BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/CS/SB 1890 (Rodrigues) imposes a $3,000 limit on contributions made to political committees sponsoring or opposing a constitutional amendment proposed by initiative. The limit will not apply once the Secretary of State has issued a certificate of ballot position and a designating number for a proposed constitutional amendment. In addition, the bill preempts local governments from enacting or adopting any limitation or restriction involving campaign or committee contributions and expenditures or establishing contribution limits different from those established in the Florida Election Code. Lastly, the bill amends current law provisions relating to the distribution of surplus funds by candidates. (O'Hara)

CS/CS/SB 2006 (Burgess) is a comprehensive bill that amends the State Emergency Management Act to address the threat posed by pandemics or other public health emergencies and imposes restrictions on the scope, duration and impact of local government emergency orders.

The bill defines a local government “significant emergency order” as an order or ordinance issued or enacted by a political subdivision (city or county) in response to an emergency that limits the rights or liberties of individuals or businesses within the political subdivision. The bill specifically excludes hurricane or other weather-related orders from the definition of significant emergency order, which leaves all other types of emergencies or disasters subject to the restrictions and parameters of the bill.

The bill requires that any significant emergency order issued by a local government must be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling public health or safety purpose; must be limited in duration, applicability, and scope to reduce any infringement on individual liberty to the greatest extent possible. Under the provisions of the bill, a significant emergency order automatically expires seven days after issuance and may be extended, as necessary, in seven-day increments but only for a total duration of 42 days. If a significant emergency order expires, the local government cannot issue a “substantially similar” order. If the governor determines that a significant emergency order unnecessarily restricts an individual's rights or liberties, the governor can invalidate the order adopted by the local government. Additionally, the bill provides that an order issued by a local government that imposes a curfew restricting travel or movement must allow persons to travel to their places of employment and to return to their residences after their work has concluded. CS/CS/SB 2006 also requires all emergency orders issued by local governments to be posted to a dedicated website accessible through a conspicuous link on the local government’s webpage.

 

Any state agency or political subdivision that accepts assistance in aid of for emergency prevention, management, mitigation, preparedness, response or recovery must submit to the Legislature, in advance, a detailed spending plan for the money. When this pre-submission of the agency’s plan is not possible, a state agency or political subdivision must nonetheless submit the plan no later than 30 days after the initiation of any expenditures and for each additional 30 days of the emergency as long as funds continue to be disbursed. For emergency response activities, including emergency response that includes emergency protective measures or debris removal, the bill requires that the agency or political subdivision must submit to the Legislature a report of all expenditures in aggregate categories incurred in the emergency response no later than 30 days after the expenditure is incurred. The entity must also submit a copy of any project worksheet submitted to Federal Emergency Management Agency within seven days of when the document is submitted to FEMA. The bill also prohibits governmental entities and private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination and imposes fines of up to $5,000 per incident for any violation. CS/CS/SB 2006 passed the Senate (27-9) and the House (76-40). The bill was approved by the governor. (Dudley)

HB 349 (Woodson) and SB 1374 (Farmer) – Small Business Website Development Grant Program 

SB 704 (Gruters) and HB 757 (Trabulsy) – Film, Television and Digital Media Rebate Program

HB 983 (Eskamani) – Agreement for Best Practices in Economic Development

HB 6011 (Beltran) repeals provisions relating to state funding for the purpose of constructing, reconstructing, renovating or improving facilities primarily used for sporting events. The bill repeals the Sports Development program in current law that provides an avenue for sports facilities to apply for a distribution from the state to fund the construction or improvements to a professional sports franchise facility. Since the program was enacted in 2014, no application has been approved by the Legislature. The bill also makes conforming changes to other statutes related to sports development program distributions and reporting requirements. (Taggart)

SB 778 (Hooper) and HB 675 (Plasencia) authorize the Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation “Visit Florida” to carry forward unexpended state appropriations into succeeding fiscal years. The bills also remove the previous set sunset date of October 1, 2023, for Visit Florida. (Taggart)

HB 285 (Chambliss) and SB 892 (Rodriguez) extend the date in which local governments are allowed to administer local incentive programs within the boundaries of an enterprise zone from December 31, 2020, to December 31, 2025. The bills also extend the date for contiguous multiphase projects from December 31, 2025, to December 31, 2030. (Taggart)

HB 585 (DiCeglie) and SB 378 (Bradley) – Payment for Construction Services

SB 998 (Brodeur) and HB 823 (Mariano) – Contractor Advising 

HB 1577 (McClain) and SB 488 (Perry) – Building Construction Standards

HB 6067 (Eskamani) – Repeal of Developer Incentive Requirements

CS/CS/CS/HB 53 (DiCeglie) and CS/CS/CS/SB 1076 (Brodeur) require local governments to utilize competitive bidding processes when contracting city, town or county public works projects. The bills define a public works project to be any activity that exceeds $300,000 in value and is paid for with state-appropriated funds. The requirements do not apply to any project 100% funded by local funds. The bills also block a local government from training employees in designated programs with a restricted curriculum or from a single source and local ordinances that require programs such as apprenticeships. CS/CS/CS/HB 53 was amended to remove the preemption on training requirements. Both bills were amended to increase the monetary threshold to $1 million. CS/CS/CS/SB 1076 was substituted for CS/CS/CS/HB 53. CS/CS/CS/HB 53 passed the House (78-36) and the Senate (79-34). (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 401 (Fetterhoff) and CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 (Brodeur) allow for substantially affected people to submit a petition to the Florida Building Commission for a nonbinding advisory opinion if a local government adopts a regulation or policy without following the process established in the Florida Building Code. The bills define a “substantially affected person” and the process for submitting the petition. The bills define the process for how the Commission must consider petitions, the length of time before the Commission must issue its nonbinding advisory opinion and where the opinion must be published. The bills allow for the Commission to make changes to the Florida Building Code to correct errors but only with a 75% vote of the Commission. A local government may not require a contract between a builder and an owner for the issuance of a building permit or as a requirement for the submission of a building permit application. CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 was substantially amended to allow private providers to perform in-person or virtual inspections and submit the completed inspection electronically. If an applicant chooses to use a private provider, the local government must reduce the permit fee by the amount of the cost savings to the local government for not having to perform the inspection. The bill was also amended to prohibit local governments from using preliminary maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for any law, ordinance, rule or other measure that has the effect of imposing land use changes. CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 was further amended to add the building design preemption language from CS/SB 284 (Perry); however, the amendment includes an exemption for cities with design review or architectural review boards. CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 was substituted for CS/CS/HB 401. CS/CS/HB 401 passed the House (118-0) and the Senate (38-1). (Taggart)

HB 1017 (Rayner) and SB 1648 (Powell) authorize local governments the ability to waive the fees associated with enforcing the Florida Building Code for development, construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing. (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 667 (Mooney) and CS/CS/CS/SB 1382 (Perry) require counties and local enforcement agencies that issue building permits to allow requests for inspections to be submitted electronically. The bills also authorize these agencies to perform inspections virtually at their discretion. CS/CS/CS/SB 1382 was substituted to CS/CS/HB 667. CS/CS/HB 667 passed the House (118-0) and the Senate (39-0). (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 55 (Overdorf) and CS/SB 284 (Perry) preempt local governments from adopting zoning and development regulations that require specific building design elements for single- and two-family dwellings unless certain conditions are met. The bills define the term “building design elements” to mean exterior color, type or style of exterior cladding; style or material of roof structures or porches; exterior nonstructural architectural ornamentation; location or architectural styling of windows or doors; and number, type and layout of rooms. The bills were amended to exempt historic districts, Community Redevelopment Agencies and planned unit developments created before July 1, 2021. CS/CS/HB 55 was further amended to exempt planned unit developments or master planned communities in perpetuity, as well as local governments with design review boards or architectural review boards established before July 1, 2021. CS/CS/HB 55 passed the House (89-24). This language was amended onto CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 (Brodeur). (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 1059 (Robinson) and CS/CS/SB 1788 (Boyd) require local government to post certain building permit information on their websites, including the status of each application. The bills also require the local government to reduce the permit fee by a specified amount every 10 days if they failed to issue a building permit for a single-family residential dwelling within the time frame already established by current law. The bills prohibit the local government from requiring an applicant to provide a copy of their contract with or between a contractor as a condition of the application for a building permit. CS/CS/SB 1788 was substituted to CS/CS/HB 1059. CS/CS/HB 1059 passed the House (113-0) and the Senate (38-0). (Taggart)

CS/CS/SB 694 (Rodrigues) requires a local government that “displaces” a private waste company to provide a three-year notice period to the company and pay the displaced company an amount equal to the company’s preceding 18 months’ gross receipts at the end of the notice period. The term “displacement” as used in the bill refers to circumstances in which a local government decides to move from a non-contracted or non-franchise system of waste services to either providing the waste service itself or by contracting or franchising with one or more private waste companies. The bill also defines “storm generated yard trash” and clarifies that private waste company providing regular residential solid waste service is not responsible for collecting certain storm-generated yard trash unless specified in a contract or agreement with a local government. In addition, the bill requires the Department of Environmental Protection to update its 2010 report on retail plastic bags and submit the updated report and recommendations to the Legislature by December 2021. (O'Hara)

CS/HB 859 (Grant) and CS/CS/SB 912 (Albritton) add development permits and development agreements authorized by state law, including those authorized under the Florida Local Government Agreement Act or issued by local government or other governmental agency, to the list of permits and authorizations that are tolled and extended during a state of emergency for a natural emergency. The bills would apply to any declaration of a state of emergency issued by the governor for a natural emergency dating back to March 1, 2020. CS/CS/SB 912 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. The bill is effective upon becoming law. (Cruz)

SB 208 (Brandes) and HB 775 (Omphroy) allows the owner of a business or a contracted third party to install, maintain and operate a renewable energy source device on or about the structure in which the business operates or on any property the business leases. The bill provides the business owner or third party may sell the electricity that is generated from the device to another business immediately adjacent to or within the same parcel as the business and such sales shall not be considered or regulated as retail sales of electricity. The bill provides that if the energy-producing business or its customers require additional related services from a utility, such as backup generation capacity or transmission services, the utility may recover the full cost of providing those services. The bill authorizes a utility to enter a contract with a business to install, maintain or operate any type of renewable energy source device on or about the structure from which the business operates and to sell the electricity to an adjacent business and the bill provides that such electricity sales shall not be considered or regulated as retail sales of electricity. The bill specifies that if the Public Service Commission determines that the level of reduction in electricity purchases by customers using renewable energy source devices is significant enough to adversely impact the rates that other customers pay in the rate territory, the Commission may approve a utility’s requests to recover its costs of providing the electricity needed by all customers, including customers using a renewable energy source device. The bill provides for methodology of such cost recovery, a process for customers to challenge the cost recovery and authorized rulemaking by the Commission. The bill may have a negative fiscal impact on municipal revenues, including potential impacts to municipal electric franchise revenues and municipal public service utility taxes. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 64 (Albritton) requires certain domestic wastewater utilities to submit a plan to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) by November 2021 for eliminating nonbeneficial surface water discharges (e.g., treated effluent, reclaimed water or reuse water) by January 2032. It requires DEP to approve such plans if a plan meets the following conditions: The plan will result in eliminating the surface water discharge, the plan will result in meeting statutory requirements relating to ocean outfalls, or the plan does not provide for the complete elimination of the surface water discharge but affirmatively demonstrates that specified conditions are present. The conditions are: The discharge is associated with an indirect potable reuse project, the discharge is a wet weather discharge in accordance with a permit, the discharge is into a stormwater system for subsequent withdrawal for irrigation purposes, the utility has a reuse system that achieves 90% reuse of reclaimed water, or the discharge provides direct ecological or public water supply benefits. A utility that fails to timely submit an approved plan may not discharge to surface waters after January 2028. Violations of the bill’s requirements are subject to administrative and civil penalties. The bill requires DEP to submit an annual report to the governor and Legislature detailing implementation status. The bill exempts the following domestic wastewater facilities from its requirements: facilities located in a fiscally constrained county, facilities located in a municipality that is entirely within a rural area of opportunity and facilities located in a municipality having less than $10,000 in total annual revenue. The bill authorizes DEP to establish a potable reuse technical advisory committee, provide that potable reuse projects are eligible for alternative water supply funding and provide that potable reuse projects are eligible for expedited permitting and priority state funding. In addition, the bill requires local governments to offer a 25% density or intensity bonus to developers if 75% of a development will have graywater systems installed or a 30% bonus if 100% of a development will have graywater systems installed. The bonus is in addition to any other bonus that may be in effect on July 1, 2021. (O'Hara)

HB 1409 (Byrd) and SB 1884 (Rodrigues) expand the scope of when an individual or organization may file suit against a municipality for violating the state preemption on firearms and ammunition to include any local policies that are written or unwritten. Current law awards the prevailing plaintiff attorney fees. The bills would consider the plaintiff the prevailing party even if the local government voluntarily changes their ordinance or policy, written or unwritten. HB 1409 was substituted for SB 1884. SB 1884 passed the Senate (24-16) and passed the House (78-39). (Taggart)

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 452 (Bracy) and HB 569 (Chambliss) require law enforcement agencies to require officers to wear body cameras and use vehicle dash cameras while on duty. The bills do not provide a funding source for law enforcement agencies to comply with the bill. (Taggart)