Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen - March 2020 | Page 21

NUCA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE 2020 ★ ★ ★ • • the clerk of court, and the remainder must be distributed equally between Sunshine 811 (to fund damage-prevention education) and the State Fire Marshal (to fund programs that provide financial assistance to fire departments to procure equipment, supplies, and educational training designed to mitigate firefighter exposure to hazardous, cancer-causing chemicals). Require Sunshine 811 to review all reports made to the State Fire Marshal and all other complaints of alleged violations of ch. 556, F.S., to identify issues related to damage prevention and enforcement, and annually provide an analysis and recommendations to the Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The bill requires the Committee on Public Counsel Oversight, by a majority vote of the committee appointees of each house, to appoint a Public Counsel to a 4-year term beginning March 1, 2021, and every 4 years thereafter. A person appointed as the Public Counsel may not serve more than 12 years after July 1, 2020. HB 1095 passed all of its three committees and the full House 118-0. SB 1464 passed all its committees. HB 1095 was substituted for SB 1464, amended, passed the full Senate by a vote of 37-1. HB 1095 was sent back to the House, subsequently passed as amended 115-0. Impact Fees- HB 637 by Di Ceglie/SB 1066 by Gruters SB 1066 prohibits new or increased impact fees from applying to current or pending permit applications submitted before the effective date of an ordinance or resolution imposing a new or increased impact fee, unless the result is to reduce the total mitigation costs or impact fees imposed on an applicant. Also, the bill makes impact fee credits assignable and transferable from one development or parcel to another within the same impact fee jurisdiction or to an adjacent impact fee zone or district for the same type of public facility to which the fee applies. Local government must provide impact fee credits or other forms of compensation where a contribution is greater in value than the applicable impact fee. HB 637 passed all of its committees. SB 1066 passed its committees and the full Senate unanimously. SB 1066 was substituted for HB 637, amended and approved 81-37 before traveling back to the Senate. After between the chambers due to new amendments, SB 1066 passed the Senate 36-0. Deregulation- HB 1193 by Ingoglia/SB 474 by Albritton The “Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act,” relates to businesses and professions regulated by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and health professionals regulated by the Department of Health (DOH). HB 1193: • Repeals the authority of the DOH and the DBPR to suspend or revoke a professional license because of a default on a student loan or failure to comply with service or work-conditional scholarship obligations; • Waives the requirement to pass the commercial driver license skills test for a military service member or veteran with specified training; MARCH 2020 • DITCHMEN 19