No. HB 4073
Filed under Transportation.
Manatee County Port Authority, Manatee County; Provides that district is independent special district, rather than dependent special district; revises & provides definitions; provides for operation of port authority; provides powers, functions, & duties of port authority; provides for construction & effect.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDThe Port Authority stops being the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners acting under another name. It becomes an independent special district run by its own five-member board, four seats appointed by the Governor and one by the county commission.
The bill adds roughly 2,200 words of new authority to the Port Authority's power section, including the ability to levy a franchise tax, create islands by dredging, and set port police rules and penalties.
It strips any claim the Port Authority had to license harbor pilots, and requires a four-fifths board vote to sell Port Authority property or sign leases of 30 years or more.
Existing bonds, contracts, and employee retirement benefits carry over unchanged to the new independent authority, which may also create a nonprofit support organization and is shielded from outside regulation of its rates and contracts.
AISection 2 changes the Port Authority from a dependent to an independent special district under chapters 189 and 315, the reclassification the act's new governing board, budget, and audit provisions are all built around.
AIThe charter used to make the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners the Port Authority itself, acting under another name. The bill deletes that framing and defines the Port Authority as a separate governing board.
AINew Section 6 creates a five-member Port Authority board. The Governor appoints the members holding Seats 1 through 4; the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners appoints only Seat 5.
AIThe Port Authority may now impose and collect its own franchise or excise tax on businesses operating under any franchise it grants, enforceable by suit, attachment, and garnishment as if for a private debt.
AINew Section 24 exempts the Port Authority's rates, tolls, revenues, contracts, and acts from regulation by the state or any other board or agency, except what the charter itself or other applicable law requires.
AISelling Port Authority property, or entering a lease running 30 years or longer, now needs a four-fifths affirmative vote of the board, a higher bar than the simple majority that governs its other actions.
AIThe bill deletes the charter's old claim to Board of Pilot Commissioners powers and its authority to license pilots, then adds language stating the charter grants no piloting-related rights, leaving that regulation to chapter 310 alone.
AIThe definition of port facilities expands to add waterways, ferries, industrial parks, manufacturing and refrigeration plants, and markets, letting the Port Authority acquire, build, and regulate far more than harbor and dock facilities.