On Tuesday, Gov. DeSantis announced his Focus on Florida’s Future budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. His budget proposal totals $114.4 billion and includes significant levels of funding for some of our most important legislative priorities. I’ll break out those funding totals below but first I just want to remind you of how the governors budget proposal process works.
Prior to each legislative session, the Governor of Florida provides a budget proposal to state lawmakers. This proposal outlines their spending priorities and the amounts they believe should be allocated to the different areas of the state budget, such as education, healthcare, transportation, etc. Lawmakers are under no requirement to accept these proposals as they work to pass the state budget. But they do serve as an important roadmap for the types of policies and funding amounts that the governor is in favor of and can be helpful in building a budget that avoids significant line-item vetoes.
Thankfully, the governor’s budget recommendations this year line up very closely with our own priorities, particularly when it comes to affordable housing and the environment. You can watch the governor's press conference about the Focus on Florida’s Future Budget here.
Here is a quick breakdown of Realtor priorities contained in the governor’s budget recommendations:
Ensuring Housing Availability and Affordability for Florida’s Families
Following the signing of the Live Local Act during the 2023 Legislative Session, which provided historic funding levels for the state’s affordable housing programs, Governor DeSantis proposes nearly $450 million to fully fund these programs:
- $100 million for the third year of the Hometown Heroes Housing program, which makes homeownership affordable for hard-working Floridian heroes, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, educators, healthcare professionals, childcare employees, and active military or veterans.
- $209 million for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program.
- $240 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) program. These funds include the extra $150 million per year until 2033, per the 2023 Live Local Act.
My Safe Florida Home Grant Program
The Focus on Florida’s Future Budget recommends a significant amount of additional funding for the My Safe Florida Home program.
- $107 million in recurring funding to make the My Safe Florida Home Grant Program permanent and continue assisting Florida homeowners through home inspections and cost sharing for approved home hardening and wind mitigation programs that make properties less vulnerable to hurricane damage and reduces insurance premiums.
Tax Relief
The Focus on Florida’s Future Budget recommends over $475 million in savings for Florida’s Sales Tax Holidays:
- “Freedom Summer” sales tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, saving Florida families more than $241 million. The holiday covers outdoor recreation purchases such as supplies for camping and fishing and other outdoor activities, including the first $500 of the sales price of kayaks or canoes, the first $200 of the sales price of tents, as well as tickets for events, museums, the arts, and more.
- Two Back-to-School sales tax holidays, one in the fall and one in the spring as students return to school from winter break, to save Florida families $169 million. The holidays cover clothing up to $100, school supplies up to $50, and personal computers and related accessories priced $1,500 or less.
- Two 14-day Disaster Preparedness sales tax holidays to save Florida families $49 million. The holiday covers items needed during disasters including generators priced at $1,000 or less both at the start and height of Hurricane Season. Page 3 of 30
- A 7-day Tool Time sales tax holiday to save Florida workers $16 million on equipment and tools. The holiday exempts specified tools and equipment used by skilled workers.
The proposed budget also recommends $170 million in permanent tax relief for small businesses
- An increase of the Sales Tax Collection Allowance to save predominantly small businesses $165 million – this increases the collection allowance from the current 2.5 percent of the sales taxes collected on a return up to a maximum of $30, to the first $60 of the amount of the tax otherwise due.
- $5 million to permanently reduce corporate income taxes for businesses employing Floridians with unique abilities – this provides a credit against the corporate income tax for businesses employing persons with unique abilities of $1,000 per person subject to an annual cap of $5 million.
Water Quality Supply and Resiliency Funding
The Focus on Florida’s Future Budget provides more than $1.1 billion for water quality and resiliency projects throughout the state. Here is a quick breakdown of that total.
More than $745 million for Everglades restoration projects, including:
- $550 million for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
- $64 million for the EAA Reservoir to continue this critical project to reduce harmful discharges and help send more clean water south of the Everglades.
- $50 million for specific project components designed to achieve the greatest reductions in harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries as identified in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project Draft Integrated Project Implementation Report and Environmental Impact Statement dated August 2022
- $81.5 million for the Northern Everglades and Estuaries Protection Program.
Also included is $330 million for targeted water quality improvements including implementing recommendations from the Blue-Green Algae Task Force. This includes:
- $135 million for the expanded Water Quality Improvement Grant Program for projects to construct, upgrade or expand wastewater facilities, including septic to sewer conversions, stormwater management projects, and agricultural nutrient reduction projects.
- $100 million for the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Protection Program for priority water quality projects, as called for in Executive Order 23-06.
- $50 million to accelerate projects to meet nutrient reduction goals, called Total Maximum Daily Loads.
- $20 million for critical infrastructure including wastewater and stormwater projects to address water quality and coral reef restoration in Biscayne Bay.
- $25 million for water quality improvements in the Caloosahatchee River watershed.
In addition to the water quality improvement funding is $50 million for springs restoration, $55 million for combating harmful algal blooms, and $80 million for the Alternative Water Supply Grant Program.
The Focus on Florida’s Future Budget also invests over $157 million for resiliency, including $100 million for implementation of statewide resilience projects and $57 million for resiliency planning and coral reef protection. Lastly, $50 million will go to beach nourishment to continue addressing Florida’s critically eroded shorelines.
Disaster Preparedness
The Focus on Florida’s Future Budget provides significant funding for disaster recovery, mitigation, and emergency management, including:
Open Federally Declared Disasters – Funding to Communities and State Operations
- $1.3 billion is provided for disaster preparation, response, recovery and mitigation, including:
- $199.9 million in state match for costs relating to disasters.
Unlicensed Real Estate Activity Funding
The Focus on Florida's Future Budget includes up to $500,000 from the Professional Regulation Trust Fund for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to fund unlicensed activity enforcement relating to real estate.
Final Interim Committee Week Next Week
Florida lawmakers will have a quick break this weekend and then will be back at it here in Tallahassee for the final Interim Committee Week for the 2024 legislative session. The majority of the committee meetings will again be focused on presentations of the governor’s budget recommendations. One of those meetings, taking place on Tuesday, Dec. 12th at 1:00 p.m. in the House State Administration & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee, will cover the My Safe Florida Home program.
There are also several bill presentations that will be taking place that I wanted to make you aware of.
- On Dec. 13th at 8:30 a.m. the Senate Regulated Industries Committee will consider SB 280, regarding vacation rentals.
- On Dec. 13th at 9:00 a.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider SB 278 regarding estoppel certificates.
- On Dec. 13th at 1:30 p.m. the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee will consider HB 293, regarding Hurricane Protections for Homeowners Associations and HB 267 regarding Residential Building Permits.
Please note that we are monitoring SB 278 and SB 280 closely and we will provide you a more detailed update on those bills in next week’s update.
Remember, you can catch all the committee meetings on the Florida Channel.
More Policies Set to Leave Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Five property insurers have received approval to remove as many as 39,850 policies from the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp., with almost all of the changes expected to take place about Feb. 20.
State Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky last week signed a series of orders that are part of a broader effort to shift policies from Citizens to the private market. As of Nov. 24, Citizens had 1,255,381 policies, down from as many as 1.412 million policies earlier in the fall.
The new approvals will allow:
- Security First Insurance Co. to remove as many as 20,000 policies
- Orange Insurance Exchange to remove as many as 9,000 policies
- Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. to remove as many as 7,500 policies
- Edison Insurance Co. to remove as many as 2,500 policies
- Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange to remove as many as 850 policies
Read the full story here.
Florida Population Growth Continues
Florida continues to grow as it attracts people from other parts of the U.S., but that growth is projected to slow in the coming years as groups that have been moving to Florida get older, according to state economists.
The Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research released a report this week that showed the state’s estimated population in April was 22,634,867, an increase of nearly 359,000 people, or 1.61%, from a year earlier. The increase was bolstered by the number of people moving to Florida from elsewhere in the U.S. being “the highest number it’s ever been,” according to Stefan Rayer, population program director with the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida.
“Population growth is still growing strong in the state. Slightly more than the year before, but still, if you compare long-term averages which have been just under 300,000, it’s been really remarkably strong,” Rayer said during a Nov. 28 meeting that led to the report.
Read the full article here.
2024 NAR Priority Issues Survey
The 2024 NAR Priority Issues Survey is live, and they want your feedback. Help NAR determine its 2024 advocacy priorities by clicking here to complete the survey (and a chance to be entered to win a $100 gift card). It should take 10 minutes or less to complete.
The survey closes on December 15th so don’t miss your chance to share your feedback.
NAR Weighs in With Supreme Court to Protect Private Property Rights
On Nov. 20, 2023, NAR filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court of the United States in two different cases in support of property owners facing unconstitutional violations of the Takings Clause under the Fifth Amendment.
Costly and burdensome requirements imposed on property owners, such as obtaining land-use permits as a condition of using or developing their property that may be unrelated to the externalities of the development, may artificially increase the cost of real estate. Damage resulting from government action, such as the imposition of highway barriers that cause flooding of properties, but the injury goes uncompensated, also impacts fundamental property rights and potential development opportunities.
At a time when many buyers are struggling to afford or find properties, government action must create certainty and stability in the housing market to promote development, support homeownership, and protect private property rights, which is why NAR is engaged in these various challenges.
Read more here.
Please reach out to us at publicpolicy@floridarealtors.org with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Andy Gonzalez
Vice President of Public Policy
Florida Realtors®