A circus is not always a bad thing, I enjoyed them growing up. I like the 3 rings of activity and never having to focus on the same thing for too long. Yes, week 3 of the 2019 Legislative Session was a three ring circus.
No less than 30 industry related bills were considered, 14 of which were actively lobbied by FHBA. We focused on no issue for too long. Amongst the issues we lobbied heavily was SB 1246, Construction Defects,by Wright. And thanks to all of you who were asked to contact your legislator, SB 1246 was temporarily postponed. However, it’s backon today’s Judiciary Agenda. We continue to voice our opposition to the approach taken in this bill (scraping the right-to-cure process for mandatory, non-binding arbitration).
Below are some of the other key issues FHBA engaged in on your behalf and the result from last week’s activities.
- Impact Fee Bill: SB 144 by Gruters was approved by the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee;
- Excess Permit Fees: HB 715 by Robinson was approved by the Business and Professions Sub-Committee;
- Alternative Graduation Pathway for CTE: SB 770 by Hutson was approved by the Senate Education Committee;
- Wetlands Mitigation: SB 532 by Lee was approved by the Appropriations Sub-committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government;
- Water Quality: SB 1758 by Mayfield was amended and passed by the Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The amendment still included language prohibiting new construction permits if the local government failed to implement the water quality provisions of the bill. We continue to lobby against any possible permit moratorium.
- Growth Management: SB 1730 was approved by the Senate Committee on Community Affairs and the House Commerce Committee approved the introduction of a committee bill. These bills attempt to limit the failed experiment of inclusionary zoning and provide certainty with respect to action on development permits and orders.
- Open Permits: HB 447 by Diamond was amended to provide noticeto both the Homeowner and Contractor at least 30 days prior to a permit’s expiration. The Business and Professions Subcommittee approved the amended bill;
- Deregulation: HB 27 by Ingoglia was amended and approved by the Business and Professional Regulations Sub-committee. The amendment provided that an applicant’s license from another state must be active or within 2 years of being active and it specifically allows the CILB to consider if the applicant has been the subject of any disciplinary proceedings; and
- Permit Fee Transparency: HB 127 by Williamson was approved by the House. Its companion, SB 142 by Perry was rolled to 3rdreading in the Senate. This bill requires local governments to post its permit fees and utilization reports online. Included with the posting is a breakout of the costs to enforce the building code. If all goes to plan, HB 127 will be on the way to Governor DeSantis by week’s end.
These are just the major issues we engaged on last week. In addition to all that fun, both the House and Senate began the process of adopting the budget. The Senate is fulling funding Sadowski while the house is funding on 40%, with all the funding headed to the area ravished by Hurricane Michael. Sadwoski funding will once again be a budget conference issue.
Stay tuned for more updates from FHBA. Click here to review our tracking chart and please stay tuned for any action alerts that may come your way!