Florida - Wednesday June 26, 2024: Governor DeSantis has vetoed a bill that would have provided resident status tuition discounts for inmates in Florida prisons. He signed two other bills into law.
VETOED
CS/SB 62 - Resident Status for Tuition Purposes: The bill would have provided an individual who has met the requirements to be classified as a resident for tuition purposes may not lose his or her resident status for tuition purposes solely because of incarceration in a state or federal correctional facility in Florida.
In his veto message to the Legislature the Governor wrote -"We should not reward criminal activity by providing inmates with the same benefits as law-abiding citizens."
To view the veto letter, click here.
SIGNED
CS/HB 479 – Alternative Mobility Funding Systems and Impact Fees: The bill revises provisions concerning impact fees and concurrency and provides additional guidance concerning mobility fees.
In furtherance of comprehensive planning, local governments charge impact fees, generally as a condition for the issuance of a project’s building permit, to maintain various civic services amid growth. While some local governments charge traditional impact fees related to transportation improvements, others have shifted to mobility-based fees which promote compact, mixed-use, and energy-efficient development. The interaction of counties’ and municipalities’ mixed use of fees has given rise to a need for guidelines related to administration.
Specifically, the bill:
- Provides definitions for “mobility fee” and “mobility plan” to be used within the Community Planning Act;
- Provides that local governments adopting and collecting impact fees by ordinance or resolution must use localized data based on a regularly updated study;
- Provides that after an applicant makes its contribution or constructs its proportionate share, the project must be allowed to proceed;
- Requires local governments charging overlapping transportation impact fees to coordinate calculation and collections through interlocal agreement;
- Provides default method for collection and distribution, including a penalty on fees charged by local governments that have failed to execute an interlocal agreement; and
- Provides that holders of transportation or road impact fee credits, which existed before the adoption of the mobility fee-based funding system, are entitled to the full benefit of the intensity and density prepaid.
The inter-local agreement provisions do not apply to Miami-Dade County or any county or municipality which has entered into or otherwise updated an existing interlocal agreement as of October 1, 2024.
If approved by the Governor, or allowed to become law without the Governor’s signature, these provisions take effect October 1, 2024.
Vote: Senate 39-1; House 115-0
CS/CS/SB 1198 – Corporate Actions: The bill provides a statutory ratification procedure for corporate actions that may not have been properly authorized, and for shares that may have been improperly issued. These improperly authorized corporate actions, that would otherwise be proper, are called defective corporate actions.
The bill provides a statutory ratification process that is intended to supplement common law ratification. The ratification procedure is intended to be available only where there is objective evidence that a corporate action was defectively implemented. Subsequent ratified defective corporate actions will remain subject to equitable review. The bill gives specified affected parties the ability to file motions in the circuit court of the applicable county.
The bill also provides a statutory method, through filing a single composite statement, for a registered agent to resign from more than one corporate entity at a time, if the specified entity has been dissolved, administratively or voluntarily, for 10 years or longer. The bill applies to the following business entity types:
- Limited liability companies or foreign limited liability companies;
- Corporations; and
- Corporations not for profit.
Finally, the bill keeps the fee to file the registered agent resignation the same for the above listed business entity types, even if filing to resign from more than one entity at a time.
If approved by the Governor, or allowed to become law without the Governor’s signature, these provisions take effect July 1, 2024.
Vote: Senate 39-0; House 114-0