Legal Update:
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Florida in ACF “Water Wars” – This week’s ruling dismissed the lawsuit that Florida filed in 2013 after the oyster fishery collapsed in Florida’s Apalachicola Bay. While Florida contended that Georgia drew too much water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, Georgia argued, in part, that the oyster industry sustained damage, because of overharvesting after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster sent oil spreading through the Gulf of Mexico. The Supreme Court ruling attributed to overharvesting as a key factor undercutting Florida’s arguments.
Executive Update:
COVID-19 Liability Protections Bill Signed into Law - Governor Ron DeSantis signed the COVID-19 liability protections bill Monday. He was joined by members of Republican leadership, including House SpeakerChris Sprowls, Senate President Wilton Simpson and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. The legislation is one of the Governor’s and Republican leaderships’ biggest priorities for the 2021 Legislative Session. The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, protects any business or health care provider that makes a “good-faith effort” to comply with government health guidelines. Plaintiffs will need to prove with “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant acted with “gross negligence” when filing a COVID-19-related lawsuit. The bill is effective upon becoming law.
Ron DeSantis Announces New Chief Science Officer - Governor Ron DeSantis announced in the Everglades on Tuesday, his newest Chief Science Officer, Mark Rains, the director of the University of South Florida’s School of Geosciences. His first appointee to the newly created role, marine scientist Tom Frazer, left the position earlier this month.
Confirmations - Several Department Secretaries and gubernatorial appointees had additional confirmation hearings in the Senate, including:
- John Davis, Department of the Lottery Secretary,
- Julie Brown, Department of Business and Professional Regulation,
- Mike La Rosa, Public Service Commission Commissioner,
- Peter Antonacci, Division of Administrative Hearings Chief Judge,
- Dane Eagle, Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director, and
- Gunster alum Simone Marstiller, Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary.
Public Service Commission Nominating Council Selects Candidates to Interview for Open Commission Spot – The Public Service Commission Nominating Council met Monday and voted on the names of six applicants to interview for an open seat on the Public Service Commission. The candidates selected for interviews all received 6 or more votes. The interviews will take place on April 12th at 10:00 a.m. in Tallahassee. The Council will select at least three names to send to the Governor from which to make his selection for the position. Proceeding to the interview phase are:
- Rosanna Catalano
- Jeanne Curtin
- Gabriella Passidomo
- Ana Ortega
- Representative Scott Plakon
Leadership Notes:
State Revenues Rose in February - The Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research reported that February general-revenue collections came in $298.5 million above the projected forecast for the month. The report stated, “This reflects activity that largely occurred in January, which benefited from a new round of stimulus checks to households, redirected spending from the hard-hit service sector, and some consumers’ ability to draw down atypically large savings that built up during the pandemic.” The revenue report will make additional funding available during the last half of the 2021 Session for consideration in the state budget.
Budget Watch - The Senate and House submitted their initial budgets for the 2021 Session. The House's $97.07 billion starting budget comes in just above the governor's proposed $96.57 billion spending plan, while the Senate proposal starts out at $94.95 billion. The two chambers are approximately $2.12 billion apart as they continue to work on their respective budgets. The Senate budget has yet to include the anticipated $10 billion one-time federal pandemic relief money. The House budget accounts for some federal relief dollars, which allocated approximately $4.4 billion in federal dollars to supplement Medicaid costs, revenue shortfalls within the Petroleum Tank Clean-up Program, education funding, and other Florida sectors that have been significantly impacted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year Governor DeSantis in his proposed budget asked the legislature to fully fund the Sadowski Trust Fund in the amount of $423.3 million. That trust fund was established 30 years ago to provide assistance to all 67 counties and the Florida Housing Finance Corporation for home ownership and for rental assistance in an apartment environment. The program has been wildly successful, but in recent years the legislature has swept some of those dollars for other projects. In a surprise move the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate released a proposal to take $280 million of those funds and create funds for flood control and wastewater infrastructure. Many have questioned why the Sadowski revenue would be diverted in a year with significant federal funding and increases in projected revenue to the State.
The table below provides a comparison of the total proposed spending for the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Governor's recommendations, agency legislative budget requests, and the current fiscal year budget:
| Senate | House | Governor’s Recommendation | Agency Requests | Current Year Budget |
| $94,958,184,153 | $97,077,881,519 | $96,577,831,649 | $94,975,580,975 | $92,269,652,035 |
Legislative Updates:
Right to Farm Expansion Advances -Legislation intended to protect farmers from lawsuits filed by homeowners in residential developments passed its next-to-last committee on Tuesday. The bill (HB 1601), filed by Rep. Jayer Williamson, would modernize Florida's Right to Farm Act by granting farmers broad legal protections against litigation from encroaching developments. The Senate companion, SB 88, has passed the Senate and is now in House messages.
Tax Updates – President Simpson and Speaker Sprowls unveiled a plan to slash the commercial rents tax for businesses and use online sales tax collections to offset the revenue loss.
Residential Property Insurance - The principal property insurance reform bills advanced in both houses of the legislature this week, with the Senate bill passing the full Senate. At this point, the Senate bill, SB 76 sponsored by Senator Boyd and Senator Brandes, does the most to cure the ailments and abuses in Florida’s homeowners’ property insurance market. In the House, HB 305 sponsored by Representative Rommel, was approved this week by the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee. Originally the bill was nearly identical to SB 76, but has now gone in another direction. Since these bills are now so different in their approach to fix Florida’s rising property insurance rates, the House and Senate will have to agree on a bill for it to pass. Unless there is tremendous pressure on House leadership to come to the table, Floridians will likely continue to see increases in property insurance rates and put all of Florida’s insurance consumers at much greater risk of assessments to cover Citizens Insurance losses in a future catastrophic hurricane or series of hurricanes.
Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reforms - A bill that will address pharmacy benefit managers and “step therapy” protocols was passed out of a House Committee earlier this week, HB 1155. An amendment removed provisions that would have allowed state insurance regulators to audit pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies and HMOs, along with language that would have made clear that industry contracts prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from charging fees to pharmacists related to payment of pharmacy claims and from retroactively denying, holding back or reducing payments for covered claims. The initial bill also would have given the state Office of Insurance Regulation access to utilization records and data and information used by pharmacy benefit managers. As amended, the bill also would beef up current laws by establishing a $10,000 financial penalty for any pharmacy benefit manager that doesn’t register with the Office of Insurance Regulation.
Gunster’s Government Affairs Team is committed to keeping you informed. If there is any way our team can be of service to you, please contact us.
