The Legislature approved 14 new exemptions to Florida’s Sunshine law and renewed eight, also approving a crackdown on social media companies while criminalizing certain protest activities.
Florida Legislature
This Year Floridians Get 3 Tax ‘Holidays’–for Hurricane Preparedness, Culture and Recreation, and School
The disaster-preparedness tax holiday will run from May 28 through June 6, the recreation-tax holiday runs for a week starting July 1, and the back-to-school holiday runs for 10 days in August.
DeSantis Signs Into Law Florida’s Largest Shift of Public Dollars to Private or Parochial Schools
The bill increases an income threshold to 375 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning a family of four making nearly $100,000 a year could qualify for vouchers. Also, it strips away current restrictions, such as a requirement of previous enrollment in public schools before students can receive vouchers.
Charlie Crist Launches Bid to Reclaim Governorship
More than a decade after walking away from the governor’s office, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist launched a campaign Tuesday to try to unseat Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022.
From Vacation Rentals to Bright Futures Eligibility, THC Caps and School Board Term Limits: Bills That Died
From abortion restrictions to vacation rentals, many high-profile bills died Friday when the Florida legislative session ended. Here are 10 issues that did not make it through the Legislature.
Asked to Boost Jobless Benefits for Everyday Floridians, Lawmakers in the House and DeSantis Say No
Legislation that would have boosted the top unemployment benefits by $100 per week in Florida has died because the state House declined to take up a bipartisan Senate bill to that effect on the final day of the annual legislative session.
Protests, Twitter, Covid, Elections, LGBTQ: Ten Big Issues from the 2021 Florida Legislative Session
Controversial issues from the banning of transgender girls in sports to restrictive voting and protesting laws to bills on education, taxes, covid, insurance and other issues defined the 2021 legislative session just ended. Here’s a recap.
George Floyd-Inspired Bill Requiring Use-of-Force Training for Police, Termed a ‘Good Start,’ Clears Legislature
The measure seeks to address aspects of policing that came under scrutiny after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin nearly a year ago. Chauvin, who was captured on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck, was found guilty by a jury last week of murdering Floyd.
Measure Banning Transgender Girls From High School and College Teams Heads for DeSantis Signature
Under the measure on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis, female students’ eligibility for sports teams would be based on their “biological sex” on birth certificates issued “at or near the time of the student’s birth.”
Sharp Acceleration of Shifting Tax Dollars to Private Schools Clears Senate and Heads for DeSantis Signature
The proposal also would increase the maximum income eligibility to receive vouchers to 375 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning a family of four making nearly $100,000 a year would qualify.
Bill Clears Way for Guns on School Campuses Co-Located With Churches and Other Religious Institutions
Schools co-located with churches, synagogues and other religious institutions may soon see firearms on school campuses – despite the gun-free school laws Florida created in 2018.
Florida Senate Passes DeSantis-Priority Bill That Would Force Political Candidates’ Speech on Social Media Platforms
The bill, in part, would bar social-media companies from removing political candidates from the companies’ platforms. Companies that violate the prohibition could face fines of $100,000 a day for statewide candidates and $10,000 a day for other candidates.
Would Daily Moment of Silence Help Florida Students with Stress or Just Steal More Instruction Time?
The Florida Senate passed legislation that would require every first-period teacher to set aside one to two minutes for a moment of silence. That would be every school day, meaning roughly 180 days in the academic year.
Sticking to Stinginess, Florida House Rejects Raising Unemployment Benefits Or Extending Eligibility
At a maximum of $275, Florida has the stingiest unemployment benefit system in the nation. It as the third-lowest weekly unemployment benefit behind Mississippi ($235), Arizona ($240), and is tied with Tennessee and Alabama. But all four of those states extend benefits for up to 26 weeks, while Florida does so just for 12.
Bill Criminalizing Or Increasing Penalties for Certain Protest Activities Heads to Gov. DeSantis
The sweeping proposal, titled “Combating Public Disorder,” would create a new crime of “mob intimidation,” enhance penalties for riot-related looting and violence and create an affirmative defense for individuals who injure or kill violent protesters.
Florida House Backs Allowing Tourism Tax Money to be Spent on Flooding and Sea Rise Projects
The Florida House on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow counties to spend so-called “bed” tax money on efforts to combat flooding, despite concerns from the tourism industry that the change would reduce marketing dollars.
Anti-Trans Bill Clears Florida House, Barring Transgender Girls from High School and College Sports Teams
The Republican-dominated Florida House on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban transgender females from playing on girls’ and women’s high-school and college sports teams, with Democrats arguing the measure is purely political.
Bill Cracking Down on Protests Heads for Senate Floor Amid Outcries Over Free Speech and Discrimination
With critics warning that the bill would chill free speech and have a disparately negative impact on Black people, a key Senate committee Friday approved a controversial measure that Republicans argue is needed to crack down on violent protests.
Despite Covid and Housing Crisis, Florida Lawmakers Approve Gutting Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Lawmakers have approved a permanent, massive reduction of money earmarked for the state’s affordable housing fund. Those dollars come from documentary stamp revenues. The legislation is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk for his signature.
Florida House and Senate Move Closer on Vast Expansion of Tax Dollars for Private Schools
Senate and House proposals to revamp Florida’s school-voucher programs are closer to aligning after the House Appropriations Committee approved the House version with changes Thursday.
Bill Ending Bright Futures’ Guaranteed Funding Clears Florida Senate, Upending Scholarship Program
The bill would change a system that now provides scholarships to students at either 75 percent or 100 percent of the cost of tuition and fees by making funding dependent on appropriations in the annual state budget, which eliminates guaranteed funding for students.
Florida House Set to Approve Online Sales Tax on Out-of-State Retailers That Would Raise $1 Billion
The money would initially be used to replenish the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, which became depleted during the Covid pandemic. After the fund is replenished, the revenue would be used to make a major cut in a tax on commercial rent.
Ban on Transgender Girls in Sports, Requiring Genital Proof in Disputes, Heads for Florida House Vote
The proposal would make participation in athletics contingent on determining a student’s “biological sex,” including the requirement, in disputes, of proof of a student’s birth genitalia as certified by “a health examination and consent form.”
Measure Forcing Colleges and Universities to Survey Students’ Ideological Viewpoints Set to Pass
The proposal also would prevent colleges and universities from “shielding” students, faculty and staff from any kind of speech. Opponents have argued the provision would allow groups like the Ku Klux Klan to come to campuses.
Affordable Housing Under Attack: Flagler Realtors Join Opposition to Decimation of Housing Trust Fund
Flagler County Realtors are joining forces with state counterparts to oppose a proposal that would gut the amount of money the state will spend on affordable housing, by limiting Sadowski trust fund expenditures to that end to 33 percent of the fund’s total.
Florida House Targets School Board Salaries, But Senate Does Not
A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at eliminating salaries for county school board members was approved by a House panel Thursday, with opponents warning it could make boards less diverse. But without a companion bill making it through the Senate, the matter may be moot again this year.
Florida Lawmakers Want Their Home Addresses and Phone Numbers Kept Secret
The House and Senate are advancing proposals that would create a public-records exemption for information about lawmakers, including their home addresses and phone numbers, but opponents question how the measures would interact with a requirement that lawmakers live in their districts.
Palm Coast Student Elliott Bertrand Accuses Senate Panel of ‘Prejudice’ Before 6-4 Vote on Transgender Sports Ban
The Florida Senate Health Policy Committee today approved a bill that would scrap existing policy and ban transgender women from participating in competitive high school and college sports absent testosterone testing that might clear them to play. Elliott Bertrand, a student at Flagler Palm Coast High School, was among the many opponents of the bill who addressed the panel in Tallahassee.
Among Stingiest in the Nation for Years, Florida’s Unemployment Benefits Could Rise $100 a Week
The proposal (SB 1906), which cleared the Commerce and Tourism Committee, would lead to a range of unemployment benefits of $100 to $375 a week. That would be up from the current range of $32 to $275 a week.
In Florida, Companies Will Be Shielded from Covid Lawsuits, Leaving Frontline Workers to Fend for Themselves
Opponents of the bill heading for Gov. DeSantis’s signature warn it will protect corporations more than people and offers no protections for front-line workers who contracted the virus while on the job. Employees are required to use the workers’ compensation insurance system for on-the-job injuries, but claims often are getting denied.
Florida House Passes Controversial Bill Criminalizing Or Increasing Penalties for Some Acts at Protests
The sweeping bill would, among other things, create a new crime of “mob intimidation” and stiffen penalties for injuring police officers during protests that become violent. Also, it would establish an “affirmative defense” for defendants in civil lawsuits involving deaths, injuries or property damage if the injuries or damages were sustained while plaintiffs were participating “in furtherance of a riot.”
Hutson-Sponsored Bill to Regulate Vaping Clears House Panel, Without Ban on Flavored Products
More than two years after the U.S. surgeon general declared youth vaping an epidemic, Florida lawmakers again are working on an effort to regulate the sale of electronic cigarettes and raise the age to use tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21.
Senators Drop Plan to Dock Students’ Bright Futures Awards If They Don’t Seek Profitable Degrees, But Anxiety Remains
A huge outcry included a student-led opposition campaign causing most controversial parts of the bill to be eliminated. Opponents are now focusing criticism on whether the measure will jeopardize future funding for the program.
House Committee Postpones Debating Vacation Rental Bill That Would Have Stripped Local Authority
Flagler County has kept preservation of regulatory authority among its legislative priorities year after year, as the vacation rental industry has–year after year–attempted to scrap the 2014 law and “pre-empt” local control to the state.
Florida GOP Pushing Ahead With Sweeping Election Changes Restricting Mail Voting and Supervisors’ Role
In a party-line vote Monday, the House Public Integrity & Elections Committee signed off on a measure that would give supervisors of elections less leeway when comparing signatures on mail-in ballots, require voters to request mail-in ballots for each general election and make it harder to submit other people’s ballots at drop boxes.
Gov. DeSantis Could Use a Civics Lesson on the Florida Constitution
Even as they push a $106 million proposal to improve civics education, our legislators and our governor persist in violating the Constitution by supporting legislation authorizing programs to send nearly $1 billion to private, religious schools in our state.
Ex-Sen. Frank Artiles Criminally Charged in Election Fraud Scheme to Prop Up Sham Candidate
The Miami-Dade County state attorney has charged former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles with election fraud for allegedly propping up a sham candidate in a razor-thin Senate contest in which an incumbent Democrat was ousted by a Republican challenger in November.
The Fabricated Fear of Transgender Athletes in High School Sports
Randall Bertrand, who led last year’s campaign to add “gender identity” to the Flagler school board’s protections against discrimination, lays out a case against the Legislature’s baseless fear-mongering over transgender participation in high school sports.
Florida House Backs Abolishing Constitutional Revision Commission
With the full Senate poised to take up the issue, a plan that would abolish an influential panel that can place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot began moving forward Wednesday in the House.
Overriding Florida High School Athletic Association, House Backs Banning Transgender Female Athletes
Critics of measures targeting transgender student athletes argue the proposals are rooted in fear, misunderstanding and politics as a Florida House panel on Wednesday approved a controversial proposal that would ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s high-school and college sports.
Anthony Sabatini, ‘Worst Person in the Florida Legislature,’ Launches Bid for Congress on a Lie
The man the Orlando Sentinel once called “the worst person in the Florida Legislature” (and remember, y’all, there’s hell of a lot of competition) kicked off his bid by lying, assuring incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster that he would not run against him, then filing the paperwork to run against him.
Lawmakers Still Aim to Penalize Bright Futures Recipients for Not Taking ‘Approved’ Majors
Under the amendment filed by Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, Bright Futures scholarships would be “reduced” for students who don’t choose an academic discipline deemed promising for job prospects.
Should School Board Members Be Paid $35,000 a Year? Voters May Decide in 2022.
After debating whether county school board members should be paid, and if ending salaries would threaten diversity on the boards, a House panel took a first step toward letting voters decide the issue in 2022.
In a Victory for Flagler Government, Key Local Vacation Rental Regulations May Survive Yet Again
A Florida Senate panel today in a surprise shift voted to preserve local regulatory authority of short-term vacation rentals. If that version of the bill survives and overrides a different House bill, as appears likely, then local regulations will remain in place unscathed, surviving attempts to scrap that local authority for the seventh straight year.
Florida Lawmakers Pushing School-Zone Traffic Cameras
Pointing to a need to better protect children, South Florida lawmakers Tuesday sought to build support for House and Senate proposals (HB 357 and SB 1474) that would allow local governments to install school-zone traffic cameras.
In Debate Over Curbing Covid Lawsuits, Lawmaker’s ‘Christian, Not an Attorney’ ‘Joke’ Rankles Senators
State Sen. Jeff Brandes said he was just joking when he said he was a “Christian, not an attorney,” but at least three senators have described Brandes’ remarks as offensive.
Vast Voucher Expansion Would Include Homeschooled and Private-School Students, at Taxpayers’ Expense
The plan would allow students who have never been enrolled in public schools to participate in the tax-supported program. The expansion would include students who attend private or religious school or are homeschooled.
Setting Privacy Rights Aside, Florida Senate Considers Allowing Police Drones Over Crowds of 50 or More
With some lawmakers expressing concerns about privacy rights, the Florida Senate could be poised to consider allowing law-enforcement agencies to use aerial drones to help with traffic management, collecting crime-scene evidence and eyeing large crowds.
Divided Party Line Vote Pushes Florida House Bill Cracking Down on Violent Protests
Critics maintain that the proposals would have a chilling effect on participation in peaceful protests, violate free-speech rights and allow people who plow vehicles into crowded protests to avoid civil penalties if they injure or kill someone.
A Tax Break for Residents of Flood-Prone Areas? Florida House Floats Sea Rise Proposals
Floridians would be asked to approve a tax break for people who elevate their homes to avoid the threat of flooding, while up to $100 million a year would be set aside to help local governments combat rising sea levels, under proposals announced Friday by House Speaker Chris Sprowls.