failure to file its annual financial report with the Department creates a presumption the municipality has more than $10 million in annual revenues for purposes of the financial disclosure requirement. The bill lists the minimum course contents for public officer ethics training requirements and expands the class of officers required to complete annual ethics training to include special district and water management district board members. Persons required to complete annual ethics training must certify completion of the training on their financial disclosure forms as well as identify the name of the training provider. The failure to certify completion of ethics training or to identify the training provider is deemed a material error or omission. (O’Hara)

HB 1585 (Barnaby) creates the Florida Integrity Office and the position of Florida integrity officer within the Office of the Auditor General. The bill authorizes the integrity officer to investigate complaints alleging waste, fraud, abuse, misconduct or gross mismanagement in connection with the expenditure of public funds within state and local government. The bill directs the auditor general and the integrity officer to conduct random audits and inspections of appropriations projects appropriated in the prior year. The bill authorizes the auditor general and the Florida integrity officer to investigate or audit the financial activities of any local government. The bill defines “fraud,” “waste,” “abuse” and “misconduct” and provides procedures for the inspector general to report on activities by public officials or agencies to the Florida integrity officer. The bill imposes personal liability for repayment of funds upon persons or officials responsible for determinations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement or misconduct in government. The bill authorizes the chief financial officer to commence investigations based on complaints or referral from any source. The bill specifies conditions for awards to employees under the Florida Whistleblower Act. The bill requires each public agency contract for services entered or amended after July 2020 to authorize the public agency to inspect specified records of the contractor. The bills prohibit the use of tax incentives to be paid to a state contractor or subcontractor for services provided or expenditures incurred pursuant to a state contract. HB 1585 passed the House (79-37) and is awaiting action by the Senate.

(O’Hara)

CS/CS/HB 573 (Beltran) and CS/SB 758 (Diaz) create a new statute establishing standards and mandatory five hours of training for the fiduciary duty of care for appointed local public officers and executive officers of local government entities. In addition, the bills impose restrictions on legal representation by government attorneys. The fiduciary duty and training requirements apply to appointed officials of various local boards and committees, including code enforcement boards, planning and zoning boards, land use boards, community redevelopment agency boards and pension boards. CS/SB 758 was amended to remove pension and retirement boards from the bill. CS/HB 573 was amended to remove certain municipal boards from the bill, such as code enforcement, planning and zoning, CRA and pension boards. The bills provide that each appointed public official and executive officer has a fiduciary duty of care to the governmental entity served and has a duty to act in accordance with laws and terms governing the office or employment, act with the care and competence normally exercised by private business professionals, act only within the scope of authority and refrain from conduct likely to damage the economic interests of the governmental entity. Further, such persons must become reasonably informed in connection with any decision-making function and keep reasonably informed concerning the performance of a governmental entity’s officers, agents and employees. The bills impose training requirements on appointed public officers and executive officers that require completion of at least five hours of board governance training per term served. The bills specify the minimum content of such training programs, including board governance best practices and fiduciary duty of care and liabilities imposed by the new law. The bills provide that all legal counsel employed by a governmental entity must represent the legal interest and position of the governing body of the governmental entity and not the interest of any individual or employee of the governmental entity. (O’Hara)

SB 656 (Brandes) makes various changes to elections procedures including voter registration, voter identification and polling locations. In addition, the bill expressly preempts a local government from imposing any limitation on contributions to a political committee or electioneering communications organization or limitation on any expenditures for an electioneering organization or an independent expenditure. (O’Hara)

SB 1756 (Jones) and HB 1365 (Willhite) provide that no person may qualify for state, district, county or municipal office during an investigation by the Commission on Ethics in which the Commission has determined there is probable cause to believe the person has violated the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees or committed any other breach of the public trust within the jurisdiction of the Commission. In addition, the bills specify that no person who owes a fine for failure to file a campaign finance report during a previous campaign may qualify as a candidate until the fine is paid. The bills prohibit candidate qualifying checks from containing information unrelated to the candidate’s current campaign. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/CS/SB 90 (Baxley) revises multiple provisions of the Florida Elections Code relating to voter registration, third-party voter registration, county commission terms, ballots, voting systems, vote-by-mail ballots, canvassing boards, voter signatures and secure drop boxes. It provides that in any civil action in which a state or county agency or officer is a party, the action may not be settled if the settlement conflicts with any provision of the Florida Election Code unless notification is given to the Legislature and the Attorney General of the commencement of settlement negotiations, a proposed settlement is reported to the legislature and the Attorney General, and notice is given to the Legislature and the Attorney General at least 10 days before the settlement becomes final. The bill prohibits the use of private funds for election-related expenses, voter education, voter outreach or registration programs. The donation and acceptance of space to be used as a polling room or an early voting site are exempted from this prohibition. The bill requires supervisors of elections to make live voter turnout data available on their websites on Election Day. It eliminates current law provisions addressing elective charter county or municipal office vacancies created by resignation and provides such offices shall be deemed vacant upon the effective date of the resignation submitted by the official in his or her letter of resignation. For persons seeking to qualify for office as a candidate of any political party, the bill requires such person to state in writing that he or she has been a member of that political party for 365 days before the beginning of qualification. If a person is seeking to qualify as a candidate with no party affiliation, the bill requires the person to state in writing that he or she has not been a member of any political party for 365 days before the beginning of the qualifying period. The bill expands the current no-solicitation zone from 100 to 150 feet and includes drop box locations as areas subject to the no-solicitation zone. It modifies the current law definition of solicitation to include engaging in any activity with the intent to influence or having the effect of influencing a voter, and it clarifies the term may not be construed to prohibit an employee of, or a volunteer with, the supervisor from providing nonpartisan assistance to voters within the no-solicitation zone. The bill modifies current law provisions relating to the canvassing of returns and the public inspection of ballots. It amends vote-by-mail procedures and provides that a vote-by-mail request covers only a one-year period. An existing vote-by-mail request submitted before July 1, 2021, is effective for elections held through the end of the 2022 calendar year. In addition, except as authorized for voters having a disability, overseas voters or local referenda, the bill prohibits a county, municipality or state agency from sending a vote-by-mail ballot to a voter unless the voter has requested a ballot. The bill amends provisions relating to the use of drop boxes for vote-by-mail ballots. It clarifies that drop boxes may be placed at the main Supervisor of Elections office, each permanent branch of such office and at each early voting site. It requires that drop boxes be located to provide all voters in the county with an equal opportunity to cast a ballot. Drop boxes located at early voting sites may be used only during early voting hours and must be monitored in-person by an employee of the Supervisor of Elections. It provides that drop boxes at early voting locations may be used only during early voting hours and must be monitored in person. (O'Hara)