The League will continue the regular weekly Monday Morning Call-Ins at 9:00 a.m. ET through April 26. The call-in number is 888.585.9008 and the conference room number is: 301-563-714#. The next call is Monday, April 5.

The Florida League of Cities’ Legislative Policy Committee sign-up for 2021-2022 is now underway. The FLC Legislative Policy Committees set the legislative agenda for the League and Florida’s 411 municipalities.

If you would like to serve on a policy committee, be sure to sign-up by May 7 (members can only serve on one committee at a time). If you served on a policy committee this past year, you still need to sign-up again for our 2021-2022 committees. 

On Monday, CS/CS/HB 15 (Clemons) passed unanimously in the Commerce Committee. The bill requires out-of-state retailers and marketplace providers with no physical presence in Florida to collect Florida’s sales tax on sales of taxable items delivered to purchasers in Florida if the out-of-state retailer or marketplace provider makes a substantial number of sales in Florida. This bill is now available for House floor action. (Hughes)

CS/HB 403 (Giallombardo) was temporarily postponed on the House floor on Wednesday. The bill preempts local governments from regulating home-based businesses. The bill would allow a commercial business to open in a residential home and preempt commonsense local limitations such as hours of operation. The Senate companion, CS/SB 266 (Perry), is not currently on the Senate Rules Committee agenda for next week. (Cruz)

CS/CS/HB 55 (Overdorf) was temporarily postponed on the House floor on Wednesday. The bill prohibits local governments from adopting land development regulations that require specific building design elements for single- and two-family dwellings with certain exceptions. The Senate companion, CS/SB 284 (Perry), is not currently on the Senate Rules Committee agenda for next week. (Taggart)

On Wednesday, CS/CS/SB 750 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 337 (DiCeglie) both passed through their respective committees. The bills restrict what are allowable expenditures of impact fees revenue and cap by how much impact fees can be raised on yearly basis. Impact fees are collected by local governments to fund local infrastructure to meet the demands of population growth. The bills were amended to ease the restrictions on expenditure of impact fee revenues to allow for the purchase of fire department vehicles, emergency medical service vehicles, sheriff’s office vehicles, police department vehicles and the equipment necessary to outfit the vehicles for their official use. (Cruz)

On Thursday, CS/CS/SB 1954 (Rodrigues) was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee and passed unanimously. The bill establishes a $100 million grant program to help local governments with the costs of assessments, planning and projects to address flooding and sea-level rise. The grants require a 50% match, but the cost-share can be waived for fiscally constrained municipalities. CS/CS/SB 1954 and the House companion, CS/HB 7019 (Environment, Agriculture & Flooding Subcommittee, Busatta Cabrera), are ready for floor action. (O’Hara) 

CS/HB 263 (Maggard) requires certain wastewater utilities to implement plans for eliminating surface water discharges within a short time frame. Unlike the Senate companion, CS/SB 64 (Albritton), the House bill does not accommodate adverse impacts to local utility customers and technical or environmental feasibility. The League opposes CS/HB 263 without these accommodations. CS/HB 263 passed the Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously on Thursday and now heads to the State Affairs Committee. CS/SB 64 previously passed the Senate and is in House Messages. (O’Hara) 

CS/SB 102 (Burgess) and HB 1053 (Overdorf) authorize the attorney general to declare any pending or future civil action filed by five or more local governments a “matter of great governmental importance.” Upon making such a declaration, the bills authorize the attorney general to abate, dismiss or settle civil actions on behalf of the local governments, even without consent of the local governments. On Tuesday, CS/SB 102 squeaked out of the Senate Community Affairs Committee 5-4 and has two more committee stops. It was amended to require the attorney general to request the Legislature to declare by joint resolution whether a matter affecting governmental entities in 15 or more counties is a “matter of great governmental concern.” HB 1053 is awaiting initial action in the House Civil Justice & Property Rights Subcommittee. (O’Hara) 

This week, CS/SB 1876 (Albritton) and HB 421 (Tuck) both passed their second committee of reference. The bills amend the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act and the Florida Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution Act to provide procedures and remedies to landowners whose property is inordinately burdened by a local government regulation. (Cruz) 

On Tuesday, CS/SB 1924 (Diaz) was heard in the Military and Veterans Affairs, Space and Domestic Security Committee and passed 4-3. CS/SB 1924 restricts the ability of a local government to adopt a “significant emergency order” that deprives any person of a constitutional right, fundamental liberty, statutory right or property to address a purported emergency. This was the second of three committee stops in the Senate.

The House companion, CS/HB 945 (Rommel), passed its second committee of reference on a vote of 11-5. The bill provides that a significant emergency order automatically expires seven days after issuance unless it is extended by a majority vote of the governing body in seven-day increments for a total duration of 42 days. The vote to extend the emergency order may be conducted virtually, and the order must include specific information including the circumstances necessitating the remote voting and a finding of necessity to convene and vote virtually. (Dudley)

SB 1944 (Albritton) was heard in the Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday and passed 8-1. The bill gives very broad authority to the Public Service Commission to regulate and enforce rates, charges, terms and conditions in situations in which a pole owner is unable to reach an agreement with a party seeking pole attachments. This committee stop was the second of three in the Senate. (Hughes)

This week, CS/HB 1049 (Giallombardo) passed through the State Affairs Committee on a vote of 18-5. The bill will allow local law enforcement agencies to use drones to patrol crowds of 50-plus, gather evidence at a crime or traffic scene and assess damage after natural disasters. Its companion, CS/CS/SB 44 (Wright), has already passed the Senate floor. (Taggart)