No. SB 1120
Filed under Environment & Water.
Water Management Districts; Requiring the Commission on Ethics to investigate a lobbyist or principal who has made a prohibited expenditure and to provide the Governor with a report of its findings and recommendations regarding such investigation; requiring the South Florida Water Management District, in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection, to provide a detailed report that includes the total estimated remaining cost of implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the status of applicable performance indicators for all project components; authorizing water management districts to levy certain ad valorem taxes on specified property for certain purposes; requiring that the preliminary budget for each water management district include a section that contains the district’s capital improvement plan for the current fiscal year and the next fiscal year, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDWater management districts can ask voters to approve a new property tax dedicated to capital projects such as water supply, flood protection, and water quality, on top of existing district and basin taxes.
Lobbyists and principals working with a district may not give district board members, executives, or qualifying employees any expenditure, and those officials may not accept one, regardless of what other ethics laws would otherwise allow.
Governing boards now need a quorum based on the board's full membership, including vacant seats, and the Legislature no longer has to approve new basins created within the St. Johns River district.
Large construction contracts of $20 million or more must favor in-state, bonded bidders, and no more than a quarter of the state's flood-resilience grant funding may go to water management district projects.
AIWater management districts may ask voters to approve a separate ad valorem tax dedicated to capital projects like water supply, water quality, flood protection, and natural systems, layered on top of existing basin and district millage, up to the district's total authorized rate.
AIOverriding other ethics laws, lobbyists and principals dealing with a water management district may not give district board members, executives, or qualifying employees any expenditure, and those officials may not accept one, closing a gap in the district lobbying law.
AIA water management district can no longer use state money to satisfy the local-match requirement of another state grant program unless the Legislature specifically appropriated those funds for that matching purpose.
AIRepealing a decades-old check, the bill removes the requirement that the Legislature approve any new subdistrict or basin created within the St. Johns River Water Management District, leaving that decision solely to the district's own governing board.
AIGoverning boards must now reach a quorum based on a majority of the board's full membership, counting vacant seats along with filled ones, before they can take official action by majority vote.
AIFor capital improvement contracts of $20 million or more, districts must favor bidders who can show minimum in-state work experience, project bonding, and at least a two-year warranty over competitors who cannot.
AINo more than a quarter of the Resilient Florida Grant Program's annual funding may go to projects submitted by water management districts, directing the rest toward municipalities, counties, and other eligible applicants.