Florida HOA Legislation

Started by BruceF1 • 10 replies • 1283 views

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BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

I've seen a lot of discussion in other threads about whether certain bills have passed or not passed, amendments to Florida Statute 720, whether certain bills have or have not been signed by the governor, etc. There seems to be a lot of mystery, but maybe I've found something that will help you folks.

The attached is a governor's action report, current as of today. It lists bills that have been received, approved, pending, etc. If I am reading this correctly, I think the bills you are interested in have not yet been received by the governor.

I downloaded this from the government website.

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BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

A little update on what I posted above, for those of you in Florida that may find this useful. Although I no longer live in Florida, I am very familiar with the legislative process as I follow ours almost daily here in Connecticut. From what I see, Florida is not all that much different. This is not suprising since most state legislatures use the same legislative procedures manual (Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure - they don't use Robert's Rules).

Anyway, after a bill has passed both houses, it goes to engrossing and enrolling before it is sent to the governor, so that may explain where the bills you are interested in are. They haven't reached the governor yet. The governor has 15 days after he receives a bill to either sign it or veto it. If he does not sign it, it automatically becomes law without his signature after 15 days.

I've signed up to receive email notification everytime there's a change in the status of a bill here in Connecticut. You can do the same thing in Florida, too. I checked. Try going to

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/MyHouse/login.aspx

That's a sign-in page. You may have to register first, but hopefully, that will get you started.

I hope I've been helpful.

AnnaD2 (Florida)
Posts: 960

Posted:

Thanks Bruce! I just did it. Very informative. Thanks Again!!!

SidneyP (Florida)
Posts: 302

Posted:

Are these the Bills we are talking about....they say effective date July 1/08....have they been passed?...I am still a bit confused..thanks

http://www.ccfjedu.net/HOABILL2008.html

BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

Sidney,

Probably so. But, the web address in your post is not the official web address of the Florida state legislature.

Best you Google for "Florida legislature" or something like that. You can get a lot of accurate state government info by browsing the liks on the government's site.

Jim mentioned four bills. They were: S 1378, S 1986, H 679, and H 1105. I've not looked at any of them, so I can't tell you what they are about, but I believe these are the ones that you Florida folks are interested in.

According to the governor's action report (attached) which is current as of yesterday, the present status of these bills is (assuming I am interpreting the report correctly):

S 1378 - passed by both houses, received by governor's office just yesterday (5/19/08)
S 1986 - passed by both houses, not yet received by governor's office

H 679 - passed by both houses, not yet received by governor's office
H 1105 - passed by both houses, not yet received by governor's office

The governor has 15 days from the date it is received by his office to either sign the bill or veto it, otherwise, it becomes law automatically.

BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

"Best you Google for "Florida legislature" or something like that. You can get a lot of accurate state government info by browsing the liks on the government's site."

Change "liks" to "links"

BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

And forget the "attached" report. I forgot to attach it, but it's available in my original post that started this thread. Fingers just work faster than my brain does, I guess.

JimM7 (Florida)
Posts: 71

Posted:

Bruce...great info but I must make one correction. The Florida Constituion states that the Govenor has 15 days from SINE DIE, the end of the legislative session, to act on a bill. Not 15 days from when he recieves it. If he recieves it "during" the session he has 7 days to act. The 2008 session ended May 2nd. If he vetos the bill it goes back for possible action in the next session or dies. If he takes no action the bill becomes law and is adopted on the effective date.

Thanks for your input.....this can be confusing.

BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

JimM7.

Then the Governor's Action Report that I downloaded from the Florida state legislature's website must be incorrect. It is attached. If you will look at the "GOV RECEIVED" date and compare it to the "DEADLINE GOV. ACTION" date for each bill included in the report, you will see that the difference is 15 days.

You will also note that a number of bills were received by the governor on 4/15/2008 and have a deadline date of 4/30/2008 (15 days). If 4/15/2008 was while the legislature was still in session (you said adjournment sine die was on May 2), then the 15 days must apply to bills received during the session as well.

I will check further into this and let you know what I find.

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BruceF1 (Connecticut)
Posts: 2,535

Posted:

JimM7,

The Florida Constitution does say 7 days during the session and 15 after the session, so I can't explain the 15 days even for the bills received by the governor in April on the report.

However, the Constitution does state, as you said, it is 7 or 15 days, but it is after the bill has been PRESENTED to the governor, not after the bill has been enacted or after the end of the session. Another document I found at the representative's website confirmed this.

After the bill has been passed, it is sent for engrossing (rewritten to include all amendments) and enrolling (signed by the officers of each house). You can imagine that, with the flood of last minute bills after the end of a session, that it could take a couple of weeks before they all reach the governor's office. Requiring 15 days after the end of the session for the governor to act would be impractical.

JimM7 (Florida)
Posts: 71

Posted:

Thanks Bruce...I agree.....I'm still on this.

The Constitutional info was given to me by a Select Commitee staff attorney.

We'll see what floats on July 1st......

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