05/04/2007
2007 legislative session comes to close without property tax relief
With the traditional drop of the handkerchiefs, the 2007 Session of the Florida Legislature came to an official end Friday afternoon. The ceremony marked the close of one of the most amicable and bipartisan sessions in recent memory as Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers lived up to their promise to change the tone of discourse in Tallahassee.
NFIB/Florida members fared well in the session. Due to hard work and support from our friends in the Legislature, more moderate leadership was not beneficial to opponents of Florida's small businesses. Attempts by trial lawyers to circumvent lawsuit abuse reform passed last year were unsuccessful, as were more than a dozen bills proposing additional mandated coverages and benefits to small-group health-insurance policies.
The fight isn't over by any means, and threats to Florida's economy posed by rising property and health-insurance rates, a broken property tax system, and other serious issues remain, but small business has successfully defended itself this year against those who want to make it harder to do business in our state.
The session did end with one major disappointment -- the failure of the lawmakers to pass meaningful property tax reductions. NFIB/Florida members and staff must now wait for resolution of our most important issue until the Legislature reconvenes in June.
Legislature deadlocks on property tax, schedules June special session
After months of public hearings, debate in legislative committees, and negotiations between House and Senate leaders, attempts to reform the state's property tax system and provide meaningful reductions to business owners and citizens of Florida were postponed during the last week of session. A special session is tentatively scheduled for June 12-22.
Leaders on both sides of the Capitol indicate that progress had been made during negotiations between House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt, but with less than three days left in the session, the two decided there wasn't enough time remaining to work out all of the details.
At issue is the House's insistence that proposals from the Senate and governor do not provide enough tax relief to Floridians, and their unwillingness to abandon their plan to eliminate property taxes on homesteaded property in favor of a 2.5 percent sales tax increase. House leaders insist that any reform plan must provide average annual savings of $3,300 for commercial property owners, $1,200 for homesteaded property and $750 for non-homesteaded residential property.
The Senate proposal was much less ambitious, in some cases providing as little as $89 in annual savings to property owners. While the House touted their plan as providing as much as $48 billion in savings over five years, the Senate proposal never rose to more than $15 billion over the same period. The governor released his compromise proposal 10 days before the end of session -- a plan with estimated savings of $33 billion over a five-year period.
NFIB/Florida will continue our lobbying efforts over the next month to provide significant cuts to Florida's small-business, commercial-property owners, including an exemption of at least $25,000 on tangible personal property tax combined with an inflation index, and statutory authority for the legislature to raise the exemption in the future.
Trial lawyers fail to reverse lawsuit abuse reform gains
In what promises to be an annual battle, trial lawyers failed this year in their attempt to reverse gains made by NFIB and the business community last year with the repeal of joint and several liability. Simply stated, under joint and several liability, one defendant could be made to pay an entire judgment if other defendants were unable to pay their share. Last year's reform changed the system to require a defendant to pay only their share of a judgment.
To circumvent last year's gains, trial lawyers attempted to pass legislation requiring that judgments be paid only by defendants named in the lawsuit. This would allow trial lawyers to name only those defendants with the ability to pay, even if they share only a small percentage of fault. Other parties with a larger share of fault, but without the ability to pay, would not be named in the suit.
Health-insurance mandates fail
Over a dozen bills proposing new, or expanding current, health-insurance mandates were defeated during 2007 Florida Legislature. Multiple studies prove that mandated benefits significantly increase premiums, preventing many business owners from offering coverage to their employees. As a result, NFIB/Florida opposes all mandates regardless of subject in favor of a flexible system where business owners can put together more affordable health-insurance policies which meet the needs of their employees.
Legislature supports private property rights
The Florida Legislature passed legislation supportive of a business owner’s right to regulate and/or prohibit certain activities on their property.
SB 1920 (Fasano) allows a property owner to control activities related to signature gathering and other activities associated with the initiative process. In some areas of the state, law enforcement has been reluctant to remove signature gatherers due to conflicting court rulings, forcing owners of retail establishments and other commercial enterprises to allow activities they oppose. The bill now goes to the governor.
HB 1417 (Baxley), a bill which would prohibit employers from adopting and enforcing policies prohibiting employees from possessing firearms in their vehicles while on company property, was defeated by the House Environment and Natural Resources Council. As a result of our member ballot, NFIB did not take a position on this bill.
Sincerely,
Bill Herrle
NFIB/Florida Executive Director
bill.herrle@nfib.org
