By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
When the Florida House speaker ended the state’s 2015 lawmaking session three days early over a Medicaid expansion dispute, it left a host of initiatives unfinished.
That included three top issues Realtors had hoped to push over the finish line.
“Usually the majority of bills pass that last few days of session,” said Carrie O’Rourke, vice president of Public Policy for Florida Realtors. “We were at the peak of all our bills and, as you can imagine, this really took the wind out of that process.”
O’Rourke talked about the progress — or the lack thereof — at the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors’ Legislative Luncheon.
The rundown went quickly.
Realtors wanted to eliminate or wind down the state’s sales tax on commercial leases. Unfinished.
To protect the Sadowski Trust Fund monies, which are supposed to be used for affordable housing. Unfinished.
To adopt a comprehensive statewide water policy — the House speaker’s own top priority. Unfinished.
Each of the issues would ultimately need a state budget in order to advance. And session ended without a budget.
It’s a bigger problem than just for Realtors.
A budget is the Legislature’s one constitutionally required task before session ends. Without it, the state government shuts down after June 30, O’Rourke said.
Lawmakers agreed to a June 1-20 special session to pass a budget. That gives Realtors another chance, albeit a slim one.
The special session has a narrow agenda, tied to the budget.
Despite the problems, Realtors scored small wins. One was the passage of a bill that requires a 30-day lease termination notice for tenants following an apartment complex foreclosure. Another expands the effort to establish a private flood insurance alternative to the National Flood Insurance Program.
Also, the Senate passed a bill that caps the size of estoppel fees, a fee charged by condo homeowners associations to certify what HOA payments are due when a property sells.
During the economic downturn some HOA’s used the fees as a revenue source, O’Rourke said, charging anywhere from $500 to $2,000 for the service.
“Our elected leaders didn’t even know about this issue,” she said.
Florida Realtors, through its political action committee, unleashed a campaign that inundated law makers with 5,000 letters from Realtors on the issue.