Veto overrides

This week I'd like to take the opportunity to update you on upcoming important legislative happenings. With elections now over, the Florida Legislature looks to meet next week for its biennial organizational session. During this session, the Legislature will look to override several gubernatorial vetoes of important legislation that received either unanimous support in both Chambers or had broad bipartisan support. A veto override requires a two-thirds majority in each Chamber.

A veto override of House Bill 545 (relating to residential property sales) would fix a potentially serious problem for the already-depressed housing markets in Florida's coastal areas. If not addressed, starting Jan. 1, sellers of homes in many counties would have to disclose the house's windstorm mitigation rating to homebuyers, which will cause potential sales to be delayed, discouraged or even prevented. It puts an additional burden on the seller, something clearly not needed in Florida's dismal housing market.

A veto override of House Bill 981 (relating to agriculture) would help farmers who choose to offer their property for sale while maintaining the land for bona fide agricultural purposes. If not addressed, farmers would face losing their agricultural classification, face increased pressure to sell, and land used for agricultural purposes could end up no longer being used for agriculture.

A veto override of House Bill 1516 (state-owned lands) addresses government efficiency. Essentially, there is currently no uniform database of state-owned lands and a veto override would allow this legislation to ensure that the Department of Environmental Protection utilize existing resources to develop such a database to create uniformity and efficiency for the entire state government, a common sense approach to maintain our state's lands.

A veto override of House Bill 1565 (rulemaking) would address the serious problems both individuals and businesses face with Florida's onerous rulemaking by agencies and departments. A veto override would make agencies and departments provide more information and evidence that certain rules that will have a major fiscal impact on people and businesses are thoroughly vetted by the Legislature and if necessary, prevented from being adopted.

A veto override of House Bill 5603 (relating to Department of Financial Services) addresses the problem over the recent rapid increase in the cost of worker's compensation in the State's Risk Management program. If overridden, both the state and private sector would realize cost savings almost immediately, and the program could then begin to reduce risk management costs through a variety of cost-saving measures.

A veto override of the Health Care Appropriations for Shands Hospital would allocate the already-designated $9.7 million in funding for the teaching hospital. A loss of this funding (and subsequent matching federal dollars) will force the hospital to make several drastic cuts that will affect the entire state that relies on this hospital for its care. Additionally, other teaching hospitals such as Orlando Regional will suffer as well. In the interest of our community and state, funding must be restored.

A veto override of House Bill 569 (relating to landfills) would promote common-sense efficiency by allowing local governments to utilize combined collection of yard trash with household waste.

A veto override of House Bill 1385 (relating to petroleum site cleanup) would allow a much-needed "push" to make the Department of Environmental Protection do a better job of cleaning up contamination sites that pose a threat to public health and the environment. Improved elimination would be more efficient and effective and would coerce the Department to attend to the backlog of more than 8,800 sites that are in need of cleaning up.

A veto override of Senate Bill 1842 (relating to transportation projects) would allow businesses impacted by proposed Department of Transportation projects to have additional methods of working with the Department to provide input and alternatives to the Department when it is considering projects that may affect businesses. This legislation provides for more public input and great access to the major decisions by this Department and Florida's transportation future.

A veto override of House Bill 5611 (relating to review of Department of Management Services under the Florida Government Accountability Act) would focus on streamlining state government. Currently, the Department of Management Services is its own entity, however numerous problems with the department have been identified over the last several years. The Legislature proposed "reorganizing" the department to provide for greater efficiency and transparency and streamlining operations. Additionally, savings could be realized by "right sizing" the department in a time when we all must live within our means.

Again, these are the proposed bills for a legislative override of the gubernatorial vetoes from earlier this year. If you would like more information on these or other issues to be considered during the Organizational Session, I encourage you to visit MyFloridaHouse.Gov. You may also contact my office at 407-884-2023. As always, it is an honor to serve you.

—State Rep. Bryan Nelson

District 38