First Week of the 2024 Legislative Session 

Welcome to week 1 of the 2024 legislative session! Tuesday kicked off the 60-day countdown clock until Sine Die. Bills will be moving and evolving every day—stay on top of county priorities with this weekly legislative bulletin, or with our comprehensive Bill Tracker.

Reminder: FAC Legislative Day is NEXT WEEK! 



Please join us on January 17th for FAC’s annual Legislative Day! FAC Legislative Day provides the perfect opportunity to meet with your local delegations, hear from state leaders at our Agency Showcase, and show legislators the importance of protecting home rule. 

For details on registration and the agenda, please see here. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Palm Beach County hosted their County Days in Tallahassee. Commissioners and staff mobilized to the Capitol to speak with delegation members and other legislators regarding the county’s priorities this session.  

On Tuesday, Sen. Calatayud presented the “Live Local” glitch fix bill, CS/SB 328. The bill passed favorably in Senate Community Affairs as a Committee Substitute with 8 Yays and 0 Nays. The next committee stop will be Senate Fiscal Policy. The bill incorporated some of the feedback we have seen following last year's Live Local Act, SB 102. These new fixes include:  

• Removes industrial property from being subject to the requirement for affordable housing. 
•  Clarifies that the current allowed height, density or floor area ratio does not include any development that meets the requirements of the Live Local Act or any bonuses, variances, or other special exceptions. 
• Modifies the height requirements: 
• Reduces the height requirement to within 1/4 mile (previously 1 mile). 
• Allows local governments to restrict the height to a maximum of 4 stories where adjacent properties are three stories or less,. 
• Development within 1/4 mile of a military installation may not be administratively approved. 
• Specifies that the height and density requirements do not apply to airport-impacted areas. 
• The development will become a nonconforming use should it no longer meet the affordability requirements. 

Along with fixes to the originally filed bill, the Committee Substitute added some additional changes, including: 

•  Requires that counties maintain on their website a policy which contains the procedures and expectations for administrative approval of developments under the Live Local Act. 
• For proposed multifamily development located in a transit-oriented development or area, a county must authorize such development only if the development is mixed-use residential and complies with the county’s regulations for transit-oriented development or area except for height, density, or floor area ratio as provided in the Live Local Act or otherwise agreed to by the county and the development applicant. 
• Revised the required reductions in parking requirements 
• Adds a new section 6, amending s. 420.507, F.S., authorizing the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) to preclude any applicant, sponsor, or affiliate of an applicant or sponsor from participation in any FHFC program as provided 420.518, F.S. 
• Amends s. 420.518, F.S., to provide that in addition to an applicant, a sponsor or an affiliate of an applicant or sponsor may be precluded from participating in a FHFC program, if: 
• Debarred from participating in a federal housing program by USHUD; and 
• Materially or repeatedly violated a condition imposed by the FHFC in connection with the administration of an FHFC program, including any land use restriction agreement, extended use agreement, or other financing or regulatory agreement with the FHFC. 

The House companion bill, HB 1239, by Rep. Lopez, has yet to be referenced to committee.

On Tuesday, the Senate Community Affairs Committee passed Sen. Martin’s SB 688. The bill provides that only the local government issuing the building permit may charge for transportation impacts on a development. The bill directs the permitting local government to collect and account for extra-jurisdictional impacts, but there is little clarity on how fees for these impacts would be determined or allocated. This presents challenges for county road systems that transcend municipal boundaries.  

The House companion to this bill is HB 479 by Rep. Robinson, which was also heard this week in House Local Administration, Federal Affairs, and Special District Subcommittee. HB 479 passed favorably however and moves onto its next committee, House Ways & Means and is scheduled to be heard Wednesday, January 17th at 10:30 AM. 

FAC staff Bob McKee, as well as Palm Beach County staff, testified in opposition to each of these bills. McKee highlighted the roughly 200 cities without mobility/impact fees, that would be required to collect them in counties that charge for transportation impacts. 

On Thursday, HB 433 by Rep. Esposito was reported favorably in the Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee. The bill prohibits local governments, through their purchasing or contracting procedures, from seeking to control or affect the wages or employment benefits provided by its vendors, contractors, or service providers. The bill also preempts the regulation of labor and employment to the state. A local government may not adopt or enforce any terms of employment exceeding the state or federal standards unless expressly authorized by general law. FAC staff interpret this section to also apply to internal county policies concerning their own employees. 

This bill also preempts the regulation of workplace heat exposure requirements to the state. This includes employee monitoring and protection, water consumption, cooling measures, acclimatization and recovery periods or practices, and posting or distributing notices or materials relating to heat exposure, which inform employees how to protect themselves from such exposures. While the Committee allowed no public testimony, Bob McKee testified to the committee that FAC is opposed to this legislation. The Senate companion, SB 1492 by Sen. Trumbull, has not yet been heard. 

On Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee proposed and passed three committee bills, formerly numbered WMC-1, WMC-2, and WMC-3. Going forward, these bills will be referred to as HJR 7015 , HJR 7017 and HB 7019. The first two bills are joint resolutions proposing constitutional amendments that, if passed by the voters, would restructure the current exemption system for homestead property. The third would implement the two constitutional amendments in statute, as necessary.  

HJR 7015 (formerly known as WMC-1) proposes a constitutional amendment that would increase the second homestead exemption to exempt the taxable value between $50,000 and $100,000 (currently it exempts the taxable value between $50,000 and $75,000), changing the maximum exemption amount from $25,000 to $50,000.  

HJR 7017 (formerly referred to as WMC-2) seeks to annually adjust the second homestead exemption for inflation by indexing it to the Consumer Price Index. Specifically, the value of the exemption will be updated each January 1st based on the percentage change reported by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This annual increase in the exemption would apply to either the existing $25,000 increased exemption, or the increase exemption proposed in HJR 7017, if adopted. 

FAC Staff Bob McKee raised concerns to the committee on this series of legislation. He specifically highlighted how these increased exemptions would not reduce the property tax burden but rather shift it to non-homestead property owners. This would have significant financial implications for businesses and renters. The impact of increasing the exemption to the amount between $50,00 and $100,000 in value has an estimated impact of $1.2 billion, placing a substantial burden on various groups within the community. The impact of indexing the second exemption to inflation has an estimate of $140 million if it passed alone. If both amendments passed, the estimate is $1.44 billion. 

These PCBs all reported favorably with 16 yay votes and 8 nays. 

On Thursday, CS/HB 569 – Suits Against the Government by Rep. McFarland passed the House Civil Justice subcommittee. This bill represents the latest attempt to raise the sovereign immunity caps against government entities. Specifically, the bill doubles the current caps, increasing from $200,000 to $400,000 per individual claimant, and $300,000 to $600,000 per incident. FAC opposed the bill in committee. The committee vote was 17-1; Rep. Maney voted against the bill. 



The Senate companion, SB 472 by Sen. Brodeur, has not been heard.  

Both chambers heard bills concerning the Florida Retirement System (FRS) this week. On Tuesday, Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability approved the annual retirement package, SB 7024. The bill revises the employer contribution rates paid into FRS, to fund both the normal cost and unfunded liability of the system. The bill did not propose any increased benefits. Tables of the revised rates, as well as fiscal impacts and additional analysis, can be found in the staff analysis here.  

Meanwhile, the House Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law, and Government Operations subcommittee considered another FRS reform, HB 151 by Rep. Busatta-Cabrera. The bill restores the annual 3% cost-of-living adjustment for FRS retirees. A fiscal impact estimate has not yet been conducted for FY2024-25; however, this adjustment, if implemented last year, would have resulted in an estimated $863 million impact to counties for the current fiscal year.  

Sen. Hooper’s companion, SB 242, has not been heard.  

On Monday, January 8th, SB 712 Public Records Exemption for County and City Attorneys by Sen. Powell was reported favorably in the Community Affairs Committee. This bill provides a public records exemption for the personal identifying and location information of current and former county attorneys, assistant county attorneys, deputy county attorneys, city attorneys, assistant city attorneys, deputy city attorneys, and the spouses and children of such. This bill's next committee stop will be in Senate Rules.  

On Tuesday, CS/SB 568 by Sen. Hooper was reported favorably in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. The bill requires health insurers and health maintenance organizations (HMO’s) to provide coverage for out-of-network ground ambulance services. 

Specifically, insurers must reimburse out-of-network ambulance service providers for emergency ambulance services at the lowest of the following: 

• The contracted rate at which an insurer would reimburse a participating or in-network provider 
• The lesser of either the provider’s billed charges or 350% of the Medicare rate for the same service 
• The prescribed fee schedule payment is considered full payments for emergency ground ambulance services  



These billing reforms seek to reduce “balance billing” practices by providers.  

The House companion, HB 639 by Rep. Yeager, has not yet been heard.  

On Thursday, a committee substitute for Sen. Simon’s SB 196– Regional Rural Development Grants Program passed its second committee, Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development.  

Removes local match requirements within the Regional Rural Development Grant program. Current law requires a 25% non-state match by the recipient regional economic development organization. The bill also removes several eligibility requirements including:

• Demonstration of need by the applicant 
• Proof by each respective unit of local government of financial or in-kind commitment to the regional organization 
• Demonstration of private-sector involvement within the regional organization 



The House companion, HB 141 by Rep. Abbott has not yet been heard.