Cape Council gets final legislative update
With the 2021 Legislative session having ended on May 1 and the state budget finalized, Cape Coral City Council briefly discussed what bills passed and the potential impact of new legislation directly to the city.
“We still have work to do in terms of understanding the ramifications of this legislative session,” City Manager Rob Hernandez said.
The budget, which sees $36.3 billion in General Revenue and $65.2 billion in Trust Funds statewide (the largest in Florida’s history), includes many items of interest to the city.
Some budget allocations that could impact Cape Coral include more than $700 million for both DEP Everglades Restoration and water quality improvements, watershed projects, septic upgrading programs, land and water conservation grants, parks, boating infrastructure and many more.
Included in the General Appropriations Act is $1 million for the Caloosahatchee-Reclaimed Water Transmission Main. This is the reclaimed water pipeline across the Caloosahatchee River that will allow the city of Fort Myers to reduce harmful nutrient discharges to the river and provide beneficial reclaimed water resources to the Cape.
“That is a big dollar amount and we’re thrilled,” said Nick Matthews, senior government relations consultant.
A bill that passed that could also draw the interest of the city is SB 1954 – Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience. The bill provides state funding to assess and address inland and coastal flooding and sea level rise.
The plan states the Florida Department of Environmental Protection must annually submit a plan proposing up to $100 million in funding for projects that address risks from flooding and sea level rise.
The bill allows local governments, regional resilience entities and water management districts to submit lists of proposed projects to the DEP for inclusion in the plan. DEP will implement a scoring system to assess projects to be included.
Other passages of bills discussed included:
– HB 403-Home-based-Businesses: the bill preempts local governments from enacting or enforcing regulations or policies on home-based businesses that meet the protected definition in the bill.
– SB 2006 – Emergency Management: the bill makes several changes intended to better equip Florida to address a pandemic or other public health emergency.
It also includes a prohibition on requirements of COVID-19 vaccination documentation to access, enter, or receive service from businesses, governmental entities and educational institutions.
– HB 735 – Preemption of Local Occupational Licensing: the bill specifically prohibits local governments from requiring a license for a person whose job scope does not substantially correspond to that of a contractor or journeyman type licensed by the Construction Industry Licensing Board, within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
“This specifically (impacts) coastal cities that want to, or have put in place fertilizer application licenses, educational requirements, signing off that they acknowledge best practices — there’s going to some problems implementing those with respect to a specific trade or job or license. That is certainly something that is directly related to water quality,” Matthews said. “This is the type of legislation I think rises maybe to the level where a letter to the governor expressing real heartburn with that particular piece of it is warranted.”
– SB 694 – Waste Management: the bill amends the requirement that a local government must either provide three year’s notice before its solid waste collection service displaces a private waste company or pay the displaced company an amount equal to the company’s preceding 15 month’s gross receipts for the displaced service.
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To reach CJ HADDAD, please email cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com