NFIB/Florida's 2014 Session Report

Date: May 12, 2014

NFIB/Florida had a great 2014 session with the passage of
several pieces of legislation that will help small business owners. NFIB/Florida also defeated a number of
anti-business bills that would have established several new causes of action
against small business owners. 

Here’s how NFIB/Florida’s legislative priorities fared:

PASSED – REDUCTION IN AUTO TAG FEES
Reduces some of the fees required to register a motor vehicle,
vessel or mobile home, and returns them to the amount required prior to
September 1, 2009. The fee reductions result in up to a $25 per year savings in
the amount paid to register a motor vehicle. 

PASSED
– FEDERAL
BALANCED FEDERAL BUDGET AMENDMENT APPLICATION

Application to the U.S. Congress calling upon Congress to convene an
Article V constitutional convention.  The
convention would be limited to proposing an amendment to the Constitution which
requires that:

·        
except in a national emergency, the total of all
federal appropriations for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of all
estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year. 

  • forty-five of 50 states have similar
    balanced budget requirements in their respective states.  Florida became the 24th out
    of the required 34 applications to convene this convention.

 

PASSED
– SINGLE SUBJECT LAW FOR FEDERAL LEGISLATION

Application to the U.S. Congress calling upon Congress to convene an
Article V constitutional convention.  The
convention would be limited to proposing an amendment to the Constitution
which:

·        
prohibits Congress from passing a bill that embraces
more than one subject; and

·        
requires that the subject be clearly expressed
in the bill’s title.

This proposed constitutional amendment would cut down on pork barrel
spending projects which tend to get tacked on in the 11th hour to a
bill to ensure support from particular members of congress.

PASSED
– CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION FOR TRIO OF ISSUES

Application to the U.S. Congress calling upon Congress to convene an
Article V constitutional amendments convention for the sole purposes of
proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution to:

·        
impose fiscal restraints on the federal
government;

·        
limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal
government;  and

·        
limit the terms of office for federal officials
and members of Congress.

 

DEFEATED
– RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE

Proposed to raise the state minimum wage from $7.93/HR to $10.10/HR. A special thanks to the NFIB members who
contacted their Senators in opposition to this bill.

 

DEFEATED
– PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Proposed to add pregnancy as a protected class under Florida’s Civil
Rights Laws.  Pregnancy in the workplace
is already specifically protected under federal law.  Federal law caps damages for cases involving
businesses with between 15 and 100 employees at $50,000.  State civil rights cases cap damages at
$100,000, so the bill would have doubled small businesses liability exposure to
workplace pregnancy discrimination suits.

 

DEFEATED
– CREATING A PROTECTED CLASS FOR CONVICTED CRIMINALS

Proposed to prohibit an employer from inquiring into or considering an
applicant’s criminal record on an initial employment application, and would
have created a civil cause of action for a job applicant to sue a prospective
employer for requiring that the applicant disclose criminal history in the initial
application.  A special thanks to the NFIB members that contacted their Senators in
opposition to this bill.

 

DEFEATED
– SEXUAL ORIENTATION DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Proposed to add sexual orientation and gender identity/expression as a
protected class under Florida’s Civil Rights Laws, as well as expand the civil
liability for violations to all protected classes to include the “perception”
of a protected class.  

 

DEFEATED
– CRIMINALIZING WORKPLACE BULLYING

Proposed to criminalize workplace harassment and workplace
cyberbullying. 

 

DEFEATED
– PROHIBITING EMPLOYERS FROM LOOKING AT EMPLOYEE CREDIT REPORTS

Proposed to prohibit the use of a credit report by an employer for
making hiring decisions and would have created a new cause of action for an
applicant to sue a prospective employer for violations of this new law.

 

DEFEATED
– RESTRICTING EMPLOYERS FROM ACCESSING AN EMPLOYEE’S SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT

Proposed to prohibit employers from requiring or requesting that an
employee or a prospective employee provide a user name, password, or other
means of accessing a social media account, unless it is an account used for
business purposes.

 

DEFEATED
– REQUIRING STATE AGENCY TO ASSIST IN WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION CASES

Proposed to direct the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and
the Florida Commission on Human Relations to be proactive in prosecuting
employers who violate the law regarding equal pay, and direct two state
agencies to assist women who accuse their employers of equal pay violations in
obtaining a civil remedy.  

 

FAILED
– REDUCING CORPORATE FILING FEES

Proposed to cut annual corporate filing fees for small businesses and
replace the current late fee structure with a tiered system. 

 

FAILED
– REDUCING TAX ON COMMERCIAL LEASES

Proposed to reduce a portion of the sales taxes paid by businesses to
rent facilities space in Florida.   
Florida is the only state in the country that collects sales tax on
commercial rents. 

 

FAILED
– REDUCING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES TAX

Proposed to lower communications services tax rates by 2 percent,
reducing the general rate from 6.65 percent to 4.65 percent and the rate on
direct-to-home satellite from 10.8 percent to 8.8 percent.

 

FAILED
– INCREASING CORPORATE INCOME TAX EXEMPTION

Proposed to increase the corporate income tax exemption from $50,000 to
$75,000 for businesses, in an effort to ensure that 80 percent of Florida’s
businesses would not be subject the tax.

 

FAILED
– TORT REFORM – ACCURACY IN DAMAGES

Proposed to promote accuracy in medical damages in torts cases by
allowing defense attorneys to present to juries medical expenses actually paid
by the plaintiff and/or their insurer. 

 

FAILED
– TORT REFORM – BAD FAITH

Proposed to limit the practice of suing for “bad faith”
whereby a business’s insurer is sued for acting in bad faith in settling a
claim, a practice utilized by plaintiff’s attorneys to gain awards in excess of
the policy limits. 

 

FAILED
– PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION REFORM

Proposed to create a new “cash balance” retirement plan for state
employees featuring individual employee accounts that are guaranteed a minimum
retirement benefit.  Cash balance
accounts would be funded by employee and employer contributions based on a
percentage of monthly compensation, a guaranteed 2 percent interest on the
account balance, and 75 percent of any investment returns over 2 percent. The
bill also would have barred all future public state employees (except police
and fire) from choosing the defined benefit plan (which is currently only 85.9
percent funded.) 

 

 

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