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School Vouchers, Teaching Muzzles, Diversity Bans, Looser Guns: 200 New Laws Take Effect Saturday

June 26, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

florida new laws 2023
Swamplandia. (© FlaglerLive)

More school vouchers. Expanded restrictions on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity. Limits on using TikTok. Carrying guns without concealed-weapons licenses. A larger Florida State Guard.

More than 200 laws passed during the 2023 legislative session, including a record $116.5 billion budget, will take effect Saturday.




Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed nearly 300 bills that the Republican-controlled Legislature passed during the session. About one-third went into effect immediately or will hit the books in October or January.

Here are some of the laws that will take effect Saturday:

— SB 2500, a $116.5 billion budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which will run from Saturday through June 30. DeSantis vetoed $510.9 million from the budget passed by lawmakers in May.

— HB 1, expanding taxpayer-funded vouchers to all Florida students and eliminating income-eligibility requirements.

— HB 3, prohibiting government investment strategies that consider “environmental, social and governance,” or ESG, standards.

— HB 5, eliminating Enterprise Florida, the state’s business-recruitment agency. Contracts and programs will be shifted to the Department of Economic Opportunity, which will be renamed the Department of Commerce.

— SB 102, making changes to try to expand affordable housing, including boosting funding for housing and rental programs, providing incentives for investment and encouraging mixed-use developments in struggling commercial areas.

— SB 106, designating $200 million to help link hiking and biking trails, which are part of the Shared-Use Nonmotorized Trail Network, to a statewide wildlife corridor.

— SB 214, preventing credit-card companies from tracking firearm and ammunition sales through a separate “merchant category code” at gun businesses.

— HB 225, allowing “opening remarks” of up to two minutes on public-address systems before high-school championship events. The change came amid a legal battle about whether a Christian school should have been able to offer a prayer over the loudspeaker before a championship football game.




— SB 240, offering tax breaks for businesses that employ apprentices or pre-apprentices.

— SB 262, placing restrictions on large online companies about collecting and using consumers’ personal data.

— SB 264, preventing, with some exceptions, property purchases in Florida by people from China who are not U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents.

— SB 266, prohibiting colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

— HB 379, prohibiting the use of the social-media platform TikTok on devices owned by school districts and through internet access provided by districts. TikTok has been controversial because of its Chinese ownership.

— HB 389, allowing school districts to provide free menstrual hygiene products in schools.

— HB 411, changing residency requirements for county school-board members. The bill will require board members to reside in the districts they represent by the date they take office, rather than at the time they qualify to run.

— HB 477, imposing eight-year term limits on school-board members, down from the current 12 years.

— SB 540, allowing “prevailing” parties to recover legal fees in challenges to local government comprehensive growth-management plan changes.

— HB 543, allowing Floridians to carry guns without concealed-weapons licenses.

— HB 637, barring automakers from offering direct-to-consumer or online sales if their vehicles are currently sold through dealerships in the state.

— SB 766, allowing school districts to use cameras designed to capture images of drivers who illegally pass school buses.

— SB 846, banning state colleges and universities and employees from accepting gifts from “foreign countries of concern” — China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.

— SB 902, placing additional safety requirements on amusement rides. The bill is named after 14-year-old Tyre Sampson, who was killed when he fell from a ride last year in Orlando.




— HB 931, prohibiting colleges and universities from using “political loyalty” tests in hiring, admissions or promotions.

— HB 1035, spelling out various rights of teachers, including a right to “control and discipline” students and to challenge certain directives from school districts they believe violate state law or State Board of Education rules.

— HB 1069, expanding to eighth grade a 2022 law that barred instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

— HB 1259, requiring school districts to share portions of local property-tax revenues with charter schools.

— HB 1285, expanding and making permanent the Florida State Guard, which DeSantis revived last year. The state guard will expand from 400 members to 1,500 members.

— HB 1305, requiring the Department of Transportation to conduct inspections of the Walt Disney World monorail system. The requirement comes amid a long-running feud between Disney and DeSantis.

— SB 1318, extending liability protections for aerospace companies if crew members are injured or killed in spaceflights.

— HB 1379, directing $100 million a year from real-estate taxes to the Florida Forever land-acquisition program and requiring a plan on how to improve water quality in the Indian River Lagoon watershed.

— HB 1521, imposing restrictions on which bathrooms transgender people can use at schools and public buildings. It will require people to use bathrooms that line up with their sex assigned at birth.

— SB 1580, establishing a right for health-care providers to opt out of providing services because of a “conscience-based objection” based on religious, moral or ethical beliefs.

— SB 1604, nullifying agreements reached by Disney and the former Reedy Creek Improvement District board. The Reedy Creek board has been replaced by a DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board.




— SB 1718, toughening penalties on people who bring undocumented immigrants into Florida, requiring hospitals to submit data about whether patients are in the country legally and providing $12 million for a program that allows Florida to transport migrants to other parts of the country.

— HB 7063, providing a wide range of tax breaks, including holding a series of sales-tax “holidays” and creating sales-tax exemptions on diapers. It also will reduce a commercial-lease tax starting in December.

— SB 7064, increasing penalties for adult-entertainment businesses that do not verify the ages and identities of workers. The bill is designed to help curb human trafficking.

–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laurel says

    June 26, 2023 at 2:47 pm

    This is what happens when pea brains try to rule.

    Actually, I trust the alligators in the picture more than I trust the current political cult in charge. Alligators make more sense.

  2. James says

    June 26, 2023 at 3:28 pm

    HB 543, allowing Floridians to carry guns without concealed-weapons licenses. This law prohibits guns in government buildings, why????? It should be in all businesses not just government buildings.
    Desantis is going to have more blood on his hands after july 1st when he turns florida into the wild wild southern state.
    This law was done in very poor judgement as to most of his other ones. He sure doesn’t seem to want to get elected since he isn’t in protecting the people he took and oath to.

  3. Pogo says

    June 27, 2023 at 7:15 am

    @Laurel

    100% 👍

    The owners of ron disaster
    https://desantiswatch.org/influence-watch/

    ibid
    https://desantiswatch.org/the-watchtower/

    We work hard and we deserve a Governor who works hard for us. But while Ron DeSantis collects his $141,000 taxpayer-funded salary and uses the state’s taxpayer-funded private jet to travel the country running for president, Floridians are the ones paying the price for his political ambitions. As we struggle during an affordability crisis, Ron DeSantis is using our tax dollars as a credit card to fund his campaign for president. It’s time the Governor showed up for his job, just like the rest of us.
    https://desantiswatch.org/issues/

  4. Shark says

    June 27, 2023 at 7:33 am

    Florida ranks 2nd in the nation for drive by shootings. Get ready to be number one !!!

  5. Deborah Coffey says

    June 27, 2023 at 8:41 am

    HB 3, prohibiting government investment strategies that consider “environmental, social and governance,” or ESG, standards.

    Looks like DeSantis will need to invest all government monies in Russia…and lose it again.

  6. DontsayRon says

    June 29, 2023 at 8:49 am

    lol and likely zero of these Republican rules help anyone other than their big donors.

  7. Anna Bystrik says

    June 30, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    We have the best Governor in the country here, in FL. I only disagree with him on one issue, I am pro-choice, but it must be guaranteed on federal level. On other issues he is correct, and that may be unfashionable for postmodern mentality, but reason and common sense are fashionable in FL. Haters in some comments, you are just envious , you wish you would have a governor like ours!

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