Permit Fees, HB 127 / SB 142
The House and Senate bills both passed their first committees this
week. The House bill is on the agenda in its next committee the Business
& Professions Subcommittee, on 02/13/19, at 1:30 pm.
Construction Contracting Qualifications, HB 351 / SB 674
We are concerned these bills would increase unlicensed activity in
Florida. Our team met with Sen. Perry this week, and he agreed this
would be a negative outcome and that we do not want to increase
unlicensed activity. Our team also met with Daniel Brackett in the
Careers and Competition Subcommittee, who is putting together the staff
analysis on this bill. He was open to our view that this has the
potential to do more harm than good. He has a lot of background on these
issues from his time at DBPR.
Swimming Pool Safety, SB 724
Our team met with Sen. Hooper to discuss the inherent problems with
this bill. He understands our concerns and is open to looking at
different options, but he will be passionately pushing the bill since it
came from one of his constituents. We have reached out to the Florida
Realtors Association to discuss future steps to be taken. Sen. Hooper
shared that the House sponsor will likely be Rep. Webb.
Floodplain Technical Guidance Document
Last week we had a productive meeting with the Director of the
Department of Emergency Management. We are waiting for the Deputy
Director to follow up with us on their internal discussions on this
matter.
Deregulation
Citing unreasonable and needless regulations which create a drag on
our economic growth, stifle completion and keep hard working Floridians
out of the labor pool, Governor Ron DeSantis recently asked the 17
professional boards to come together and come up with their own ideas on
how to reduce regulations. On January 31, 2019, the various boards meet
in Orlando at the “Florida Deregathon” where they discussed, debated,
identified, and recommended substantive regulations to be targeted for
eliminations or modification.
This week, the House Business & Professional Subcommittee met
and received an update on the “Deregathon” from recently appointed
Department of Business and Professional Regulation Halsey Beshears. He
stated that the Florida Legislature has talked about deregulation over
the past several years. The goal is to lower regulations and make it
easier for people to get into the various professions. He did emphasize
that while the goal is to make it easier for people to get into the
workforce, but it should never be at the expense of safety or health of
the public.
The following is a list of recommendations made by the CILB & ECLB to reduce burdensome regulations:
Construction Industry Licensing Board:
- Work to refine all contractor application requirements to reduce
experience requirements while maintaining financial requirements.
- Reduce cost of exam prep by eliminating some of the required
textbooks for the licensing exam. Provide online sources or reduce
required books.
- Revise applications to remove unnecessary questions.
- Reduce the size of the licensing board.
- Work on license reciprocation agreements with other states.
- Allow Florida BCN graduates to apply for Division I licensure
without passing the certified examination. Determine additional degrees
that could qualify for this exemption for all license types.
- Allow Division II to subcontract out work as long as they supervise
subcontractors: eliminate Swimming Pool subcontractor specialty licenses
(The FSPA Board of Directors does not support the elimination of the
subcontractor specialty licenses).
- Electrical Contractors Licensing Board
- Reopen Grandfathering of Registered Contractors, update requirements.
- Review Endorsement requirements for other states.
- Consideration for academic and practical training to meet experience requirements.
- Revise initial training requirements for BASA/FASA.
The most problematic of the recommendations appear to be the CILB’s
suggestion to reduce the number of board members. It should be noted
that Secretary Beshears thought that it was a good idea by making the
board more nimble allowing them to make better decisions. He did comment
that the department will continue to go after those who are taking
advantage of Floridians. The department will continue to hammer on those
who take advantage of citizens that have been displaced or are
suffering hardships and construction contractors who are just taking
advantage of vulnerable Floridians.
There are currently no bills filled yet that directly addresses the
suggestions recommended by the various boards. SB 604, which would open
up grandfathering for registered electrical contractors to become
certified, was filed by Senator Pizzo the day before the
“Deregathon”. Also, keep in mind, some of the recommendations could be
dealt with through rule changes by the various boards.
For full Bill information, including sponsors, language and status download Rallywise.