The Florida Legislature began its 60-day 2023 Legislative Session on March 7 with a State of the State address by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and speeches by Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo outlining their goals. Aside from their stated intention to move quickly forward with gun control, abortion, transgender and other issues, the Legislature is expected to move quickly on issues of importance to the business community. See below for an update on the issues your Chamber is following closely.
Republican Florida House Speaker Paul Renner has made House Bill 837 a priority in the new legislative session. The legislation is backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. If passed, the bill would change how civil claims and lawsuits are handled – also known as Tort Reform. The bills deal with major issues such as personal injury and insurance claims. It revises how payouts are calculated and determined and would shorten the timeframe for an injured person to file a claim. On March 7, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure and sent it to the House floor. According to Florida Chamber President Mark Wilson “Florida’s bottom-five legal climate stifles the state’s competitiveness in an otherwise business-friendly environment and negatively impacts Floridians, who on average are paying $5,065 per family, through increased costs on everything from groceries to gas to insurance costs. This game-changing reform package will go a long way in addressing the lawsuit abuse plaguing Florida families and local businesses.”
If approved, this legislation will reset the stage for runaway attorney’s fees and payouts and remove many incentives for filing civil lawsuits against Florida businesses.
The major effort by Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo to overhaul the State’s affordable housing laws is rapidly moving through the legislature. SB 102 by Senator Alexis Calatayud passed the Senate 40-0 on Day 2 of the legislative session. The House companion, HB 627 by Demi Busatta Cabrera, received its first committee hearing and passed 18-3. This Florida Chamber-supported legislation builds on existing programs and creates new opportunities while tackling Florida’s housing affordability crisis from multiple angles, including incentivizing the free market, providing additional financing, and removing regulatory roadblocks.
Affordable Essential Worker Housing is in critically short supply in St. Johns County where the median sales price for a single-family home is a staggering $510,000. Providing incentives to builders and developers to create more affordable housing benefits large and small employers who are increasingly finding it difficult to recruit workers to St. Johns County.
Governor DeSantis’ proposed budget for 2023-2024 includes $100 million for Visit Florida’s tourism marketing efforts. In recent years, the State’s Tourism Promotion Agency has suffered uncertain and underfunded budgets at the hand of legislators who questioned its continued relevancy. Governor DeSantis recognized the value of Visit Florida’s efforts to market small and medium size markets in Florida such as St. Augustine and St. Johns County. After the devastating hurricanes that hit St. Johns County in 2016/2017 and more recently in 2021/2022, Visit Florida stepped in with targeted marketing assistance to backstop our tourism sector.
The tourism sector contributes billions of dollars to our local economy, with over $20 million in bed tax revenue alone, and employs many thousands of workers. It is the single largest employer in St. Johns County and Visit Florida helps keep it strong.
The list of items includes targeted sales tax holidays for items ranging from school and hurricane supplies to diapers, personal hygiene products, paper towels, and wipes.
These are items that St. Johns County retail businesses sell day in and day out and the extra savings during these “tax holidays” encourages additional sales and increases profit as the retailers know when to order additional quantities of the tax-free goods.
Stay tuned throughout the Legislative Session for regular updates and a call to action when your input directly to our legislators is needed.
For additional information on these or other legislative issues affecting your business, contact Bob Porter, the SJC Chamber’s VP of Public Policy bob.porter@sjcchamber.com
