Becker’s State Lobbying Update: Week 2, March 10 – 14, 2025
Hot Topic
“Rural Renaissance”
SB 110 by Senator Simon is now ready to be heard on the Senate Floor. As highlighted in our Weekly spotlight for Week 1, this bill passed its final committee, Senate Fiscal Policy, on Thursday via a unanimous vote. As a top priority for Senate President Ben Albritton, this bill outlines a variety of programs and initiatives that will help support rural communities. Several provisions were added during the meeting on Thursday including an increase in funding for critical access hospitals by $6.5 million. Additionally, the bill amends the criteria for being designated as a fiscally constrained county, increases the minimum SHIP allocation from $350,000 to $1million for counties and eligible municipalities, and improves connectivity between rural agricultural areas and market distribution centers. The bill has been placed on the calendar for 2nd reading. Its House companion, HB 1427 by Reps. Griffitts and Abbott was referred to three committees and has yet to be considered.
Education
Nursing Education Programs
House Bill 919 by Representative Overdorf and Senate Bill 526 by Senator Harrell
HB 919 by Representative Overdorf was heard this week by the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee. The bill reforms nursing education programs approval processes and requirements in Florida. It requires Board of Nursing to deny applications if a program has faced adverse regulatory action in any U.S. jurisdiction and mandates revocation of approval for programs with adverse regulatory actions against them by another U.S. jurisdiction. The bill also revises application content including the inclusion of the nursing program director’s name and stricter faculty qualification requirements, outlines specific percentages for clinical training and simulation in curriculum, creates comprehensive evaluation and standardized admission criteria and establishes an exit examination for students, posting average results on the program’s website. Lastly the bill adds additional reporting requirements like exit examination results in annual reports, introduces mandatory remediation for programs with below-standard graduate passage rates, authorizes on-site evaluations by the Department of Health and considers denial of such inspections as legal violations, extends the rulemaking authority of the Board relating to the enforcement of accountability standards and enhances the role of the Florida Center for Nursing in evaluating program-specific data including exit examination outcomes and the impact of remediation. The bill passed the committee by a vote of 15-0 and now heads to the Careers and Workforce Subcommittee. Its Senate companion, SB 526, favorably passed its first committee, Senate Health Policy, and is headed to Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services.
Administrative Efficiency in Public Schools
Senate Bill 166 by Senator Simon
SB166 introduces several amendments focused on enhancing educational administration and policy frameworks, with specific provisions impacting school board operations, educational facilities, and instructional staffing. The bill streamlines administrative processes for school districts via assessments and accountability, it authorizes district school boards to determine personnel evaluation components and expands eligibility requirements for teacher apprenticeship program. The bill passed the Appropriations Committee on Pre-K Education on 3-11-25 by a vote of 9-0 and now heads to its final stop Fiscal Policy Committee. This bill does not have a House companion.
Middle School and High School Start Times
Senate Bill 296 by Senator Bradley and House Bill 261 by Representative Gerwig
SB 296 amends Florida’s regulations on middle and high school start times by eliminating specific mandated starting times while necessitating that district school boards factor in the health, safety, and academic benefits of later start times due to sleep deprivation impacts when setting these schedules. The bill removes the stipulation that middle school and high school days begin no earlier than 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively, by 2026 and requires school boards to inform the community about detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on students while considering the advantages of later school start times during policy formulation. The Senate Bill passed the Appropriations Committee on Pre-K Education by a vote of 8-1 and now heads to the Fiscal Policy Committee. Its House companion, HB 261, was referred to two committees and has yet to be considered.
Local Administration
Community Redevelopment Agencies
House Bill 991 by Representative Giallombardo and Senate Bill 1242 by Senator Mclain
HB 991 by Representative Giallombardo mandates the termination of existing community redevelopment agencies by September 30, 2045, without the allowance for extended existence previously possible through majority vote approvals and prohibits CRAs from initiating new projects or issuing new debt from October 1, 2025, defines a “new project” as one not budgeted or appropriated by the end of the fiscal year 2025, allows CRAs with unresolved bonds as of July 1, 2025, to continue operating until those bonds mature, but prohibits extending the maturity date of such bonds after September 30, 2045. The bill also requires that any ongoing community redevelopment activities be revised to focus solely on meeting bond obligations after the mandated termination date and prevents the establishment of new community redevelopment agencies from July 1, 2025, onward, while permitting existing agencies to continue operations within the constraints of revised statutory limits. The bill passed the State Affairs Committee along party lines with a vote of 17-8 and now heads to the Ways and Means Committee. Its Senate companion, SB 1242, favorably passed Senate Community Affairs along party lines with a vote of 4-3. It is headed to its next committee Judiciary.
Term Limits for Members of Boards of County Commissioners and District School Boards
Senate Bill 802 by Senator Ingoglia and House Bill 679 by Representative Salzman
SB 802 proposes constitutional amendments to introduce term limits for members of county commissions and district school boards by amending Section 1 of Article VIII and Section 4 of Article IX to restrict members of county commissions to serving a maximum of eight years, with terms commencing after November 3, 2026. It imposes a similar eight-year term limit on district school board members, with terms starting after November 8, 2022, and specifies that any service in terms starting before these dates does not count towards the eight-year limitation. The bill also maintains that the election process for county commissioners and school board members remains unchanged, requiring the electors of the respective county or school district to vote on these positions in nonpartisan elections and establishes that these amendments, if approved, would be presented for voter approval or rejection at the next general election or at a specially called earlier election. SB 802 was scheduled to be heard on March 10 but was not taken up by the committee. Its House companion, HB 679, was referred to three committees and has yet to be considered.
Assessment of Homestead Property
Senate Bill 176 by Senator DiCeglie and House Bill 1041 by Representative Berfield
SB 176 would prohibit the consideration of any change or improvement made to mitigate a homestead property’s susceptibility to flood damage in determining the property’s assessed value if the constitutional amendment in SJR 174 passes and is approved by 60% of the voters in the next election. The bill provides that the assessed value of damaged or destroyed homestead property may not increase if the size of the property after the repairs does not exceed 2,000 feet. The bill also provides that the assessed value of homestead property elevated to meet National Flood Insurance Program and Florida Building Code elevation requirements or to mitigate damage from a previous flood event may not increase if the size of the property after the elevation does not exceed 2,000 feet or 110 percent of its original size. The elevation of property unable to be used before damage or destruction must begin within 5 years. And the assessment limitation will not apply to the property if, after voluntary elevation, the property’s classification changes. The bill passed the Community Affairs Committee 7-0, and now heads to the Finance and Tax Committee. Its House companion, HB 1041, is scheduled to be discussed during the Office of EDR’s Revenue Estimating Impact Conference on Monday, March 17, 2025, at 1:30 pm.
Property and Local Business Taxes
The Legislature has presented several proposed bills in relation to property taxes and local business taxes for the 2025 Session. Proposed bills filed by Representative Chamberlain and Senator Ingoglia respectively seek to create tax exemptions for real property, increase homestead exemption in the state constitution from $25,000 to $75,000, revise property tax assessments for homestead properties, revises methods for assessing homestead property, and amends the method for calculating revenues from ad valorem taxes. The proposed bills have been filed and referred to committee however, they have yet to be considered.
The Local Business Taxes bill, HB 503, by Representative Botana aims to limit the amount of revenue a local government may receive from local business taxes under Chapter 205, F.S. The bill provides for rate reductions, refunds, and reporting requirements to implement the revenue limitation. The bill passed favorably in its first committee House Ways & Means along party lines with a vote of 14-5. It is now headed to House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee. Its Senate Companion, SB 1196, by Senator Truenow was referred to three committees and has yet to be considered.
