The Florida Legislature is poised to pass a significant constitutional measure that will protect the citizen’s initiative process from being abused by single-issue donors. As you know, the Florida Constitution is one of the key reasons that Florida continues to spend within its means, protect the environment, and foster an excellent climate to live, work, and play. Unfortunately, the Florida Constitution is easily amended, and the modern citizen’s initiative process is almost completely captured by special interests. Many contemporary amendments were proposed and funded by a single wealthy individual – creating a worrying trend where one billionaire can buy their way onto a ballot through a process that was designed to be used by a ground swelling of broad support from the citizenry. SB 1890 would cap donations to constitutional amendments in a similar way to candidates, ensuring that the citizen’s initiative process reflects the will of the citizens plural, rather than just one individual. This measure, which was strongly opposed by many special interest groups, is an important defense of the structure of our state government and protects the constitutional rights of Floridians from deletion at the ballot box. Because of the leadership of Representative Bobby Payne and Ray Senator Rodrigues, SB 1890 is now on 3rd reading in the House and ready for final passage.

The House passed HB 969 earlier this week, 118-1, sending their Data Privacy legislation to the Senate for their consideration. HB 969, by Representative Fiona McFarland, applies to businesses that sell, share or collect data and satisfies two of the following: global annual gross revenue in excess of $50 million, annually buys, receives, sells or shares personal info of 50,000 or more consumers, households or devices or derives 50 percent of its global revenue from selling or sharing personal info. The bill provides enforcement through a private right of action, which has been a major concern of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The Senate companion, SB 1734, previously contained a private right of action but that provision was removed in its last committee hearing. These bills are a priority of the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President and the Florida Chamber will be continuing to try to narrow the scope of these bills and ensure that businesses are not going to be subject to a flood of litigation.

This week, the Florida Legislature passed pro-autonomous vehicle legislation, a priority of the Florida Chamber and Autonomous Florida. The Senate Rules Committee passed SB 1630 by Senator Jeff Brandes relating to autonomous vehicles while its companion, HB 1289 by Representative Fiona McFarland, passed the House by 113-0. These measures will bring more regulatory certainty to low-speed autonomous vehicles and delivery devices. But more significantly, these bills show that the Florida Legislature will respond quickly to new transportation technologies in a way that encourages more deployments and development. Autonomous Florida and the members of the Florida Chamber thank Senator Brandes and Representative McFarland for their efforts, and we look forward to seeing this important bill pass the Senate in the last week of Session. For questions about these measures or for more information about Autonomous Florida, please email Christopher Emmanuel at [email protected].

The potentiality of a gambling-focused special session was confirmed around the lunch hour on Friday with the news that an agreement on a new gambling compact between the State and Seminole Tribe had been reached. The Compact would, among other things, legalize sports betting in Florida. Speaker Sprowls paused debate to confirm that the Governor had signed the Compact that morning and that it would not be considered for ratification by the legislature during the regular session but would be the subject of Special Session the week of May 17.

A trio of gaming related bills have also been filed in the House and Senate that change how pari-mutuel permit holders are able to do business in Florida. 2 of the 3 bills each deal with the creation and regulation of a new “Florida Gaming Commission” that will oversee the enforcement of gaming laws, while the other bill deals with decoupling live racing or jai alai with table games. With the passage of Amendment 13 in 2018, some decoupling has already occurred in Florida as dog tracks ended live racing. HB 7055 and SB 7080 continue that evolution by removing provisions of current law that require live racing in order to offer other authorized forms of gambling. With the constitutionally mandated 60-day legislative session slated to end next Friday, Senate President Simpson said that the final passage of any gaming related bills will wait until the aforementioned Special Session.