Dear Friend,
We just finished up the second week of Florida’s 2025 legislative session, which is nine weeks long in total.
Bills are really starting to move now across the entire range of issues – from education to insurance to housing to elections, and so much more. There are some really positive issues starting to bubbling up, like enabling the construction of more accessory development units and helping Floridians find affordable repairs for broken phones, farm equipment and wheelchairs.
But, of course, we’re playing defense on a lot of bad bills, too, including attacks on Florida’s citizens’ initiative petition process and on our minimum wage (which, remember, was created by the citizens’ initiative petition process.)
You can find updates on each of those issues – and many more – in our Week 2 Session Update below.
Things are really starting to get intense in Tallahassee now. So in addition to checking out our weekly recap, also be sure to connect with us on our social-media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. We’re constantly posting real-time updates on bills and urgent calls to action that can help push the good bills forward – and stop the bad ones in their tracks.
After all, we’re all in these fights together.
Onward,
The Senate unveils its plan to end citizen-led petition drives
A joint effort by Republican leaders and corporate lobbyists to stop everyday Floridians from amending their own constitution is continuing to move forward.
The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee last week introduced the Senate’s plan to effectively shut down the ballot initiative process. Senate Bill 7016 is, like House Bill 1205, an attempt to impose more administrative burden on the petition process, making it harder and riskier for groups to collect signatures in support of a ballot measure.
The Senate bill includes many of the worst ideas that were already in the House legislation – such as cutting the time that ballot sponsors have to turn in signed petitions from 30 days to 10 days, while simultaneously increasing the fine for turning a petition in late by as much as 50 time.
But SB 7016 is even worse. It would also force volunteers who want to collect petitions in support of a ballot initiative to register with the state and go through a state-mandated training program. It would create more ways for opponents to use the legal system to harass ballot sponsors and bog them down in lawsuits and litigation.
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that a bipartisan group of senators agreed to amend SB 7016 to prohibit state agencies from advertising for or against a ballot measure. It’s a response to the DeSantis administration’s decision last fall to waste tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money on thinly disguised campaign against citizen-led constitutional amendments that would have overturned the state’s near-total abortion ban and legalized recreational marijuana.
But even with that change, this is still a really bad bill – one that would eliminate the ability of everyday Floridians to take matters into their own hands when our gerrymandered state Legislature refuses to address an issue itself.
Bills could open loopholes in Florida’s minimum wage
There are a couple of really dangerous bills moving this session that could open a loophole in the state minimum wage.
House Bill 541 and Senate Bill 676 would allow companies to pay less than the minimum wage to interns, apprentices and anyone else who could be classified as being in some kind of work-based learning role. That is incredibly vague; the sponsor of the House bill even admitted a corporation like Target could find a way to use a law like this to pay a subminimum wage to some of its workers.
But what makes this bill extra dangerous is that it is clearly unconstitutional. Florida’s minimum wage amendment – which, remember, was passed by voters using the same kind of petition drive that the Legislature is now trying to shut down – puts very strict limits on the Legislature’s ability to change.
Basically, we as lawmakers can make our state minimum wage stronger. But we are forbidden by the constitution from making it weaker. And HB 541 and SB 676 make it weaker.
I suspect this is an intentional effort to trigger some kind of court challenge – with the hope that some right-wing court will use the case as an opportunity to open new loopholes in our minimum wage.
SB 676 passed the Senate Commerce and Tourism last week. HB 541 passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee, which is one of the committees I serve on. I voted no, of course. Watch my debate against the bill here.
Tallahassee continues to erode home rule
We’re once again seeing the Legislature take steps to erode home rule, take decision-making authority away from local communities, and consolidate more power in Tallahassee.
For example, the House Natural Resources & Disasters Subcommittee approved House Bill 565, a bill pushed by the Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association that would forever strip communities of any power to control or ban plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, or any other kind of bag or food container.
At the same time, the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee passed House Bill 683, which would do a bunch of random things. It would, for instance, stop local governments from helping smaller firms win a share of public construction contractors. It would also prohibit any local ordinances banning the use of artificial turf instead of natural grass.
As a member of the IPA Subcommittee – and a strong advocate for home rule – I voted no on HB 683.
Another bill impacting local control is House Bill 991, which would abolish all Community Redevelopment Agencies in Florida.
CRAs have been an important tool to help steer investment into chronically neglected communities around the state. There have definitely been some abuses – we’ve seen some governments right here in central Florida use CRAs to steer extra money to politically connected and already prosperous areas. And I agree that we need some reforms.
But I think simply abolishing all CRAs forever is going too far and would hurt communities where these tools have been so helpful for revitalization efforts.
So I voted no on this bill in the House State Affairs Committee. But I remain hopeful we can come to a compromise of some kind.
Some bad tax breaks are on the move
Another way we’re seeing Tallahassee try to undermine local government autonomy is by weakening their taxing power.
One example from this past week was House Bill 503, which would essentially force cities and counties to cut taxes for businesses. It would do this by capping Local Business Tax collections at their current levels and then forcing communities to ratchet those taxes down over time.
This bill came through the Ways & Means Committee, where I’m proud to serve as the Ranking Member. I voted no, though the bill passed 14-5, party-line vote.
The Ways & Means Committee also heard House Bill 785, which would exempt “heated tobacco products” from the state’s cigarette tax – which would basically mean a tax break for products like Philip Morris’ IQOS brand. I don’t believe we should be cutting taxes on any intentionally addictive product, so I voted no.
Education roundup: Private school kids on public school sports teams, a ban on phones in schools, and more Classical Learning Test
A bunch of education bills moved forward last week
The House Education & Employment Committee passed House Bill 151, which expands the eligibility of private school students to play on public schools’ sports teams.
The House Intergovernmental Affairs passed House Bill 569, which would give further advantages to charter schools – like forcing local governments to approve zoning for charter schools and allowing developers to fulfill their education impact fees by contributing to a charter school.
The House Education Administration Subcommittee passed House Bill 949, which would forbid students from using their phones at any point during the school day, rather than only during instructional time.
And the Senate Education Postsecondary Committee Passed Senate Bill 1624, which expands the use of the conservative Classical Learning Test in Florida schools. It does so by allowing universities to use CLT scores of incoming students to qualify for additional “preeminence” funding.
Committee grills insurance regulators following damning report about industry profits
The House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee held a really interesting hearing on Friday.
Committee members from both parties grilled Florida’s current and former insurance commissioner about why we – and the public as a whole – weren’t told about a damning report that showed homeowners’ insurance companies have been secretly funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidiaries and affiliate companies.
This report was received by the Office of Insurance Regulation in 2022. But it wasn’t released publicly for more than two years – after the Florida Legislature passed a series of bills pushed by the insurance industry that stripped Florida homeowners of legal rights in disputes with their insurance company and forced many to pay much higher prices for their policies.
If you want to read more about the hearing, this story from the Tampa Bay Times has a good recap.
A bit of help for affordable housing
A pair of interesting affordable housing-related bills moved forward last week in both the House and Senate.
Committees approved Senate Bill 184 and House Bill 247, which would both require local governments to allow addition of accessory development units, or ADUs, in any area zoned for single family homes. ADUs – which are sometimes known as “mother in law suites” – could be really helpful as a source for additional affordable housing, particularly in city neighborhoods that are closer to where people work.
Balancing infrastructure needs with costs for taxpayers and ratepayers
One of the committees I serve in is the Economic Infrastructure Committee, and we had a couple of interesting – and tough – bills on our agenda last week.
One of them was House Bill 703, which deals with broadband infrastructure. It deals with situations where a broadband service provider like Charter or Comcast has infrastructure in a public right-of-way that a local government requires them to move to make way for a construction project.
The bill would require the broadband company to relocate their equipment if told to do so. But it would also require local governments to cover the relocation costs. I voted yes, particularly because we already charge a Communications Services Tax that was supposed to generate revenue for this kind of activity.
The other tough bill was House Bill 1523, which deals with municipal utility companies like OUC. It would impose new restrictions on a municipality utility’s ability to contribute to its city’s general fund – the fund that cities use to help pay for everything from police to parks to trash pickup. I voted no on this one.
Meanwhile, the Senate has a great utility bill: Senate Bill 354, which would put tighter controls on the amount of profit that investor-owned, monopoly utility companies like Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy can earn off of Florians. The bill passed the Senate Regulated Industries Committee – but FPL is lobbying hard against it.
Sucking up to Donald Trump
There’s a lot of sad sucking up to President Donald Trump happening in the Florida Capitol right now. Last week alone, committees in both the House and Senate passed:
- House Bill 69 and Senate Bill 118, which would exempt Trump’s future presidential library from any oversight at all by the city or county he chooses to build it in.
- House Bill 549 and Senate Bill 1058, which would force the state update and republish all public maps with “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.” The bill would also make school districts start teaching with textbooks that use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.
- House Bill 575 and Senate Bill 608, which would replace “Gulf of Mexico” with “Gulf of America” every single place the phrase appears in our state laws.
Meanwhile, the House Government Operations Subcommittee also advanced House Joint Resolution 1325, which would put a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to create a new “Commissioner of Government Efficiency.”
It’s pretty funny to me that some supporters of this bill are claiming that they want to get rid of government bureaucracy – and yet their solution is to create more government bureaucracy.
An update on ‘Right to Repair’
There was a big step forward last week in the “RIght to Repair” fight.
The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee passed Senate Bill 1132, which would help Floridians who own smartphones who would prefer to fix their phone if it breaks rather than having to buy a new one altogether. The legislation would require cellphone manufacturers like Apple to share the parts, tools and documentation needed to fix devices with owners and independent repair shops.
And before passing the bill, the Senate amended it to make it even better – by adding a Right to Repair for farm equipment, too. This would help Florida farmers be able to make or find affordable repair options when tractors and other critical equipment breaks down.
The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee had already passed Senate Bill 412, which would create a Right to Repair law for powered wheelchairs – which can cost upwards of $15,000 to buy brand new.
I’m so proud to be sponsoring the House version of that bill, which is House Bill 311. It hasn’t been heard by its first committee just yet, but I’m hopeful we’ll be able to get it onto an agenda this week.
Round up: Restaurant reservation apps, newspaper defamation, and an anticompetitive attack on plant-based foods
Finally, here are a few more bills that moved forward last week that I think are to keep an eye on.
- Senate Bill 498, which would cut funding for Legal Aid programs, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- House Bill 543, which would prohibit third-party apps from listing or selling restaurant reservations without permission from the restaurant, passed the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee.
- House Bill 615, which would allow landlords to deliver notices to tenants about things like security deposits, rent increases, and evictions by e-email, passed the House Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee. The Senate version of the bill (Senate BIll 1164) also passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- Senate Bill 700, which would ban local governments from putting fluoride in their water and also impose anti-competitive labeling rules on plant-based meat, milk and eggs, passed the Senate Agriculture Committee.
- Senate Bill 752, which would make it easier for people to sue newspapers and TV stations for defamation, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate Bill 832, which would protect Mosaic, the giant mining corporation, from lawsuits filed by people who are exposed to higher levels of radiation on land that Mosaic once mined for phosphate.