The Republican-led Legislature used this year’s session to wage culture war in advance of elections in November. Gov. Ron DeSantis already signaled his support for much of the most-divisive legislation, but other bills that fell under the radar amount to bad politics and bad public policy, too.
Here are three that deserve the governor’s veto.
-- Fleecing local taxpayers. It’s bad enough that Florida legislators have expanded the nanny-state to micromanage local governments. But a so-called “pro-business” bill that conservative lawmakers pushed this year could seriously restrict local communities from protecting their quality of life, while exposing local taxpayers to untold millions of dollars in damages. Under the bill, SB 620, businesses whose revenues decline by at least 15 percent as a result of a local ordinance or ballot initiative would be allowed to sue cities and counties for damages. To qualify, businesses would have to be open for three years before the aggrieved ordinance took effect, and longer-term businesses could recover lost profits for up to seven years. This will unleash an avalanche of frivolous lawsuits, as predatory businesses roll the dice in court, and as other companies use the measure to bully cities and counties from cracking down on everything from strip clubs to pill mills and nuisance bars. Florida TaxWatch, the business-backed research organization, has estimated that the legislation would “lead to a number of financially motivated and malicious lawsuits, costing local governments over $900 million annually” because local governments would be forced to increase taxes or reduce services to cover legal fees. This is a thoughtless piece of legislation that rewards bad actors at the expense of hard-working Floridians.
