BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

HB 1239 (Tomkow) and SB 1592 (Burgess) exempt from sales and use tax certain equipment purchased, leased or sold by providers of communications services or internet access services. 

The bills require municipal electric utilities to provide broadband providers access to and use of municipal electric utility poles. The municipal electric utility must adopt rates, terms and conditions for such access that are consistent with the provisions of 47 U.S. Code s. 224 and any Federal Communications Commission regulations and decisions. The rates, terms and conditions must be nondiscriminatory, just and reasonable and may not favor a pole owner or an affiliate of the pole owner. The municipal electric utility must maintain and make available to a broadband provider all records, including specified information, necessary to calculate the rate it charges to the provider. The bill requires the municipal electric utility to rearrange, expand, replace or otherwise reengineer any utility pole upon the request of a broadband provider, and the utility may require a reimbursement only of actual cost. The municipal electric utility must complete pole replacements and any work needed to accommodate the broadband provider’s attachment within 90 days after receiving a complete attachment request. A municipal electric utility or broadband provider may submit a written request to negotiate any agreement or amendment to an existing agreement addressing attachments by the broadband provider to conform any agreements. (Hughes)

CS/HB 753 (Clemons) creates the Florida Broadband Opportunity Program within the Office of Broadband within the Department of Economic Opportunity to award grants to applicants who seek to expand broadband internet service to unserved areas of the state. The bill reallocates 50% of the revenues currently allocated to the M-CORES (Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance) program to the Office for purposes of administering the grant program. The bill authorizes certain entities, such as political subdivisions, to apply for grants that are to be used for the installation and deployment of infrastructure that supports broadband internet service. The bill only allows the Office to award grants to governmental entities if no broadband internet service providers are deployed in that area. The bill provides application requirements, the criteria for evaluating applications and that the grant award combined with other government funding may not fund more than 50% of the project’s total costs. Additionally, the bill authorizes existing broadband Internet providers to challenge grant applications if service is already provided or is planned in the area at issue. (Hughes)

CS/SB 2004 (Burgess) requires the Florida Office of Broadband’s strategic plan to include short-term and long-term goals for increasing the availability of and access to broadband internet service in this state. The bill requires the updated plan to be submitted to the governor, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the Legislature by June 30, 2022, and updated biennially. The bill as amended appropriates $1.4 million in nonrecurring funds for fiscal year 2021-2022 for the purpose of commissioning a broadband feasibility study. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 522 (Diaz) and CS/HB 219 (Fischer) change current law relating to vacation rentals, also known as short-term rentals (STRs). The bills would:

•Clarify the definition of an advertising platform to capture online marketplaces.

•Preempt to the state the regulation of advertising platforms.

•Allow a “grandfathered” city to amend its short-term rental regulations if the amendment makes the regulation less restrictive.

•Require the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to maintain vacation rental property license information in an accessible electronic format.

•Require advertising platforms to verify a property’s license number prior to publishing its advertisement on its platform and every quarter thereafter.

•Require advertising platforms to quarterly provide the department with the physical

address of the vacation rental properties that advertise on their platforms.

•Impose a duty on advertising platforms to collect and remit taxes in relation to the

rental of a vacation rental property through its platform.

•Establish requirements that advertising platforms adopt an anti-discrimination

policy and inform their users of the public lodging discrimination prohibition found in current law.

•Clarify that the provision of the bill shall not supersede any current or future community association-governing document. 

•Require sexual predators to notify local law enforcement if they will be staying for 24 hours or more in a short-term rental.

Preemption provisions included in CS/HB 219 only:

•Preempt to the state the regulation of STRs, including licensure and inspections.

•Undo any local registration, inspection or licensing requirements specific to STRs adopted since 2014.

•Require that any ordinances (noise, parking, trash, etc.), must be applied uniformly to all residential properties, regardless of how the property is being used.

CS/CS/SB 522 was significantly amended to remove the majority of the preemptions in the bill that still remain in the House version of the bill. SB 522 also specifies that advertising platforms must comply with any applicable merchant business tax receipts on short-term rentals. (Taggart)

HB 1481 (Goff-Marcil) and SB 1988 (Pizzo) prohibit local governments from prohibiting the siting of vacation rentals from their entire jurisdiction. The bills restore authority to local governments to adopt and apply zoning and land development regulations to vacation rentals. The bills maintain the June 1, 2011, grandfather date on local ordinances adopted prior to then and specify that those ordinances can be amended without penalty. The bills improve the state licensing process by requiring applicants to do the following:

•Provide proof of inspection and compliance with local building, zoning and fire safety codes reflecting a change in use from a single-family or multi-family residence to a transient public lodging establishment.

•Provide proof that the underlying homeowner’s insurance policy allows the home to be used as a vacation rental.

•Provide a signed affidavit from the chief executive of the municipality confirming the operation of a vacation rental is allowed at that address. 

•Provide proof that the commercial mortgage is not in conflict with any prohibitions related to commercial activity in single or multi-family residential zones. (Taggart)

HB 25 (Daley), HB 27 (Daley), SB 1170 (Book) and SB 1172 (Book) – Sales of Ammunition “Jamie’s Law”

SB 144 (Brandes) – Searches of Cellular Phones and Other Electronic Devices

HB 167 (Hunschofsky) and SB 428 (Polsky) – Sale, Transfer or Storage of Firearms

SB 174 (Cruz) – School Safety Funding

SB 206 (Pizzo) and HB 527 (Benjamin) – Visiting County and Municipal Detention Facilities

HB 49 (Daley) and SB 218 (Pizzo) – Public Records Exemption for Animal Cruelty Reports

HB 291 (Hinson), HB 293 (Hinson), HB 1361 (Benjamin), HB 1363 (Benjamin), SB 664 (Farmer), SB 666 (Farmer) and SB 668 (Farmer) – Recreational Marijuana Bills

HB 1597 (Omphroy), HB 1599 (Omphroy), SB 1916 (Bracy) and SB 1918 (Bracy) – Legalization of Recreational Marijuana 

SB 294 (Farmer) – Safe Storage of Loaded Firearms

SB 330 (Farmer) – Sale and Delivery of Firearms

HB 343 (Smith, C) and SB 710 (Brandes) – Availability of Marijuana for Adult Use

SB 360 (Hooper) and HB 415 (Botana) – Fire Prevention and Control

HB 371 (Brannan) and SB 1234 (Boyd) – False Reports of Crimes

SB 388 (Wright) and HB 697 (Killebrew) – Injured Police Canines

SB 454 (Bracy) – Law Enforcement Agency Data Reporting

SB 458 (Bracy) and HB 513 (McCurdy) – Use of Force by Law Enforcement Officers

SB 460 (Bracy) – Early Intervention Systems for Law Enforcement Officers

SB 462 (Bracy) – Law Enforcement Officer Use of Force Deaths

SB 480 (Bracy) and HB 277 (Thompson) – Statewide Police Misconduct Registry

SB 560 (Farmer) – Repeal of Prohibition on Firearm Recordkeeping

SB 562 (Thurston), SB 564 (Thurston) and HB 593 (Nixon) and HB 595 (Nixon) – Medical Marijuana Retail Facilities

SB 730 (Bracy) – Strangulation by a Law Enforcement Officer

SB 740 (Bracy) – Administration of Justice

SB 808 (Gibson) and HB 875 (Driskell) – Intelligence-led Policing

SB 836 (Jones) and HB 455 (Harding) – Gun Violence Reduction

SB 868 (Powell) and HB 521 (Benjamin) – No-knock Warrants

SB 890 (Hooper) – Law Enforcement Use of Electronic Databases

SB 1148 (Rouson) and HB 1573 (DuBose) – Use of Force by Law Enforcement Officers 

SB 1198 (Thurston) and HB 1441 (Joseph) – Duty of Law Enforcement Officers to Render Medical Assistance

HB 1451 (Driskell) – Community Safety and Criminal Justice

HB 1513 (Duran) and SB 1970 (Pizzo) – Law Enforcement and Correctional Officer Accreditation and Standards

HB 1529 (Joseph) and SB 1990 (Powell) – Law Enforcement Officer Certification Revocation and Accountability

HB 1531 (Hardy) – Local Law Enforcement Agencies

SB 1818 (Burgess) – Law Enforcement Officer Training

HB 6001 (Sabatini) – Licenses to Carry Concealed Weapons or Firearms

HB 6083 (Sabatini) – Removing Firearm Regulations

CS/HB 133 (Harding) and SB 122 (Baxley) authorize a hospital, emergency medical services station or a fire station that is staffed 24 hours per day to utilize a newborn safety device to accept surrendered newborn infants if the device meets certain requirements. The bills also extend the allowable age of relinquishment from 7 days to 30 days old. (Taggart)

CS/SB 498 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 259 (Williamson) authorize an individual who is a licensed concealed weapons or firearms holder to carry their weapon or firearm on property of a church, synagogue or any other religious institution unless specifically prohibited by the religious institution. (Taggart)

SB 672 (Taddeo) and HB 6033 (Daley) repeal the current statutory preemption prohibiting cities and counties from regulating firearms and ammunition. (Taggart)

HB 587 (Snyder) and SB 1902 (Rodrigues) revise requirements for minimum radio signal strength for fire department communications; require the state fire marshal to adopt minimum radio coverage design criteria for public safety emergency communications systems and minimum standards for interior radio coverage and signal strength in buildings; require a local jurisdiction's public safety emergency communications system be certified as meeting or exceeding certain criteria before new and existing buildings are required to install or to be assessed for two-way radio communications enhancement systems; require local jurisdictions to produce radio coverage heatmaps and prohibit local jurisdictions from withholding certificates of occupancy under certain circumstances. (Taggart)

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. (Taggart)

SB 464 (Bracy) requires the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission to establish and maintain standards for instruction of officers in implicit bias and de-escalation of conflict to minimize violence. The training would be required for all officers to obtain initial certification. (Taggart)

HB 505 (McCurdy) and SB 992 (Powell) provide additional criminal history screening standards for law enforcement or correction officer applicants. The bills require applicants to pass psychological screening and provide names of prior law enforcement agency employers. (Taggart)

HB 879 (Hunschofsky) and CS/SB 1192 (Powell) require the Department of Law Enforcement to establish a continued employment training component relating to mental illness. The component may count toward a law enforcement officer's hours requirement for annual training. (Taggart)

HB 577 (Omphroy) requires law enforcement agencies to maintain a database tracking excessive use of force incidents. The bill provides for suspension of funding for local law enforcement agencies that fail to comply with data collection and reporting requirements. The bill also requires each law enforcement agency to annually review and revise its use of force policy and require each of its officers to attend a training class that reviews the policy. Also included in the bill is an annual reporting requirement to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and direction for the Department to maintain the reports in a publicly accessible format. (Taggart)

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)

HB 197 (Gregory) adds service as a law enforcement officer as grounds for increased criminal penalties for certain criminal offenses that occur due to a prejudice because of their service as a law enforcement officer. The bill also authorizes agencies to include crisis intervention training in the course curriculum for initial certification training. (Taggart)

HB 187 (McCurdy) and SB 878 (Thurston) prohibit law enforcement agencies from purchasing certain surplus military equipment. The bills also prohibit law enforcement agencies from using tear gas and kinetic impact munitions on an assembly or protest unless the gathering has been declared unlawful. (Taggart)

HB 647 (Davis) and SB 942 (Gibson) require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to adopt rules establishing minimum requirements for policies of law enforcement agencies relating to demilitarization, use of force, intelligence-led policing, officer qualifications and canine units. The bills also require FDLE to create a model document for law enforcement agencies relating to several law enforcement procedures. (Taggart)

SB 438 (Bracy) requires law enforcement agencies to have a written policy regarding the investigation of officer-involved deaths. The bill also requires law enforcement agencies to use at least two investigators who are not employed by the agency. Traffic-related, officer-involved deaths would be required to be investigated by a crash reconstruction unit not employed by the agency. Reports by the investigators must be provided to the state attorney in the judicial circuit where the officer-involved death occurred. (Taggart)