Palm Beach County Day

Legislative Update

As with every legislative session, Palm Beach County sees some of it’s priorities move forward while others do not. Our Legislative Affairs department has assisted in the successful passage of several pieces of legislation, directly related to the state legislative priorities including but not limited to: texting while driving, Needle Exchange Program, revising the statutory criteria by which local beaches and inlet project grant requests are ranked by the Department of Environmental Protection; Also human trafficking, and establishing a direct support organization for resources to victims, which requires law enforcement training and allows for expungement of kidnapping charges; and also expanding provisions of the C-51 project to apply to Phase I, which is currently restricted to Phase ll.

For the first time in over a decade, the county successfully lobbied for, and the legislature passed, full funding of the Sadowski Trust Fund, which meant full funding of State Housing Initiative Program dollars to the county totaling $15.4 million. This success was a COVID-19 related casualty of the budget and this item was ultimately vetoed by the governor. The County also secured $9 million in Small County Outreach Program funding and received dollars as part of the State’s road, rail, transit, and port programs. The County also helped secure $50 million in recurring dollars for Visit Florida, over $21 million for State Aid to Libraries, and over $1.57 million for cultural/museum grants. In addition, the School District received over $1.69 billion in Florida Education Finance Program dollars; over $8.5 million was received by PBC for water projects/beach restoration, and $500,000 was received for the RESTORE Offender Re-Entry Program.

Actively opposed legislation that did not pass during the 2020 legislative session, including but not limited to legislation that would have preempted county authority of: vacation rentals, local regulation of occupational licensure, pet stores, the increase in levels of sovereign immunity claims, and conditions of employment. The County led the successful exclusion of Palm Beach County from House Bill 133, the Towing and Immobilization bill, allowing the County to maintain ownership of local regulatory and industry oversight protections.

Federal accomplishments include: lobbied Congress and the White House for support of the Water Resources Development Act, which authorizes numerous Florida projects, including authorization of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, Everglades restoration, port and inlet construction, and beach nourishment; support for the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, which bans oil and gas leasing within 125 miles of Florida’s east coast free from oil drilling. Ongoing lobbying efforts included veterans homelessness, continuum of care funding, temporary protected status, sand transfer plant, cyber security, a rural roads grant program, and US Department of Transportation Rural Opportunities to use Transportation for Economic Success initiative.