In the 2015 state legislative session, five bills passed both the house and senate that could have an impact in Hernando County. There were also some bills that didn’t pass which could have had negative financial impacts, which the county will continue to watch. Southern Strategy Group representatives, Ms. Laura Boehmer and Mr. Shawn Foster presented the Board of County Commissioners with information regarding these bills at the May 26, 2015 meeting.
SB1216 was an omnibus growth management bill. Within the bill, there was legislation for sinkhole damage mitigation. In the presentation made by the County’s lobbyists it was explained in the following way, “The bill expands the definition of blighted area to enable community redevelopment agencies to enter into voluntary contracts to mitigate property damaged by sinkholes.” Homeowners will be able to use the PACE program and outside pace agencies for sinkhole mitigation funding. This would be a low rate loan for mitigation purposes. Mitigation is not funded by florida taxpayers. Chairman Nicholson added that each county votes to allow the PACE program to serve the county. Commissioner Dukes requested that additional information be passed down as it came available. He said it sounds good upfront since many residents in Hernando County have been affected by sinkholes. Another part of this omnibus bill is the elimination of the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council. This council recently completed the economic impact study on the CEMEX mining expansion. The five counties served by the council will be incorporated into 3 existing councils. Hernando County will be joining the planning council in Tampa. Chairman Nicholson stated that he never felt it was appropriate to be included in the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council. Commissioner Holcomb who served on the WRPC informed the Board that one thing they were able to do was to make sure that Hernando County residents got their money returned since there was going to be at least a month where that council would not be functioning.
One bill that passed which Chairman Nicholson was not too pleased with is HB41 Hazardous Walking Conditions. This bill “authorizes the school superintendent to initiate a formal request for correction of a hazardous walking condition requiring state or local government agencies with jurisdiction over a road with a hazardous walking condition to correct the problem within a reasonable time frame.” A district school board may implement a safe driver toll free phone number for that purpose.
Chairman Nicholson was concerned with who would be paying for the corrections and where funding would be coming from.
Shawn Foster, stated that whoever owns the right of way would have to pay to correct the problem. So the county would have to pay in some circumstances. The money would come from general appropriations fund.
Chairman Nicholson asked, “So this is an unfunded mandate by the State?”
Mr. Foster replied, “Yes sir.”
House Bill 209 also passed. It is an Emergency Fire Rescue services and facilities surtax. This voluntary surtax would be voted in by the local government. The bill deletes the provision that requires local governments to enter into interlocal agreements with entities providing fire and rescue services in order to receive the surtax revenue.
Senate Bill 778 prohibits “any local laws that give preference to a local contractor in circumstances involving a competitive solicitation for construction service in which 50% or more of the cost will be paid from state appropriated funds.” The bill requires a “state college, county, municipality, school district, or other political subdivision to disclose in the solicitation document that a local preference is not in effect for that project if the prohibitions contained within the bill apply.” Commissioner Adkins stated that the county attorney’s office and purchasing have already been in contact and are working towards revising policies and procedures to accommodate the new law. County Attorney Garth Coller added that the definition of funds within this bill is very broad.
HB1151 Master Building Permits was sponsored by Representative Ingoglia. This bill requires “local governments, if requested, to create a master building permit program to assist builders who construct multiple, identical single family and townhome structures to expeditiously approve building permits.” Chairman Nicholson explained that this is a benefit in particular for a bigger contractor. The contractor may submit ten sets of identical plans. Once the first set gets approved the contractor can start building all ten houses. They don’t have to wait for the other nine house plans to go through the same steps. Nicholson stated, “I think that was a great idea.”
Among the bills that did not pass was HB 1414/HB5201: Juvenile Detention Costs.
This Bill would have shifted additional costs to counties by setting the cost share split at 57/43, and did not address the 200 million dollars the state overcharged counties around the state.
Hernando County was overcharged roughly $2.6 million. Shawn Foster explained that some counties are deducting what the state owes them from their payments to the state. This ended up causing the DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice) to have a deficit. They had to go back to the legislature to ask for money because they were not getting those payments.
Attorney Garth Coller stated, “Even DJJ admits they’ve made mistakes that ended up costing the taxpayers money, but Tallahassee just doesn’t want to fund it.” Several counties would like to at least see a 50/50 split, ideally 60/40 with the state paying 60. It is a positive for Hernando County that the 57/43 split did not pass. Shawn Foster stated, “The legislative aspect of this will come up during the next session.”
If passed, HB 391 and SB 896 for Utility Relocation, would have “prohibited local governments from requiring utilities to pay the costs of equipment relocation unless the utilities were in a right of way as opposed to the current requirement for utility relocations occurring “upon, over, under or along” a roadway.” This would have required local governments and not utilities to bear the cost of relocating a utility’s equipment. Shawn Foster expects this to come back in some form. Verizon, AT&T and others are fighting hard to get this through.