BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 452 (Rodriguez) and HB 943 (Daley) require the Department of Transportation, with the Office of Energy within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Florida Clean Cities Coalitions, to develop a master plan for installing electric vehicle charging stations on the state highway system. (Branch)

SB 478 (Perry) and HB 377 (Latvala) require peer-to-peer (P2P) car-sharing service sites to impose a $2 per day surcharge upon lease or rental motor vehicle through the P2P car-sharing program, which is similar to the requirements of a traditional car rental company. (Branch)

SB 1230 (Brandes) and HB 1219 (Toledo) create the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Grant Program to provide financial assistance to municipalities and other entities for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The bills authorize the Department of Transportation to develop and publish criteria for the grant application. SB 1230 is linked to SB 1346 and HB 1219 is linked to HB 1221 (see above) which provides for the allocation of funds from a licensing tax and additional fees on electric and hybrid vehicles. The proceeds from these fees will increase available revenues for the State Transportation Trust Fund. (Branch)

SB 1346 (Brandes) and HB 1221 (Slosberg) create additional fees and a licensing tax for electric and hybrid vehicles. The proceeds from these additional fees and taxes will be deposited equally into the State Transportation Trust Fund and the newly created Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Grant Program. If passed, this legislation will sunset on July 1, 2030. (Branch)

SB 308 (Baxley) and HB 455 (McClain) provide criminal penalties for a person who commits a moving violation that causes serious bodily injury to or causes the death of a vulnerable road user. Of interest to cities, current law defines “vulnerable road user” to include a person engaged in work on a highway such as a utility service worker. (Branch)

SB 1192 (Gruters) and HB 6061 (Roach) repeal the excise tax imposed on aviation fuel, aviation gasoline and kerosene sold or brought into the state. Under current law, the monies from this tax are deposited into the State Transportation Trust Fund to fund various program areas. Repealing the excise tax on aviation fuel will reduce the money going to the STTF. This reduction in revenues will negatively affect the ability of cities to adequately maintain and improve critical infrastructure needed to meet the ever-changing transportation demands. Additionally, repealing the aviation fuel tax will impact the Aviation Grant Program. This grant money, which local governments can apply for, is used to fund projects relating to airport planning, capital improvement, land acquisition and economic development. (Branch)

SB 1000 (Perry) and HB 1371 (Fine) require that crosswalks located at any place other than an intersection of a public street, highway or road be controlled by pedestrian and traffic signals that meet requirements of the Florida Department of Transportation Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. (Branch)

SB 450 (Brandes) – Whistleblower's Act 2020

HB 255 (Antone) and SB 726 (Rouson) – Florida Commission on Human Relations

HB 1169 (McClure) and SB 1102 (Gruters) allow any person not required under current law to be certified or registered to perform specialty contracting services if they work under the supervision of a person who is certified or registered. Contractors that are currently required to be certified or registered include sheet metal contractors, roofing contractors, class A air-conditioning contractors, class C air conditioning contractors and mechanical contractors. The specialty contracting services specified include the construction, remodeling, repair or improvement of commercial or residential swimming pools, hot tubs or spas, or interactive water features. (Cruz)

HB 1193 (Ingoglia) designates the Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act. This comprehensive 127-page bill removes regulations on certain professions currently overseen by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. These professions include hair braiders, hair and body wrappers, boxing timekeepers and announcers. The bill revises current general licensing provisions to require that a department or board of specified professions and occupations enter into a reciprocal licensing agreement with other states if the practice permits such agreements. The bill also requires that boards or departments post online which jurisdictions have similar licensing agreements or licenses or examinations. (Cruz)

HB 1155 (Hage) and SB 1614 (Perry) create a process by which any legislation that proposes to regulate a profession not currently regulated by the state must adhere to in order to become law. The process requires the legislation to be the least restrictive alternative consistent with the public interest and must consider the impact of the proposed regulation on small businesses, private-sector job creation and additional costs for individuals. (Cruz)

HB 535 (Santiago) and SB 1072 (Wright) exempt special district hospital districts from contributing to a redevelopment trust fund of a community redevelopment agency 

if the community redevelopment agency extends the time certain for completing redevelopment financing on or after July 1, 2016. (Cruz)

SB 1574 (Baxley) prohibits local or regional governmental entities from entering into contingency fee contracts with a private attorney or law firm to receive an aggregate contingency fee more than a specified amount when handling a lawsuit on behalf of the government entity. The bill establishes the rates that a private attorney or law firm may receive up to 5% recovery over $25 million and up to 25% recovery over $10 million. The aggregate contingency fee is capped at $20 million, not including reasonable costs and expenses. (Cruz)

SB 890 (Perry) and HB 1161 (Plakon) provide that an individual with a valid active local license may work in any local government jurisdiction without having to obtain additional local licensing, take additional examinations or pay additional local licensing fees. The bills explicitly state that this multijurisdictional approval does not impede a local government's ability to collect business taxes from businesses operating within the local government's boundaries. Local governments' disciplinary jurisdiction for licenses within their jurisdictions is also retained. The bills detail the process for a local government to execute its disciplinary jurisdiction. (Cruz)

HB 3 (Grant, M.) and SB 1336 (Perry) expressly preempt the licensing of occupations to the state. The bill defines occupation to include a paid job, work, trade, employment or profession and defines licensing to include any training, education, test, certification, registration, procedure or license that are required for a person to perform an occupation. The bills provide limited exceptions for specified local licenses and any local government licensing of occupations that was expressly authorized by general law. The bills will prohibit a local government from requiring a person to obtain a license for a job scope that does not substantially correspond to the job scope of certain contractor categories set forth in Chapter 489, Florida Statutes. In addition, the bills will authorize local governments to issue journeyman licenses in specified trades. The bills are effective July 1, 2020. According to SB 1336, existing local regulations on businesses will sunset in July 2022. (Cruz)

SB 1302 (Flores) designates the "Florida Fair Claims Act." The bill amends current law regarding tort liability claims against the state and local government entities. It increases the cap for the total that the state and local governments may pay regarding the same incident from $300,000 to $1 million. The bill outlines in what instance the state and local governments are liable to pay for compensatory damages and specifies that an insurance policy may not condition the payment of benefits on the enactment of claims bills. (Cruz)

HB 6075 (Eskamani) and SB 1848 (Albritton) delete certain provisions that limit the authority of municipalities and counties to regulate communications service providers in publicly owned rights of way. The bills also repeal the Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Deployment Act that relates primarily to the installation of small wireless facilities in public rights of way. (Hughes)

HB 969 (Drake) and SB 1166 (Albritton) designate the Department of Economic Opportunity as lead state agency to facilitate expansion of broadband internet service. The bills require DEO to work collaboratively with certain entities including local governments. The bills create the Florida Office of Broadband within DEO for the purpose of developing, marketing and promoting broadband internet services in this state. (Hughes)

HB 1309 (Ausley) and SB 1776 (Montford) require the Department of Management Services to develop geographic information system maps in collaboration with internet service providers. These maps must identify geographic areas and locations in the state where broadband-capable networks exist and broadband internet service is available to end users and the download and upload data transmission speeds available in each geographic area. The bills require DMS to annually update the maps and establish a mechanism to receive and verify public input related to broadband internet service. DMS must also monitor, participate in and provide input in proceedings of the Federal Communications Commission related to broadband service. (Hughes)

SB 1128 (Diaz) and HB 1011 (Fischer) are bills filed relating to vacation rentals, also known as short-term rentals (STRs). The bills:

• 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.

• further clarify that local regulations cannot prohibit ALL rentals (not just STRs), impose occupancy limits on rental properties or require inspections or licensing of rentals (specific to STRs). (Cook)