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This week marked the halfway point of the 60-day legislative session and was an abbreviated week with lawmakers returning home to their districts for Passover and Easter. The two-day respite will be brief and legislators are expected to continue the final sprint to the scheduled May 5th close of session on Monday. Below is the weekly rundown of what happened in Tallahassee. House and Senate Pass Budgets, Setting Table for Negotiations The House and Senate spent time on the floor this week to pass their proposed Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budgets. $700 million apart- $113 billion (House) and $113.7 billion (Senate) respectively- the budget is the one constitutionally required bill the Florida Legislature must pass each year. The legislature will use the remaining time in session to negotiate the budget through what is called conference committees before session’s scheduled conclusion on May 5. One area of the budget that the Florida Chamber is closely monitoring is the economic development silo. The House, consistent with legislation that has been filed in their chamber, eliminates funding for VISIT FLORIDA and Enterprise Florida. The Senate proposes funding Enterprise Florida at $12 million and VISIT FLORIDA at $80 million. For the Job Growth Grant Fund, a program that funds transportation and workforce development projects, the House proposes $25 million in funding and the Senate has proposed $75 million. Both Chambers fund Space Florida at $12.5 million, but only the House includes an additional $6 million for the Space Florida Infrastructure Fund. Finally, the House and Senate are over $3 billion apart in funding the 5-year Florida Department of Transportation Work Program. For the Moving Florida Forward Plan, the Governor’s proposal to accelerate 20 congestion relief projects, the House and Senate both allocate $2 billion in the back of the budget with the Senate indicating its intention to provide a second payment of $2 billion next year to fully fund the plan. The Governor had initially requested $4 billion, which would be leveraged into $7 billion in total funding. Sweeping Insurer Accountability Legislation Filed ?This week, SB 7052 was filed and passed as a proposed committee bill by the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee with the stated goal of holding bad actors in the insurance industry accountable. Unfortunately, and as the Florida Chamber shared in committee, the bill as drafted paints a much broader stroke encompassing several lines of insurance and opens the door for billboard trial attorneys to continue to abuse our civil justice system. Earlier this session the legislature passed and Governor Ron DeSantis signed monumental lawsuit abuse reform legislation backed by the Florida Chamber, HB 837, to improve Florida’s bottom-five legal climate. One key component of HB 837 was bad faith reform, a legal tool used by the plaintiffs’ bar to collect damages beyond what is insured for. Unfortunately, SB 7052 contains provisions that would unravel some of the good work done in HB 837 and could open the door to more bad faith claims and additional litigation. Other provisions of the bill are also a deterrent in making Florida an attractive place to do business for additional insurance carriers. The House filed a bill late Thursday (PCB COM4) that does not include the concerning provisions of the Senate bill, and both bills will have additional committee hearings in the coming weeks. The Florida Chamber is already actively engaged in ensuring that the scope of the Senate bill is narrowed to truly go after any bad actors in the insurance industry and does not undo the good work of HB 837 or create unintended consequences for the insurance industry as a whole. More FL Chamber News & Views- SB 196 by Senator Shevrin Jones will be heard on the Senate Floor next week. SB 196 requires guidance counselors to advise public middle and high school parents and students of all educational opportunities available to them, including internships, apprenticeship, and pre-apprenticeship programs, as well as the career and technical education pathway to earn a standard high school diploma. In an effort to bolster soft-skills supportive of effective communication and problem solving in the workplace, SB 196 also requires that guidance counselors share opportunities for soft-skill credentialing programs. The Senate Education PreK-12 Committee unanimously passed SB 780 by Senator Alexis Calatayud, which requires all public high school students be given the opportunity to take computer science courses that lead to technology-related industry certifications. Additionally, this bill provides opportunities for elementary and middle schools to establish digital classrooms where students can earn Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Certifications. Data privacy legislation is moving again this year and has one committee stop remaining on both sides. This year’s legislation is improved from previous iterations. Neither bills include a private right of action, both include a right to cure, and the scope of who is captured under the bill and must comply is more narrowly crafted. Concerns remain on how this bill might impact online targeted advertising. These data privacy bills (HB 1547/SB 262), and another pair of bills related to student online privacy (HB 699/SB 662), restrict the collection of data related to children. HB 755 by Representative Tom Fabricio and SB 1260 by Senator Jay Trumbull advanced through their respective committee assignments this week. The bills increase transparency and accountability around claims against asbestos trusts by requiring specified information be provided at the time of filing a lawsuit, reducing the likelihood of frivolous claims and assisting in awarding damages faster. Since these trusts were created, injured parties have not been up front with information relating to their exposure in the hopes of being able to secure damages from multiple parties – this legislation ensures liability is apportioned fairly and damages are assigned to the parties actually at fault. PCB CJS 23-01, now filed as HB 7055 by Representative Maggard, continues efforts to reduce lawsuit abuse in the auto insurance market by limiting liability for Florida businesses who own, operate, lease, or rent a commercial vehicle that was involved in an accident with another person and the vehicle was in compliance with state and federal law at the time the vehicle was purchased. These are reasonable liability protections to avoid nuclear verdicts, or verdicts over $10 million, against the trucking industry, which have drastically increased in the last decade and are driving up costs for everyone. SB 1246 by Senator Clay Yarborough and HB 1205 by Representative Alex Andrade, relating to legal advertising transparency, moved in both chambers this week. These bills require transparency and disclosure that the advertisement is soliciting litigation to prevent misleading advertisements that lead to poor health outcomes if Floridians abandon necessary medical treatments and medications.
This week marked the halfway point of the 60-day legislative session and was an abbreviated week with lawmakers returning home to their districts for Passover and Easter. The two-day respite will be brief and legislators are expected to continue the final sprint to the scheduled May 5th close of session on Monday. Below is the weekly rundown of what happened in Tallahassee.
House and Senate Pass Budgets, Setting Table for Negotiations
The House and Senate spent time on the floor this week to pass their proposed Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budgets. $700 million apart- $113 billion (House) and $113.7 billion (Senate) respectively- the budget is the one constitutionally required bill the Florida Legislature must pass each year. The legislature will use the remaining time in session to negotiate the budget through what is called conference committees before session’s scheduled conclusion on May 5.
One area of the budget that the Florida Chamber is closely monitoring is the economic development silo. The House, consistent with legislation that has been filed in their chamber, eliminates funding for VISIT FLORIDA and Enterprise Florida. The Senate proposes funding Enterprise Florida at $12 million and VISIT FLORIDA at $80 million. For the Job Growth Grant Fund, a program that funds transportation and workforce development projects, the House proposes $25 million in funding and the Senate has proposed $75 million. Both Chambers fund Space Florida at $12.5 million, but only the House includes an additional $6 million for the Space Florida Infrastructure Fund.
Finally, the House and Senate are over $3 billion apart in funding the 5-year Florida Department of Transportation Work Program. For the Moving Florida Forward Plan, the Governor’s proposal to accelerate 20 congestion relief projects, the House and Senate both allocate $2 billion in the back of the budget with the Senate indicating its intention to provide a second payment of $2 billion next year to fully fund the plan. The Governor had initially requested $4 billion, which would be leveraged into $7 billion in total funding.
Sweeping Insurer Accountability Legislation Filed
?This week, SB 7052 was filed and passed as a proposed committee bill by the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee with the stated goal of holding bad actors in the insurance industry accountable. Unfortunately, and as the Florida Chamber shared in committee, the bill as drafted paints a much broader stroke encompassing several lines of insurance and opens the door for billboard trial attorneys to continue to abuse our civil justice system.
Earlier this session the legislature passed and Governor Ron DeSantis signed monumental lawsuit abuse reform legislation backed by the Florida Chamber, HB 837, to improve Florida’s bottom-five legal climate. One key component of HB 837 was bad faith reform, a legal tool used by the plaintiffs’ bar to collect damages beyond what is insured for. Unfortunately, SB 7052 contains provisions that would unravel some of the good work done in HB 837 and could open the door to more bad faith claims and additional litigation.
Other provisions of the bill are also a deterrent in making Florida an attractive place to do business for additional insurance carriers. The House filed a bill late Thursday (PCB COM4) that does not include the concerning provisions of the Senate bill, and both bills will have additional committee hearings in the coming weeks. The Florida Chamber is already actively engaged in ensuring that the scope of the Senate bill is narrowed to truly go after any bad actors in the insurance industry and does not undo the good work of HB 837 or create unintended consequences for the insurance industry as a whole.
More FL Chamber News & Views-