BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/HB 223 (Buchanan) and CS/SB 514 (Gruters) provide that a person receiving a homestead ad valorem tax exemption in Florida and simultaneously receiving a similar exemption in another state that requires permanent residency in that state is entitled to the Florida homestead exemption if that person or family unit can demonstrate that they did not apply for the exemption and that they have relinquished the exemption in the other state. The bills require forms to claim homestead exemption that are promulgated by the Department of Revenue to ask the taxpayer whether he or she receives an ad valorem tax exemption or tax credit in another state where permanent residency is required as a basis for the granting of that exemption. (Hughes)

HB 671 (Roth) provides for a special election to be held on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, to approve or reject HJR 369 (Roth) or a similar joint resolution if approved by three-fourths of the membership of each chamber of the Legislature. (Hughes)

CS/SB 148 (Brandes) and HB 371 (Roth) increase the timeframe, from two to three years, during which the accrued benefit from specified limitations on homestead property tax assessments may be transferred from a prior homestead to a new homestead. The bills also revise the timeframe during which an owner of homestead property significantly damaged or destroyed by a named tropical storm or hurricane must establish a new homestead to make a certain election and requires the passage of the amendment to the state Constitution proposed by SJR 146, HJR 369 or a similar joint resolution having substantially the same specific intent and purpose. (Hughes)

SJR  146 (Brandes) and HJR 369 (Roth) propose an amendment to the state constitution to increase the period from two to three years when accrued Save-Our-Homes benefits may be transferred from a prior homestead to a new homestead. These proposed amendments require 60% approval of the electorate for passage. (Hughes)

HB 141 (Bush) prohibits tax collectors from assessing or collecting certain charges on property tax bills from low-income seniors and schoolteachers at public schools who meet certain requirements. The bill also prohibits tax collectors from authorizing a debt collection entity to collect certain charges on property tax bills for those identified groups and prohibits tax collectors from selling tax certificates on certain properties if outstanding amounts due are only for delinquent payment of property tax. The bill requires the Department of Revenue to work with tax collectors to identify mechanisms, strategies and funding sources for helping certain populations pay for delinquent charges. (Hughes)

SB 1016 (Rouson) refines the term “infrastructure” for purposes of the Local Government Infrastructure Surtax to include authorized expenditures for certain affordable residential housing. (Hughes)

SB 930 (Gainer) and HB 769 (Trumbull) exempt from public records requirements certain financial and taxpayer personal identifying information held by a county or municipality in connection with the collection or administration of a local business tax. (Hughes)

SB 990 (Hutson) and HB 721 (Roth) allow the state's chief financial officer to designate credit unions as qualified public depositories after meeting certain criteria. (Hughes)

HB 7007 (Oversight, Transparency & Public Management Subcommittee) and SB 7004 (Finance and Tax) maintain the current public record exemption for taxpayer e-mail addresses held by tax collectors for certain tax notice purposes. (Hughes)

SB 126 (Gruters) and HB 159 (Clemons) require 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 which makes retail sales into this state from collecting and remitting any local option surtax. (Hughes)

SB 1512 (Diaz) and HB 7069 (State Affairs) repeal an existing reporting requirement that municipalities report certain budget and economic data to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research and replace it with a new reporting requirement. The bills require municipalities and counties to electronically submit to the Department of Financial Services all necessary information needed to facilitate the department preparing a local government report and interactive website that can be used to compare and rank local governments. Some of the information that may need to be submitted includes government spending per capita, government debt per capita, crime rates, school grades, median income and unemployment. The department will adopt, by rule, the method and format of the required reporting. Given the difference in the scope and breadth of the services provided by cities, ranking and comparing municipalities will generate data that may have no value and in fact could cause confusion among residents. (Hughes)

HB 1149 (DiCeglie) and SB 1702 (Diaz) amend multiple provisions related to local government financial transparency. The bills expand 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 bills impose 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 bills require 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 bills revise the local government reporting requirements for economic development incentives. They require 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)

HJR 477 (Rommel) proposes an amendment to the Florida Constitution requiring that any local tax or fee that is imposed, authorized or raised by a local jurisdiction, including municipalities, be approved by two-thirds of the membership of the jurisdiction. “Fee” is defined as any charge or payment required by ordinance or regulation. The proposed amendment requires any local tax or fee imposed or raised under this section to be contained in a separate resolution or ordinance. This proposed amendment would require 60 percent approval of the electorate for passage. (Hughes)

HB 701 (Fischer) and SB 1174 (Hutson) reform the communications services tax (CST) to clarify that certain streaming services are subject to the tax and create uniform rates. The bills reduce the local CST rate to 5% or less by January 1, 2021, and 4% or less by January 1, 2022. The bills also reduce the state CST rate from 4.92% to 4.9% and the noncharter county CST rate to 2% by January 1, 2022. The bills repeal the local option sales surtax conversion that is levied on communications services. The Revenue Estimating Conference has partially determined the fiscal impact of this bill. It is estimated to negatively impact local government revenues by $190 million each year. (Hughes)

SB 516 (Gruters) – Campaign Financing

HB 491 (Payne) – Disposition of Surplus Funds by Candidates

SB 1162 (Cruz) – Legislature

SB 1110 (Baxley) and HB 1325 (Aloupis)– Repeal of Public Campaign Financing Requirement

SB 1108 (Baxley) – Campaign Finance

SB 1312 (Montford) and HB 1005 (Byrd) – Voting Systems

HB 1305 (Thompson) and SB 1806 (Stewart) – Elections

SB 1354 (Brandes) – Statewide Voter Registration Application

SB 1816 (Powell) – Free and Fair Elections

HB 1159 (Hill) – Vote-by-Mail Ballots

SB 1820 (Rader) – Mail Ballot Elections

SB 1840 (Powell) – Election Security Measures

SB 1850 (Rodriguez) would require a state officer who abstains from voting due to a prohibited conflict to publicly disclose, prior to the vote being taken, the nature and manner of the conflict. The bill amends voting conflict disclosure requirements for local officers by requiring the disclosure of the time and manner in which the officer became aware of the conflict. (O’Hara)

HB 1417 (Polo) amends the conflicting and continuing conflict employment provisions of the state Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees. It provides that officers of a legislative body may not receive compensation for serving on a board, commission, committee, council or authority, other than his or her assigned legislative committee, as part of his or her employment or contractual relationship with an entity that is regulated by another agency (and not the legislative body). (O’Hara)

SB 1538 (Gruters) and CS/HB 1111 (Tomkow) establish various provisions to promote integrity in government and to prevent fraud, waste and abuse relating to the expenditure of public funds. The bills create the Florida Integrity Office and the position of Florida integrity officer within the Office of the Auditor General. The bills authorize the integrity officer to investigate complaints alleging waste, fraud, abuse, misconduct or gross mismanagement (as defined in the bills) in connection with the expenditure of public funds within and by state and local government. The bills authorize the integrity officer to refer a matter to the auditor general, the appropriate law enforcement agency, the Commission on Ethics, the chief financial officer, the Office of the Chief Inspector General or the appropriate agency inspector general. The bills direct the auditor general and the integrity officer to conduct random audits and inspections of appropriations projects appropriated in the prior year. The bills authorize the auditor general and the Florida integrity officer to investigate or audit the activities of any political subdivision, unit of local authority or local council or commission. The bills amend the definition for “abuse” and define “misconduct” relating to audits by the auditor general. The bills define “fraud,” “waste,” “abuse” and “misconduct” relating to duties of the chief inspector general and provide procedures for the Inspector General to report on activities by public officials or agencies to the Florida integrity officer. The bills impose personal liability for repayment of funds upon persons or officials responsible for determinations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement or misconduct in government. The bills authorize the chief financial officer to commence investigations based on complaints or referral from any source. The bills require reporting from agency inspectors general on savings or recovery of public funds resulting from reports under the state Whistleblower Act. The bills remove “gross mismanagement” from the definitions of mismanagement in the state Whistleblower Act and specify conditions for whistleblower awards. The bills require certain proposals that exceed $50,000 that are exempted from competitive procurement requirements to include a good faith estimate of gross profit for each year of the proposed contract and require the procuring agency to make a written determination that the estimated gross profit is not excessive prior to awarding the contract. The bills prohibit the use of state or local incentive funds to be paid to a state contractor or subcontractor for services provided or expenditures incurred pursuant to a state contract. (O’Hara)

HB 1113 (Beltran) and SB 1270 (Lee) create a new statute establishing standards for the fiduciary duty of care for appointed public officers and executive officers of specified governmental entities. “Appointed public official” is defined to include “state officers” as well as “local officers,” such as appointed members of the governing body of a municipality, a board authorized to enforce local code provisions, a board having the power to recommend, create or modify land planning or zoning (but not citizen advisory committees) and community redevelopment boards. “Executive officer” is defined as the chief executive officer of a governmental entity. 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, 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 require the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to approve a web-based training program or publish a list of approved training providers. 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 governmental entities with annual revenues of less than $300,000 may have governance training provided by in-house counsel of the governmental entity. Governmental entities whose annual revenues are less than $100,000 and appointed officials who hold elected office in another capacity are exempt from the training requirement. 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)

CS/HB 1185 (Brannon) and SB 1530 (Baxley) make changes to the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees (Code). The bills prohibit a governmental entity or person acting on its behalf, or an elected official, from authorizing the use of an elected official’s name, likeness or other symbol of office in a public service announcement during the elected official’s qualifying period prior to election or re-election, if such announcement is paid for with public funds or if the time or space for such announcement is donated by the media. The bills provide exceptions for certain charitable organizations, bona fide news events and publicly broadcasted debates. The bills modify the conflicting employment or contractual relationship prohibition in the Code to provide that a public officer or employee may not hold an employment or contractual relationship with an entity that is subject to the regulation of or is doing business with the officer or employee’s agency, rather than any agency. The bills clarify the continuing conflicts prohibition in the Code and require disclosure by an agency or solicited business entity if a public officer or employee solicits an employment or a contractual relationship that is prohibited by the Code and provide such disclosure may be investigated by the Commission on Ethics as if it was a complaint. The bills provide additional standards and disclosures for statewide elected officers, legislators, state officers and state agency employees regarding solicitation of employment while an officer or candidate for office and authorize the Commission to investigate a disclosure as if it was a complaint. The bills modify lobbyist registration and reporting requirements applicable to lobbying before the executive branch. (O’Hara)