(The Center Square) – After 104 days of sniping between the two chambers in Florida’s Republican majority Legislature, the session ended late Monday night with a vote on the state’s budget.
But before the two chambers took weeks to arrive at a $115.1 billion budget 3.2% less than last year’s, lawmakers passed sweeping agricultural and condominium reform legislation. They also approved increased speed limits on multi-lane state highways if second-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the transportation bill into law.
Agriculture
Senate Bill 700, sponsored by Sen. Keith Truenow, R-Tavares, will protect farmers from environmental, social, and governance-related bias from lenders, ban the addition of medicine such as fluoride from being added to the water supply, bolster the disaster recovery loan program for farmers and preventing the mislabeling of plant-based products as milk, meat, poultry or eggs.
The fluoride additive ban would not remove any chemical required for water purification.
DeSantis signed it into law on May 15 and it is going into effect on July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year.
Condominium reform
Both chambers passed a conference report on House Bill 913, a bill intended to help beleaguered condo owners deal with crippling structural repair assessments. HB191 is 191-page bill that addresses a lot of issues, including a prohibition of conflict of interests with community association managers and structural inspectors, along with requirements on milestone safety inspections for buildings with three habitable stories or greater (the previous law was three stories).
Communities would also be required under the legislation to have adequate property insurance for full insurable value as determined by an independent insurance appraisal or an update of a previous appraisal.
Condo associations would be required to propose a substitute budget that excludes any discretionary spending if the proposed budget exceeds 115% of the assessments of the previous year. This new budget would have to be presented to property owners before it could be adopted.
The measure would also remove “assessments for the betterment of the community” as part of that 115% cap and limit those added expenses to repairs required by structural integrity reserve studies.
The bill arrived on DeSantis’ desk on Wednesday and he has two weeks to sign it, allow it to become law without a signature or veto it.
Transportation bill
SB462 is the state’s transportation bill and it would authorize an increase in the speed limit on rural interstates and the Florida Turnpike from 70 mph to 75 mph.
For other divided highways, such as state and U.S. routes outside urban areas with four lanes, the increase would go from 65 mph to 70 mph. All other roadways under state Department of Transportation jurisdiction would increase from 60 to 65 miles per hour.
The bill was sent to DeSantis on Wednesday.
Boater Freedom Act
SB1388, known as the “Boater Freedom Act,” was signed into law on May 19 by DeSantis.
The law, effective July 1, will prohibit waterborne state and local law enforcement officers from performing a boarding of a boat without probable cause; allow the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to create a “Florida Freedom Boater” safety inspection decal program; and create a grant program for construction and maintenance of publicly owned parking for boat-hauling vehicles and trailers.
Weather modification
SB56 was sponsored by Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami. The bill prohibits “geoengineering and weather modification activities.” These could include any injection, release or dispersion of a chemical or a compound for the “express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.”
While critics assailed it as a “chemtrail bill,” DeSantis said on May 6 he intends to sign it into law. It arrived on his desk on Wednesday.
Chemtrails is an oft-debunked conspiracy theory that says contrails from aircraft at high altitudes are spraying potentially harmful chemicals on people below.
