By Edie Ousley
Florida Home Builders Association
When Governor Charlie Crist signed the Florida Forever extension bill into law last month, he had officially approved the last remaining Florida Home Builders Association member-identified legislative priority for 2008.
Penning FHBA’s 2008 Legislative Priorities into law was the last step toward overall success for the associations 17,500 corporate members, staff, and Florida’s construction industry, said a FHBA spokesman.
“I’m pleased that all of our members’ priority bills and budget items which reached the Governor’s desk from the 2008 Legislative Session met with his approval and are now law,” said David Hart, Vice President of Legislative and Governmental Affairs for FHBA. “But much remains to be done to strengthen the climate for our industry, especially getting a growth management reform bill to the governor’s desk next year.”
The journey toward success began late last fall when FHBA members identified seven legislative priorities for the 2008 Legislative Session.
FHBA’s lobbying team, combined with support from members, worked aggressively to pass these priorities.
Five of the seven member-identified priorities passed during the 2008 session.
Chief among FHBA’s victories were affordable housing funding, important building code/mitigation legislation, funding for onsite and springshed protection, an impact fee reduction for affordable housing down payment assistance, and property insurance legislation providing important hurricane mitigation premium credits.
FHBA also saw victories on a number of additional construction-related bills, including the Administrative Procedures Act legislation, an extension of the Florida Forever successor program with an added emphasis on imperiled species, securing passage of legislation that puts a stop to secondary metal theft, and improvements to and an extension of the My Safe Florida program. Each of these bills has also been approved by Crist and they are now law.
While victories are always sweet, it shouldn’t go unnoticed that FHBA staved off several legislative ideas it considered damaging to its members including a complete sweep of important Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund dollars, harmful changes to coastal management, several licensure bills, anti-business friendly immigration bills, and legislation that would reduce the use of arbitration.
While FHBA realized tremendous success with its 2008 member-identified legislative priorities, important growth management legislation died on the final day of session because of a stalemate between the House and Senate.
Additionally, property tax legislation also faced an uphill battle. Despite all the rhetoric that more would be done on property taxes after the passage of Amendment 1, the issue never picked up steam in the Florida Senate. However, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which has the power to put constitutional amendments before voters, approved a measure that would provide a 25-35 percent savings on property taxes if voters approve the plan during the November election.
A breakdown of FHBA’s 2008 legislative victories:
Affordable workplace housing
FHBA, a charter member of the Sadowski Coalition, helped lead the charge in protecting a complete sweep of funds from Florida’s Affordable Housing Trust Funds. The protection of these vital affordable/workforce housing dollars encouraged lawmakers to appropriate $243 million to Florida’s Affordable Housing Trust Funds. Additionally, they allocated an extra $60 million, of which $22.5 million is non-recurring funds designed for down payment assistance. Most importantly, the additional down payment assistance is directly linked to a 25 percent reduction in impact fees.
Building code/Mitigation
Builders now have two different paths to achieving energy efficiency - the Florida Energy Code and, in 2011, the International Energy Conservation Code. Additionally, future increases in energy efficiency must be based on a true cost-benefit analysis. This bill also repeals a Coastal Code Plus standard as adopted by the Florida Building Commission that posed the FHBA said potentially negative consequences. It amends current wind maps, and allows for new wind maps to be adopted with new code updates, and it increases public input and citizen testimony before the FBC votes on changes to the Code.
Impact fees
With the help of Rep. Gary Aubuchon (R-Cape Coral) and Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey), the FHBA successfully advocated for the inclusion of proviso language in the budget aimed at reducing impact fees by 25 percent in order to be eligible for down payment assistance funds. If counties and municipalities wish to obtain down payment assistance dollars for their affordable housing programs, they must reduce their impact fees by the required 25 percent.
Onsite and Springshed
protection
FHBA’s efforts successfully garnered funding for a new nitrogen reduction study. Lawmakers set aside $1 million from the Water Protection and Sustainability Program Trust Fund for the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to develop cost-effective nitrogen reduction strategies - an anticipated three-year project designed to develop passive strategies for nitrogen reduction that complement the use of conventional onsite wastewater treatment systems.
Administrative Procedures Act
For the second year in a row, FHBA successfully advocated passage of legislation that will reduce and eliminate unlawful state agency non-rule policies. Over the years there have been increased activities by state agencies to try and implement and apply unlawful, non-rule or desk-drawer policies on development. These are agency policies that have not gone through the formal transparent rulemaking process. Under this legislation, state agencies must formally go through the rule making process and formally adopt desk-drawer agency policies. It provides incentives for agencies to go through the rule-making process and penalties for those that do not.
‘Florida Forever’
Environmental groups and state agencies joined the FHBA in convincing lawmakers to extend the Florida Forever successor program beyond its 2010 expiration with a new emphasis on imperiled species protection. The successor program will allow threatened wildlife species to be relocated to state conservation lands from development sites. The legislation will reduce the cost of mitigating for imperiled species and conversely reduce the cost of developing land.
Copper and metal theft
The FHBA joined with a strong coalition of industry organizations to form Floridians for Copper and Metal Crime Prevention, and helped secure passage of legislation that puts a stop to secondary metal theft. An ever-increasing rise in metal thefts across Florida sparked the legislation. Thieves are stealing everything from empty beer kegs and irrigation equipment, to copper wire from utility sites. Under legislation signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist, metal dealers are now required to keep records of all sales to deter thieves from re-selling stolen items. Failure to comply with this law may result in third-degree felony charges.
Property insurance
Considered an unfinished business item by members of the Florida Home Builders Association, lawmakers passed a property insurance/mitigation bill providing hurricane mitigation premium credits. The credits are linked to a uniform home rating scale. Also under this legislation, Citizens Property Insurance rates are frozen until 2010.
‘My Safe Florida’ program
The My Safe Florida program legislation clarifies that contractors are eligible to sign affidavits for insurance discounts, and it makes needed program improvements as well as continues the program for another year. However, funding for the grant program and free inspections was not continued.
- Edie Ousley is the Communications Director for the Florida Home Builders Association. She can be reached at [email protected].