CRC - 2017                                                  P 92
       
       
        
       By Commissioner Solari
       
       solarib-00090-17                                        201792__
    1                         A proposal to amend                       
    2         Section 18 of Article VII of the State Constitution to
    3         revise and specify certain conditions required to be
    4         met before the Legislature may enact a law requiring a
    5         county or a municipality to spend funds, reducing the
    6         authority of a county or a municipality to raise
    7         revenue, or reducing the amount of state tax revenue
    8         that may be received by a county or a municipality.
    9          
   10  Be It Proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission of
   11  Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 18 of Article VII of the State Constitution is
   14  amended to read:
   15                             ARTICLE VII                           
   16                        FINANCE AND TAXATION                       
   17         SECTION 18. Laws requiring counties or municipalities to
   18  spend funds or limiting their ability to raise revenue or
   19  receive state tax revenue.—
   20         (a) No county or municipality shall be bound by any general
   21  law that includes an unfunded state mandate, unless such law is
   22  enacted in accordance with the requirements in paragraph (1).
   23  For purposes of this section, an unfunded state mandate is a law
   24  which requires a requiring such county or municipality to spend
   25  funds or to take an action requiring the expenditure of funds;
   26  to accept the transfer of a responsibility or function performed
   27  by the state; or to accept an increase in a responsibility or
   28  function performed by the state. An unfunded state mandate does
   29  not include a law for which funds are appropriated by the
   30  legislature at the time of enactment and annually thereafter to
   31  fund county or municipal expenditures that are required by law
   32  or a law that is required in order to comply with a federal
   33  requirement or to be eligible for a federal entitlement, which
   34  requirement specifically contemplates actions by counties or
   35  municipalities for compliance.
   36         (1) The legislature may not enact a law constituting an
   37  unfunded state mandate unless the law contains only a single
   38  subject; is enacted only after a public hearing has been held,
   39  with at least twenty-four hours’ notice before the hearing that
   40  legislation containing an unfunded state mandate will be
   41  considered; is accompanied by a fiscal analysis prepared by the
   42  legislature and made available at the time of the public
   43  hearing; and, in addition to complying with all other
   44  requirements for the enactment of laws, is passed by a three
   45  fourths vote of the membership of each house of the legislature.
   46         (2) A law containing an unfunded state mandate shall be
   47  repealed on October 1 in the eighth year after its enactment,
   48  unless reenacted by the legislature in accordance with the
   49  requirements in paragraph (1) unless the legislature has
   50  determined that such law fulfills an important state interest
   51  and unless: funds have been appropriated that have been
   52  estimated at the time of enactment to be sufficient to fund such
   53  expenditure; the legislature authorizes or has authorized a
   54  county or municipality to enact a funding source not available
   55  for such county or municipality on February 1, 1989, that can be
   56  used to generate the amount of funds estimated to be sufficient
   57  to fund such expenditure by a simple majority vote of the
   58  governing body of such county or municipality; the law requiring
   59  such expenditure is approved by two-thirds of the membership in
   60  each house of the legislature; the expenditure is required to
   61  comply with a law that applies to all persons similarly
   62  situated, including the state and local governments; or the law
   63  is either required to comply with a federal requirement or
   64  required for eligibility for a federal entitlement, which
   65  federal requirement specifically contemplates actions by
   66  counties or municipalities for compliance.
   67         (b) Except upon approval of each house of the legislature
   68  by two-thirds of the membership, The legislature may not enact,
   69  amend, or repeal any general law if the anticipated effect of
   70  doing so would be to reduce the then-existing authority that
   71  municipalities or counties have to raise revenues in the
   72  aggregate, unless the law contains only a single subject; is
   73  enacted only after a public hearing has been held, with at least
   74  twenty-four hours notice before the hearing that legislation
   75  containing an unfunded state mandate will be considered; is
   76  accompanied by a fiscal analysis prepared by the legislature and
   77  made available at the time of the public hearing; and, in
   78  addition to complying with all other requirements for the
   79  enactment of laws, is passed by a three-fourths vote of the
   80  membership of each house of the legislature as such authority
   81  exists on February 1, 1989.
   82         (c) Except upon approval of each house of the legislature
   83  by two-thirds of the membership, The legislature may not enact,
   84  amend, or repeal any general law if the anticipated effect of
   85  doing so would be to reduce the percentage of a state tax in the
   86  aggregate shared with counties or and municipalities as an
   87  aggregate on February 1, 1989. The provisions of This subsection
   88  does shall not apply to enhancements to a state tax source
   89  enacted after January 1, 2019 February 1, 1989, to state tax
   90  sources, or during a fiscal emergency declared in a written
   91  joint proclamation issued by the president of the senate and the
   92  speaker of the house of representatives, or where the
   93  legislature provides additional state-shared revenues which are
   94  anticipated to be sufficient to replace the anticipated
   95  aggregate loss of state-shared revenues resulting from the
   96  reduction of the percentage of the state tax shared with
   97  counties or and municipalities, which source of replacement
   98  revenues shall be subject to the same requirements for repeal or
   99  modification as provided herein for the replaced a state-shared
  100  tax source existing on February 1, 1989.
  101         (d) Laws adopted to require funding of a state-administered
  102  retirement system or plan pension benefits existing on January
  103  8, 2019 the effective date of this section, criminal laws, and
  104  election laws, the general appropriations act, special
  105  appropriations acts, laws reauthorizing but not expanding then
  106  existing statutory authority, laws having insignificant fiscal
  107  impact, and laws creating, modifying, or repealing noncriminal
  108  infractions, are exempt from the requirements of this section.
  109         (e) The legislature may enact laws to assist in the
  110  implementation and enforcement of this section.