No. HB 1125
Filed under Local Government.
Local Government Salaries and Benefits ; Revises requirements for board of county commissioners salary formula to apply to noncharter counties; provides for determination of salaries of members of boards of county commissioners of certain counties; requires referendum for board of county commissioners to increase salary, retirement benefits, or other compensation paid to its members; requires referendum election costs to be paid by county; requires referendum for governing body of municipality to increase salary, retirement benefits, or other compensation paid to its members; requires referendum election costs to be paid by municipality; requires referendum for governing body of special district to increase salary, retirement benefits, or other compensation paid to its members; requires referendum election costs to be paid by special district.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCounty commissions, city councils, and special district boards can no longer raise their own salary, retirement benefits, or other compensation without voter approval in a referendum, held only during a presidential election year.
Charter and consolidated-government counties, previously exempt from the state's salary chapter entirely, now fall under it too; their commissioners' pay is frozen at whatever the charter or an ordinance set as of a 2026 cutoff date.
The population-based salary formula that sets pay by county population now applies only to noncharter counties, since charter counties keep their own charter-set pay instead.
Whoever holds the referendum -- the county, municipality, or special district -- pays its election costs; Florida Retirement System benefit increases, and any raise a special district's own charter bars outright, are exempt from the vote requirement.
AIA board of county commissioners, a municipal governing body, or a special district's governing body may not raise its own members' salary, retirement benefits, or other compensation unless voters approve it in a referendum, held only at a general election in a presidential election year; the government pays the referendum's costs.
AIChapter 145's salary rules used to exempt officials in home-rule charter counties and counties with a consolidated government entirely. That blanket exemption is repealed, pulling charter counties into the chapter's coverage, including the new referendum requirement.
AIA charter or consolidated-government county's commissioners keep the salary already set by their charter as of September 30, 2026, or by an authorizing ordinance as of April 1, 2026, but any increase after October 1, 2026 must go through the new referendum process.
AIThe population-based salary formula that sets county commissioner pay by county population now expressly applies only to noncharter counties, formalizing the split between the state formula and charter counties' own charter-set pay.
AIPaying county officials compensation beyond what Chapter 145 sets is normally a first-degree misdemeanor. Charter and consolidated-government counties are now exempt from that ban, as long as any future increase in that supplemental pay goes through the new referendum.
AIThe new referendum requirement does not apply to an increase in retirement benefits that comes from a county's, municipality's, or special district's participation in the Florida Retirement System -- only locally decided compensation increases need voter approval.
AIIf a special district's own charter bars its governing body members from receiving any compensation or benefits, this new referendum process cannot be used to authorize paying them anyway.