Well...that happened

A quick look at what Florida lawmakers just did — and how they voted.

Photo credit: Formulaone

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Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature gaveled its 60-day session to a close on Friday, ending two months of lawmaking dominated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his presidential ambitions.

Florida lawmakers devoted an inordinate amount of attention to propping up DeSantis’ impending campaign for president. They delivered a series of conservative cultural policy wins meant to boost DeSantis’ standing with Republican primary voters, including a six-week abortion ban, universal private school vouchers, and restrictions on the public lives and healthcare of LGBTQ+ Floridians. They also removed potential obstacles standing in DeSantis’ way, changing the law so DeSantis can run for president without resigning as governor and can host political donors at the governor’s mansion without the public ever finding out.

But that’s not all they did.

What follows is a quick look at some of the many other bills that just passed — along with the vote sheets for each.

Note: These are all just quick-hit summaries. But we’ll be diving more deeply into lots of these pieces of legislation in the near future. And feel free to reach our or comment with other bills that should be added to this list or that simply deserve more scrutiny.

Okay, with that out of the way, here were some of the Legislature’s other priorities during the 2023 session:

Taking rights away from renters

House Bill 1417 will undo local “Tenant Bill of Rights” laws and other pro-renter ordinances that have been adopted in recent years by cities and counties around the state. The sweeping legislation, pushed by the Florida Apartment Association, will forbid local governments from regulating any part of the landlord-tenant relationship.

Passed the House 81-33. Passed the Senate 29-8.

Defending developers

Senate Bill 540 will increase the risk for local grassroots groups, environmental activists and anyone else who tries to legally challenges a local government’s decision to amend its future growth management plan. If they lose their lawsuit, the legislation could allow the local government — plus any real-estate developers who join the case — to make those activists pay their legal fees.

Passed the House 87-30. Passed the Senate 29-10.

Letting businesses block local laws

Senate Bill 170 will force cities and counties to stop enforcing a local law if a business or someone else files a lawsuit alleging that the ordinance is “arbitrary or unreasonable” or illegal under state law. And if the business wins the lawsuit, the legislation will also allow the court to make the local government pay its attorney fees.

Passed the House 82-33. Passed the Senate 28-12.

Weakening public-employee unions

Senate Bill 256 will impose a host of new restrictions and requirements on most — but not all — unions representing public employees, with a goal of destabilizing and ultimately disbanding them. The changes will apply to labor groups that represent workers like teachers, 911 dispatchers and nurses – but not police, firefighters or prison guards.

Passed the House 72-44. Passed the Senate 23-17.  

Retaliating against Disney, part 1

Senate Bill 1604 (section 5) will allow the Ron DeSantis appointees who now control the district that governs Walt Disney World’s property in central Florida to undo a long-term development agreement that Disney signed with the district before DeSantis’ people took over. (Note: DeSantis already signed this one into law, doing so just a few hours after the session ended.)

Passed the House 75-34. Passed the Senate 27-13.

Retaliating against Disney, part 2

House Bill 1305 (section 14) gives the DeSantis administration new power to regulate the Walt Disney World monorail.

Passed the House 83-32. Passed the Senate 26-14.

Protecting Florida Power & Light

Senate Bill 250 (Section 10) will shield power companies like Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy and Tampa Electric Co. from lawsuits seeking damages stemming from post-hurricane power outages. The legislation will also force any future disputes over whether the power companies adequately prepared for hurricanes to be litigated in front of the industry-friendly, governor-appointed Public Service Commission, rather than in the courts. (FPL is currently facing a class action suit over its response to Hurricane Irma in 2017.)

Passed the House 109-4. Passed the Senate 39-0.

Protecting Blue Origin and SpaceX

Senate Bill 1318 will shield private space companies like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX from personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits brought by employees (or their families) following a launch- or reentry-related accident. The lawsuit shield will protect the companies even if they are negligent.

Passed the House 107-5. Passed the Senate 39-0.

Limiting consumer choice in car-buying

House Bill 637, which was originally written by lobbyists for some of the state’s largest car dealerships, will ensure consumers can’t buy new electric cars directly from traditional car manufacturers like Ford and Honda.

Passed the House 113-2. Passed the Senate 40-0

Boosting Walmart’s delivery business

Senate Bill 1068 will limit the ability of cities and counties to regulate new drone-delivery operations. The legislation came from lobbyists for a Walmart-backed drone-delivery company that ran into zoning problems when it tried to set up new drone ports in Walmart parking lots.

Passed the House 110-0. Passed the Senate 40-0.

Fixing the phosphate industry’s mess

House Bill 1191 orders the Florida Department of Transportation to study the potential use of phosphogypsum — a mildly radioactive byproduct of the fertilizer-manufacturing process — as a road-building material. The bill, which phosphate mining giant Mosaic Co. lobbied for, will also allow FDOT to use phosphogypsum in demonstration projects. (At the same time, the state’s $117 billion budget includes millions of dollars to test other potential uses of phosphate industry waste.)

Passed the House 81-25. Passed the Senate 34-4.

Letting lenders charge higher rates

House Bill 1267 will let consumer loan companies like OneMain and Oportun nearly double the interest rates they charge their customers, who tend to be borrowers with low income or bad credit who can’t get a better loan from a bank.

Passed the House 96-18. Passed the Senate 22-9.

Letting landlords charge endless fees

House bill 133, which was originally written by lobbyists for a real-estate company called LeaseLock, will ensure landlords can charge their tenants unlimited, non-refundable fees instead of upfront, refundable security deposits.

Passed the House 89-22. Passed the Senate 31-7.   

Hurting minor league baseball players

Senate Bill 892, which came from lobbyists for Major League Baseball teams, will cut minor league baseball players out of the state’s minimum wage.

Passed the House 86-30. Passed the Senate 38-0.

Seizing Gainesville’s electricity

House Bill 1645 will take control of the publicly owned Gainesville Regional Utilities power company away from Gainesville’s elected City Commission and give control to a new board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Passed the House 81-33. Passed the Senate 30-9.

Privatizing water systems

House Bill 125 will make it easier for utility companies like Florida Power & Light parent NextEra Energy inc. to purchase smaller water utility systems, by allowing the bidder to pay a higher purchase price — and then pass that cost onto its customers.

Passed the House 112-2. Passed the Senate 38-0.  

Giving more money to Publix, 7-Eleven and Circle K

Senate Bill 2502 (section 46) will force the Florida Lottery to pay higher commissions to Publix, 7-Eleven, Circle K and other stores that sell its tickets. Economists estimate this will force the Lottery to spend an nearly $40 million on payments to stores next year – money that would otherwise go into a state education trust fund that pays for Bright Futures college scholarships.

Passed the House 105-5. Passed the Senate 38-0.

Blocking summer fertilizer bans

Senate Bill 2502 (section 85) will forbid cities or counties in Florida from putting any new limits on the use of law fertilizer over the next year. This was a last-minute provision that surfaced in negotiations over the state’s $117 billion budget, which also includes a $250,000 earmark ordering the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to “evaluate the effectiveness” of summer fertilizer bans.

Passed the House 105-5. Passed the Senate 38-0.

Spending more on university presidents

Senate Bill 7026 (sections 4 and 7) will allow Florida universities and colleges to spend more public money on salaries for presidents and other high-paid employees. The legislation will let schools use as much as $250,000 of public money toward an employee’s salary — up from a current cap of $200,000.

Passed the House 109-0. Passed the Senate 37-0.

Delaying disclosure of political donors

Senate Bill 7050 will allow the governor, lawmakers and other Florida politicians to hide the identities of their campaign contributors for longer periods of time. The legislation will allow politicians to report their donors every three month — rather than monthly — throughout most of each two-year election cycle.

Passed the House 76-34. Passed the Senate 28-12.

Hiding the governor meetings and travel

Senate Bill 1616 will allow Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to conceal records related to the governor’s travel and his meetings at the Governor’s Mansion.

Passed the House 84-31. Passed the Senate 28-12.

Honoring Rush Limbaugh

House Bill 21 will rename a road in Hernando County after the late conservative radio demagogue Rush Limbaugh.

Passed the House 87-25. Passed the Senate 36-2.