October 2012 Monthly Report

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Speaker Weatherford Announces Budget Chair
House Speaker Will Weatherford announced last week that Rep. Seth McKeel from Polk County will chair the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. McKeel was previously Chair of the House State Affairs Committee. Senate President Don Gaetz has indicated that he will not announce any leadership positions until after the General Election.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES

2012 Florida Constitutional Amendments
There will be a total of 11 proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution on the ballot for the 2012 General Election. Please find below a brief summary of each proposed amendment.

Amendment 1 – Health Care Services
This amendment prohibits laws or rules that require individuals or employers to purchase health insurance. The federal Affordable Care Act has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court. This law contains a mandate to purchase health insurance under certain circumstances. Under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, a state law cannot nullify a federal law. Therefore, this amendment may be more symbolic than substantive in nature.

Amendment 2 – Veterans Disabled Due to Combat Injury; Homestead Property Tax Discount
There is currently a homestead exemption for veterans who lived in Florida at the time of enrollment in the military. This amendment would extend the exemption to all veterans age 65 and older who are disabled.
 
Amendment 3 – State Government Revenue Limitation
There is currently a revenue limitation on the state budget that is based on personal income growth. This amendment would replace that limitation with a new limitation based on inflation and population changes. State revenues collected in excess of the limitation would be placed in reserves.

Amendment 4 – Property Tax Limitations; Property Value Decline; Reduction for Nonhomestead Assessment Increases; Delay of Scheduled Repeal
This amendment allows the Legislature to prohibit assessment increases for properties with decreasing market values. This concept is currently known as “recapture.” It reduces the current cap on increases in taxable value for nonhomestead properties from 10% to 5%, and provides an additional homestead exemption for first time buyers.

Amendment 5 – State Courts
This amendment requires Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justices. Additionally, the Legislature may currently repeal court rules by a 2/3 majority. This amendment reduces that to a majority vote. It also directs the Judicial Qualifications Commission to make its files available to the Speaker of the House.

Amendment 6 – Prohibition on Public Funding of Abortions; Construction of Abortion Rights
Currently, Florida’s constitutional right to privacy is considered broader in scope than that contained in the United States Constitution. This amendment narrows the scope of Florida’s right to privacy so that it is the same as that found in the United States Constitution. The current broad right to privacy has prevented the Legislature from requiring parental consent for minors. Current Florida law requires parental notification only. This amendment further clarifies that public funding cannot be used to fund abortion services, which is already prohibited by state law.

Amendment 7
This amendment was removed from the ballot and reworded. It now appears as Amendment 8.

Amendment 8 – Religious Freedom
This amendment removes the current prohibition in Florida’s Constitution that prevents religious institutions from receiving taxpayer funding.

Amendment 9 – Homestead Property Tax Exemption for Surviving Military Spouse of Military Veteran or First Responder
This amendment authorizes the Legislature to provide a homestead exemption for the surviving spouse of military veterans or first responders that have died in the line of duty.

Amendment 10 – Tangible Personal Property Tax Exemption
This amendment doubles the current tangible personal property tax exemption from $25,000 to not less than $50,000 and allows local governments to further increase the exemption.

Amendment 11 – Additional Homestead Exemption; Low-Income Seniors Who Maintain Long-Term Residency on Property; Equal to Assessed Value
This amendment gives an additional homestead exemption to low-income seniors who have lived in their home for at least 25 years.

Amendment 12 – Appointment of Student Body President to Board of Governors of the State University System
This amendment changes the way the state selects the student representative on the state university system’s Board of Governors. Currently, the student representative is the Chair of the Florida Student Association. This amendment requires the Board of Governors to create a Council of State University Student Body Presidents. The Chair of this new organization would serve as the student representative on the Board of Governors. This change is being proposed because not all universities participate in the Florida Student Association.

For more information, please see the Division of Elections website here or the Collins Center for Public Policy website here.


OTHER ISSUES OF INTEREST TO FLASLA

DEP Rulemaking
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is undertaking an effort to reduce the amount of paper that is used and filed for permitting. As part of that effort, DEP is amending its rules to remove requirements to submit paper copies of applications and other materials so that electronic submittals will be allowed. Notices of Rule Development were published in the Florida Administrative Weekly on Sept. 21 and 28, 2012. The notices are located on the Department of State’s Florida Administrative Register (FAR) website. Rules published on Sept.21 include 62-343, 62-344 and 62-346. These rules can be found here . Rule 62-4 was published on Sept. 28. This rule can be found here. If you have any questions you may contact Hillary Powell at (850) 245-2248 or hillary.powell@dep.state.fl.us.

Agenda 21 Update
Reuters recently reported on the ongoing debate over Agenda 21, which has been brought to the forefront by various Tea Party groups in several states. You can link to the article here.

Florida Economic News
The Revenue Estimating Conference met in August to discuss the state budget. State economists indicated that Florida’s budget numbers seem to be improving. Tax collections are expected to grow by 4.3 percent next year and by five percent the following year. Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Index hit a five year high in September, jumping three points from August to 79. It has not been this high since October 2007. Economic indicators for Florida remain mixed – the unemployment rate has remained unchanged and the workforce declined slightly in the last month. However, the median sales price of single family homes is up and inflation remains low. Housing figures released in September by Florida Realtors indicate that home prices and sales both increased in August 2012 over August 2011.

The Office of Economic and Demographic Research released a report this week on monthly taxable sales which indicates that taxable sales increased by 6.6 percent statewide in July 2012 as compared to July 2011. Sales in the building category showed the most improvement with an 11 percent increase from July 2011 to July 2012. Taxable sales in the autos and accessories category were up by 10 percent.

The Workforce Estimating Conference forecast released in September estimates that Florida will regain the 800,000 jobs lost during the recession by 2020, and will add an additional 200,000 jobs. The unemployment is projected to be 6.5 percent by 2020.

2013 Session Dates
March 5, 2013 Regular Session convenes
March 5, 2013 12:00 noon, deadline for filing bills for introduction¹
May 3, 2013 60th day – last day of Regular Session

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¹ A deadline for filing bills for drafing will be set during the organizational session in November.  Additional committee weeks for January and February will also be announced going forward.