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   Legislative Update Presentation by Sunrise Consulting Group

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   Jonathan Foster of Sunrise Consulting Group provided a legislative update on the 2020 Florida session, covering bills affecting cities, the veto of $200,000 in Beach Street stormwater drainage funding, the Florida Retirement System impact ($440M statewide), CARES Act funding, and looking ahead to the 2021 session priorities including septic-to-sewer funding under Senator Wilton Simpson. The presentation was informational with council Q&A; no formal action was taken.

   📍Beach Street📍Bridge Street🏢Florida League of Cities🏢Gulf Harbors🏢Sunrise Consulting Group👤Bill Galvano👤Chris Sprowls👤Debbie Manns👤Jonathan Foster👤Ron DeSantis👤Sam👤Scott Dudley👤Wilton Simpson#CARES Act#Executive order on mortgage foreclosure relief (effective September 1)#Florida Retirement System (FRS)#HB 101 - Public Construction#HB 1066 - Impact Fees#HB 1091 - Environmental Accountability#HB 1343 - Environmental Resource Management#Revenue Estimating Conference#Septic-to-sewer grant program

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   [00:00:21] The first and only item we have on the agenda is for Mr. Foster to come talk to us about [00:00:23] legislative stuff. [00:00:24] Yes, sir. [00:00:25] So if you want to come over to the mic, we'll... [00:00:29] Thank you. [00:00:30] Is this okay? [00:00:31] On or off? [00:00:32] Whichever way you want. [00:00:33] Okay. [00:00:34] Take it a little bit. [00:00:35] It's probably better for the people at home if you're not wearing it. [00:00:43] If you asked my wife, she would agree the other way, so no. [00:00:49] Thank you all for letting me come here today. [00:00:50] I know it seems like session was just like years ago with everything that's going on, [00:00:55] and it seems like that, but I know fortunately we're able to do some of these meetings in [00:00:58] person and what you all have gone through, and it's been a tough year for everybody. [00:01:03] When the session started, of course, coronavirus wasn't even part of the conversation. [00:01:07] They would have had no idea. [00:01:08] When they started the budget process, and even the legislative process, they had no [00:01:12] idea that this would come at the end. [00:01:15] And by the time, I will tell you the time that it hit, it was in... [00:01:18] During the last few weeks, I don't come home to the district. [00:01:21] We're doing all the budget stuff even throughout the weekends. [00:01:23] You stay there. [00:01:25] And I remember on a Friday afternoon, they cleared out the state house, everybody down [00:01:29] there where they were voting, because they discovered that one of the legislators that [00:01:32] were there had just been in a conference over in California a few days before, and that [00:01:39] he had come into contact with somebody with coronavirus. [00:01:42] They cleaned out everybody. [00:01:43] They kicked everybody out of the entire state capitol. [00:01:45] They cleaned it. [00:01:46] And I remember calling my wife, and I'm like, what's this coronavirus thing? [00:01:51] And she's like, are you serious? [00:01:52] I'm like, I don't watch the news. [00:01:53] And then quickly, obviously, it invoked their legislative session and the whole process, [00:01:58] and they knew that there was going to be something that impacted each and every one of us. [00:02:02] So we'll go kind of through that, and I'll kind of give you an idea where we're going [00:02:05] to leading forward into next year. [00:02:08] Just yesterday, the Revenue Estimating Conference, which meets every few months, put together [00:02:13] some forecasts on what's going to happen in 2021. [00:02:16] I will tell you this, it's not as bad as what they thought it would be three years out. [00:02:21] That gives you kind of an idea where we're going. [00:02:22] So it's going to be rough for about a year, but after that. [00:02:25] Go ahead to the first slide, if you don't mind, and I've got one over here, so I'll [00:02:28] look at you guys. [00:02:30] The first way we just want to start off is kind of give you an idea of how things process. [00:02:34] You obviously see me a few times throughout the year, but it's a process. [00:02:38] The committee week started about three to four months before session even started, and [00:02:43] we had that same process. [00:02:44] We worked with you all throughout that time with bill analysis after the committee week [00:02:49] started with updates on bills that would impact you directly, and also getting feedback [00:02:54] back from the city manager and her staff on how would this bill, if it passed, how would [00:02:58] it affect you, good and negative. [00:03:01] Some of the bills that got this close to passing was the bill that allows us to put the online [00:03:07] notifications for meetings that you all have to pay for going through in newspapers. [00:03:12] We expect that bill to come back. [00:03:13] That went for the first time in three years. [00:03:15] That literally got to the floor of the House and the House and the Senate. [00:03:18] I'm literally asking your city manager, how much does this cost you if this passes? [00:03:23] I'm going to say, Debbie, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. [00:03:26] My pleasure. [00:03:27] That helped out. [00:03:28] We were the first one, by the way, out of the other city and the county to get back, [00:03:31] so that was always good. [00:03:32] I like it that way. [00:03:33] So, you know, we met with the city manager and the different department directors, worked [00:03:37] to secure funding requests, and then, of course, got into the session in 2020. [00:03:42] We work very closely with the Florida League of Cities, and Scott Dudley, who has been [00:03:46] leading their legislative efforts, is actually moving up, and we have another gentleman [00:03:50] coming in. [00:03:51] We'll continue to work with him. [00:03:52] We have meetings every Monday morning at 8 a.m. with them, and we also have meetings [00:03:57] throughout session on specific issues. [00:04:00] Where we work with them very directly is they look at who has close relationships with the [00:04:04] leadership. [00:04:05] Well, obviously, we've got great relationships with a guy named Wilton Simpson over here [00:04:09] in the east part of the county, and they know I'm very close with Chris Rouse and Bill [00:04:13] Gavano, who is the current Senate President. [00:04:15] So I went in on a lot of those Florida League of Cities meetings with a member of the Florida [00:04:18] League of Cities and asked to actually say to them, hey, this is how it impacts a city [00:04:22] right here in your district and in your backyard, and, of course, securing funding for Bridge [00:04:26] Street and what happened during session, so we'll talk about that next. [00:04:31] Next slide. [00:04:32] This just kind of gives you an idea of how many bills are filed, you know, throughout [00:04:35] session. [00:04:36] You'll see a few more bills got filed, but less actually passed, so out of 3,700 bills, [00:04:42] you only have about 200 that actually passed the legislature. [00:04:46] A little underneath that, you'll see 196. [00:04:48] That's probably a good thing for us with Home Rule and protecting it. [00:04:50] The less bills that get passed, the better it is for cities and folks here back home. [00:04:55] Next one. [00:04:56] I always like to start off with good news, I guess, right? [00:05:01] Beach Street stormwater drainage, unfortunately, was vetoed on June 29th. [00:05:06] That was the last day that he could make vetoes, just to let you know. [00:05:09] On June 30th, their fiscal year starts the very next day, starting July 1st, and they [00:05:13] waited all the way to the end, and the reason they did that was still to really get a handle [00:05:18] on what this impact was going to be, the coronavirus was going to be on them, but also get an understanding [00:05:24] of what the dollars they were going to be getting from the CARES dollars, and we're [00:05:27] going to go through that a little bit also at the end to talk about a little bit of how [00:05:30] it's impacting the state. [00:05:32] As you know, where the project was considered of the design and permitting, we could secure [00:05:36] $200,000, and unfortunately, it was vetoed. [00:05:40] What Sam put in on this, when he created this line, is that 70% of all projects, water projects [00:05:46] in that area, were vetoed throughout the whole state. [00:05:48] That was the highest amount I have ever seen in 20 years of water projects ever vetoed [00:05:53] in that part of the budget. [00:05:57] Next item. [00:05:58] I'm just going to go through, I'm not going to read these, you know, we have these bills [00:06:02] and we have about 25 other bills plus that we tracked that were the top priorities, but [00:06:06] I wanted to just give you a couple of the top bills. [00:06:10] HB 1091, environmental accountability. [00:06:13] This will increase various statutory penalties for violations of environmental laws. [00:06:17] A lot of this came from issues that were happening with other cities with discharge that they [00:06:21] were heading, some south of us in Pinellas County. [00:06:25] Some of those, you can see sanitary sewer lateral as a privately owned pipeline that [00:06:29] connects to the main sewer line and encourage cities and counties to establish a rehabilitation [00:06:35] program by 2022. [00:06:37] It will also provide for a mechanism for the city to work with private property owners [00:06:41] to repair or replace defective lines where damage or leaking has been identified. [00:06:46] We also have more bill analysis and deeper on this, and we can get you more information [00:06:50] for you or your staff of any of these bills and other bills that we have. [00:06:54] 1066, the impact fees. [00:06:56] This is going to unfortunately prohibit the application of a new or increased fee to pending [00:07:01] permit applications unless the intent is to lessen or actually reduce or mitigate that [00:07:06] impact fee. [00:07:08] That was real simple. [00:07:09] Next slide. [00:07:10] HB 101, public construction. [00:07:13] Could you go back the one? [00:07:15] Absolutely, go ahead. [00:07:16] The final thing about the credits, the value of the unused impact fee. [00:07:20] I didn't review that. [00:07:21] Yeah, that one there will provide impact fee credits or assignable and transferable at [00:07:26] any time after the establishment of the fee within the same fee zone district or an adjoining [00:07:32] zone or district, if that's not confusing enough, within the same local jurisdiction. [00:07:36] I think we could say that 10 more times, we'd be confused. [00:07:39] This was actually something that was very, very debated. [00:07:41] Let me tell you why, because what they were looking at sometimes when we were sitting [00:07:46] in the committee is would Pinellas and Pasco be considered a district within the same local [00:07:53] jurisdiction of some jurisdictions or within swift water. [00:07:57] They made it that it had to be within our own limits here within the cities or counties. [00:08:02] Some of them in the legislature were trying to make it cross even county lines that they'd [00:08:07] have to give them. [00:08:08] It was very, very confusing at that point, so they had to rein that in. [00:08:12] Not really sure where that manifested or where that came from or what groups were pushing [00:08:16] for that the most, but did you have any question on that? [00:08:20] I apologize. [00:08:21] I'm aware of it because sometimes developers will pay the impact fees up front. [00:08:26] Yes. [00:08:27] And, for example, Gulf Harbors has paid a lot of sewer impact fees. [00:08:32] They may claim more than they could use because the development isn't going to come in as [00:08:37] much as they paid. [00:08:38] Right. [00:08:39] The city is holding some of those. [00:08:42] Correct. [00:08:43] If you have an impact fee and you don't use it, in theory, you could in the past sell [00:08:48] it to somebody else who's a developer because you don't need it, and so it was an actual [00:08:54] form of revenue. [00:08:56] It was. [00:08:57] Correct. [00:08:58] And so what they're saying is use it within your area. [00:09:00] Yes, sir. [00:09:01] So it doesn't sound like they've disallowed it, transfer, just keep it. [00:09:07] The developers wanted it to go beyond what that area would have been. [00:09:11] Outside of that area. [00:09:12] Correct. [00:09:13] Get some money. [00:09:14] Like the east side of the county, some of them were doing something on the west side, [00:09:16] and they stopped that very quickly. [00:09:19] Next one. [00:09:21] This one here is the bill changes the limits of retaining allowed on state and local government [00:09:26] contracts. [00:09:27] Contracts less than $200,000, the bill reduces the fee from 10% to 5%, and for contracts [00:09:32] more than $200,000, the bill reduces from 10% to 5% after half the project is completed. [00:09:38] You can see the rest there. [00:09:41] This was the biggest one. [00:09:42] I forgot to tell you, this was one of the parts where cities, counties, school boards, [00:09:47] and this is an issue that's going to come back next year. [00:09:50] It is going to be one of the big hits on the state of Florida, and that was the state administered [00:09:54] retirement systems. [00:09:56] Overall you can see the impact was, I don't know if we had the overall amounts, but it [00:10:01] was $440 million. [00:10:02] The largest amount was the school boards, which were $232 million. [00:10:06] What they do is to make sure that they are actuary sound, and to understand this, they [00:10:12] needed $440 million to make sure that it would be actuary sound for future folks who would [00:10:18] retire. [00:10:19] How they base it on is, the thing is a little bit skewed, is 85% of people retire right [00:10:23] now. [00:10:24] They want to make sure enough money is within the system. [00:10:26] 85% of the people are not retiring right now, but I will tell you the impact at the school [00:10:31] system and the early retirements that they've had with teachers and early retirement has [00:10:35] had a huge impact on the system. [00:10:37] The biggest really cause of it has been less, younger folks are coming in and actually picking [00:10:42] the retirement system, and they're doing the, oh gosh, what's the other part, the stock [00:10:46] where they get the, like the 401 type plan that they have at the state? [00:10:51] Defined contribution. [00:10:52] They're doing the defined contribution. [00:10:53] You have less people paying into the FRS, having more of an issue at the end. [00:10:57] It's also a very conservative, even though the stock market had been going phenomenal, [00:11:02] it's a very conservative return. [00:11:06] In years past, the legislature kind of helped fill that hole. [00:11:10] The legislature did not fill that hole this year. [00:11:12] They charged schools, cities, counties, everybody who had paid into that system to do it, and [00:11:19] they would look at probably that happening again next year with the volatility in the [00:11:22] stock markets. [00:11:23] I hope it's not as high as the 440 million, but that was one of the biggest impacts that [00:11:27] hit every government entity throughout the state of Florida, and we need to watch that [00:11:33] very quickly. [00:11:34] That bill actually moved extremely fast. [00:11:37] It wasn't a regular bill that I told you would come out of committee weeks. [00:11:38] It came out of what was called a proposed committee bill. [00:11:41] Within 12 days, it was created on the floor of the House and being sent over to the Senate. [00:11:46] It gave us very little time to fight, but this was one of the bills we did get to fight [00:11:51] with the Florida League of Cities. [00:11:53] The only thing that we got to do was get some of the increase in teacher salaries, some [00:11:57] of the amounts that were given to them, that 500 million was able to come out of that. [00:12:01] They weren't able to give any other opportunities for cities, counties, and others that are [00:12:06] in the Florida retirement system, including state colleges and universities. [00:12:10] Next one. [00:12:12] This is a big one. [00:12:13] This was a huge, huge bill this year. [00:12:15] I'll read some of these here, but any questions? [00:12:18] HB 1343 is environmental resource management. [00:12:21] It transferred the on-site sewage program from the Department of Health to the Department [00:12:26] of Environmental Protection. [00:12:27] Kind of makes sense, it seems like, they said. [00:12:30] Requires public utilities holding and applying for or renewing a domestic wastewater discharge [00:12:35] permit to file annual reports requiring transactions and allocations and common costs. [00:12:41] Requiring local governments to create wastewater treatment plants, however, if a local government [00:12:46] does not have a domestic wastewater facility, then it is not obviously required. [00:12:52] Requiring sanitary sewage facilities to take steps to prevent sanitary sewer overflows [00:12:57] and requiring the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs to conduct inspections [00:13:01] of producers enrolled in the best management practices, BMPs. [00:13:05] The last one there, the bill provides for fines and failures to comply with pollution [00:13:10] prevention plans to adding or increasing the caps of administrative penalties that may [00:13:15] be assessed by DEP. [00:13:17] We're expecting these type of issues to be really big on them. [00:13:20] Again, they're saying they're going to put up a lot of subject to sewer bills and possibly [00:13:24] some funding for subject to sewer next year, which I think that's some of the things your [00:13:28] city manager and I have been talking about for some locations. [00:13:32] We're expecting that to be a big item underneath Wilton Simpson in the upcoming session. [00:13:37] Next item. [00:13:38] Could you do the one you missed there, the creating grant programs? [00:13:42] Is that what you just were alluding to? [00:13:45] So what they have said, you don't have to go back, so every year they do a very, it's [00:13:52] a very politicized process to get grants, what we call them, really more of appropriations. [00:13:58] What they have tried to do this session, it didn't pass, but Senator Simpson said he'd [00:14:02] like to do it. [00:14:03] He'd like to start off with a $50 to $65 million. [00:14:06] So it's actually based on need, not just on who's in leadership and which city or county [00:14:11] should get that money, but based on need, meaning on who's having the financial need [00:14:17] for the area that would need it, who would have the need on the actual issue and how [00:14:22] it's impacting the community for all the water needs. [00:14:25] And when I say water needs, I mean that's your sewer, that's your runoff, all the above, [00:14:30] septic to sewer. [00:14:31] Unfortunately, you know, one of the things they're going to have to, they only do $65 [00:14:35] million a year for septic to sewer. [00:14:37] If we replaced all septic to sewer statewide, it's $4 billion. [00:14:42] That's a huge amount to look at, a huge amount. [00:14:45] This slide, is that different? [00:14:46] I mean, this is talking about... [00:14:48] This is COVID. [00:14:49] I was, we can go back to that. [00:14:50] That was more the bill, not the... [00:14:51] I'm talking the second to last one, creating grant programs for funding of waterfowl. [00:14:56] Right. [00:14:57] So that is the second one right there. [00:14:58] That is, they didn't, they put it in the... [00:15:00] that they could create it, but they did not fully fund it yet. [00:15:03] They had to take that money out in this budget. [00:15:06] But Senator Simpson has said he'd like to start off between 50 and 65 million, [00:15:09] but yet that's the grant program. [00:15:11] They are still going to allow us to ask for dollars through the appropriations process up to this point. [00:15:15] There's nothing in law that keeps a legislator from asking for it, [00:15:18] but I would see soon forth either some rules come forth from the legislature saying we're going to put it fully into the grant program, [00:15:25] but we will be able to ask for both, so that's a good. [00:15:28] But the 50% match was what Debbie, you and I had talked about, [00:15:31] and you guys were willing to put forth your teeth into the game is what we said and they like to see. [00:15:36] Next one. [00:15:38] The CARES Act. [00:15:39] This is what's been obviously controlling everything in the past couple months. [00:15:44] I will say with this real quick, $45 billion for rental and mortgage assistance just came out. [00:15:52] We just sent some information about some more funds that just came from last week. [00:15:56] We put that in an email to Debbie and said if there were some opportunities, [00:16:00] if they want to sign agreements with the state to allow more funds. [00:16:03] Some of those funds are obviously going directly to cities and counties. [00:16:07] You have two types of funding mechanisms, and I'll say it this way. [00:16:10] I think you probably already know. [00:16:11] Those over half a million got what we did, which went directly. [00:16:14] The full amount went to the county and, of course, distributions to the cities for the costs. [00:16:19] The others were under. [00:16:21] They only got half their money. [00:16:23] The governor is holding on to that money, and part of that is to fill up any needs that they have. [00:16:28] There still is a ton of CARES money up in Tallahassee. [00:16:33] What we have been told is that they will not need to have a special session to fill in the holes. [00:16:38] They have not had to take any reserves, which we have $4 billion in reserves, [00:16:43] and that they still feel that they will be able to get through session with those amounts. [00:16:48] Governor Santa signed that executive order, which took effect on September 1st, [00:16:52] providing for an extension of the mortgage foreclosure and relief, [00:16:56] and that was some of the information, of course, in that funding up until October 1st. [00:17:00] So those funds are available. [00:17:01] Go ahead to the next slide. [00:17:04] I'm going to talk about this real quick before I go into this. [00:17:07] Some of the things that they're saying that we're looking at still, [00:17:11] the federal government may pass another CARES Act type of funding. [00:17:15] We're looking at that possibly happening very shortly. [00:17:18] There's two sides to that. [00:17:19] One side is saying, we see states like Florida that haven't spent all their money, [00:17:23] so why should we send new money down there? [00:17:26] And the other side is saying, is there reasons why they haven't spent the money? [00:17:29] Should we loosen it up a little bit for them to do it? [00:17:32] One of the things that they are absolutely adamant on not allowing cities, states, [00:17:36] or anybody else doing is filling in the hole when it comes to retirements [00:17:39] or fully filling in some of the financial holes, [00:17:43] instead of just putting it onto encumbersome when it comes to PPE and those types. [00:17:48] But I would see that conversation happening really quickly. [00:17:51] They're going to look at saying, hey, [00:17:53] if these folks haven't been able to spend these dollars locally or at the state level, [00:17:56] what are some of the rules that we need to change? [00:17:58] And then next, where are their needs really, and how can we help them? [00:18:01] Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday, September 4th, [00:18:04] requested that this is a really, really big thing. [00:18:07] Of course, that deadline is September 15th. [00:18:09] Local officials provide information about all actions county governments, [00:18:16] city commissioners, or other boards or commissioners that have taken regarding the coronavirus. [00:18:21] We don't know what the impetus of this was, if it was something from South Florida or a certain city, [00:18:26] if it was the mask or what. [00:18:29] But the governor requested that local government officials submit a complete response of information in writing. [00:18:34] Did they already get everything to you? [00:18:36] We have responded, yes. [00:18:38] We have responded, and good. [00:18:39] So we'll get back to you. [00:18:42] Did they give you any inclination of why when they sent you that email, why they were requesting that information? [00:18:46] No, there was no indication as to why the information was requested by the governor, [00:18:53] but it was clear that it was due in a pretty quick turnaround amount of time, [00:18:59] and so we were certain to get that in. [00:19:02] Well, we've talked to current leadership. [00:19:04] I talked to Senate President Bill Galvano. [00:19:07] He said they were looking at multiple cities and counties. [00:19:10] He didn't tell me exactly which ones they were or why it was, [00:19:12] but nobody has been pointed at exactly why that information had been requested yet. [00:19:16] So if you get anything or if I get anything, we'll share it with each other very quickly. [00:19:19] Oh, absolutely. [00:19:20] Next slide. [00:19:22] Hold on. [00:19:23] Yeah, go ahead. [00:19:24] We haven't done anything unusual to reply to them. [00:19:28] We didn't imprison anybody or arrest anybody that I know of. [00:19:33] That's correct, Councilman. [00:19:35] I'm sure much of the protocols that we put in place were similar to that of other local units of government. [00:19:42] Right. [00:19:43] Thank you. [00:19:45] As you know, it wasn't on this slide, but the bars were able to open. [00:19:52] Was it this Friday or did they already? [00:19:54] Monday. [00:19:55] They are on Monday. [00:19:56] It's coming up. [00:19:57] So he sent the executive order to change that. [00:19:59] The budget was signed by the governor, of course, on June 29th. [00:20:02] We talked about $1 billion, as you all already know, were vetoed. [00:20:06] The governor directed all quarterly distributions to agencies and departments to withhold 1.5 percent and a total of six. [00:20:13] What does that mean? [00:20:15] So he didn't come right out and say, through the budget process, I'm going to cut your budgets. [00:20:20] He's actually telling them, do not spend 1.5 percent per quarter. [00:20:24] I'm holding it to see if I need to fill other holes. [00:20:28] So they could get that money back before the end of the fiscal year, [00:20:32] but what he already has told them is to start looking at actually doing 8.5 percent for this year [00:20:38] and 10 percent reduction in their budgets for next year, if that gives you an idea. [00:20:42] The 10 percent, obviously, right now is just, I'll say, a practice. [00:20:46] They're starting to put it in. [00:20:47] But I do want to give you a couple of these numbers real quick. [00:20:50] So they came back with a revenue estimating conference. [00:20:53] They said the shortfall was going to be $2.7 billion for 2021 through 2022. [00:21:00] The original projection for this fiscal year, 2020 to 2021, was $5.4 billion. [00:21:07] They think that we're going to come actually underneath that and still be able to fill in the holes, [00:21:11] what we were talking about with the CARES dollars. [00:21:13] You'll see a couple big ticket items come up that could be very helpful for all of us. [00:21:19] There's the Seminoles Compact discussion. [00:21:21] You probably have heard about them and the agreement for them to continue to have at the Seminoles. [00:21:25] There is over a billion dollars sitting over in a trust fund that we haven't been able to spend [00:21:30] because we haven't gotten an agreement yet on that trust fund, [00:21:33] I mean, on those rules moving forward and how we treat the Seminoles, [00:21:37] meaning if we allow gambling in other places. [00:21:39] There is about $400 million in there that would be available for us moving forward, [00:21:44] which would obviously help our budget. [00:21:46] The other item, which as we have all seen, we've all been shopping online quite a bit in the past couple months. [00:21:52] As you know, there is a different treatment on how retail stores are treated and how online are treated. [00:21:58] That bill came very, very close this year to passing. [00:22:02] I understand that that will be one of the number one items that they're looking at [00:22:05] because they need to look at other funding mechanisms available to them. [00:22:10] Do you have a question, Matt? [00:22:11] Yeah, as a retailer who actually sent my sales tax report in yesterday for August, [00:22:20] it frosts me that I'm at a competitive disadvantage with the mail order folks who don't have a presence. [00:22:36] There's been some discussion at the national level to put together some sort of interstate clearinghouse [00:22:45] and I'm not sure of the specifics on it, but conceptually I think it would be a great idea. [00:22:52] The caveat to that is that if we're going to be asked to collect sales tax for sales outside of the state of Florida, [00:23:05] two things need to be included. [00:23:08] One is, for God's sakes, just one tax rate per state [00:23:13] because there are thousands of taxing authorities with different rates [00:23:17] and I do good to keep track of the ones in Florida, much less the ones in Wyoming. [00:23:23] The second is that allow us to make whatever report we do and send the money to a single place [00:23:33] and not have to send 50 different checks or electronic transfers every single month to 50 different states. [00:23:43] Right. I agree. [00:23:46] So again, we believe that's going to be a huge topic of discussion on quite a few issues that you mentioned right there. [00:23:51] We think it's about time we had that type of discussion. [00:23:55] I will say this also, the Revenue Estimating Conference had said that they expected this to be about a three-year fallout. [00:24:01] They were expecting originally to have about $2.5 to $3 billion a year less than what we had last year, [00:24:09] even with $1 billion three years ahead. [00:24:11] What their projections were is the big if, the vaccine comes through before the end of the year, [00:24:16] you're going to see us go quickly ahead of many other states. [00:24:20] One, obviously, we're tourism. Our state will open up, people will visit, the sales tax will be being spent here. [00:24:27] We've had almost over 1 million folks in the state of Florida unemployed. [00:24:31] It's had about $3.5 billion immediate impact on our budget. [00:24:36] And to only have $2.7 and maybe only a half a billion a year after that would be amazing for the state of Florida. [00:24:43] So it's bad news, but it's good news knowing how quickly that we could recover if everything falls into place. [00:24:50] I think that should be it. [00:24:52] And I know we did some questions throughout, but I'm more happy. [00:24:55] So let me just keep you moving forward real quick. [00:24:58] The elections come in November. [00:25:00] So all those that we had and certain committee chairs that we worked with in leadership, that all changes after November. [00:25:06] The leadership coming in, as I said before, is Chris Sprouse from Pinellas County. [00:25:10] He's the Speaker of the House. [00:25:12] The Senate President, with all things not changing in elections, would be Senator Wilton Simpson, of course, from Pasco County. [00:25:20] After session, they have an organizational meeting, and that starts to put in place different committee men and women [00:25:26] through the House and in the Senate. [00:25:28] And come December, they start meeting for committee weeks. [00:25:31] So you'll have one or two meetings in December, two weeks in January, three weeks in February, all of March, [00:25:38] all of April for session in the first week of May. [00:25:41] So things are going to start off very quickly right after session. [00:25:44] It is going to be a difficult year, but we also have to make sure in this climate that we don't see a lot of unfunded mandates [00:25:50] that the state generally has done in the past in this type of certain. [00:25:54] One thing, Senator Simpson and Representative Sprouse did an op-ed piece just this past week on climate change. [00:26:06] Yes, sir. [00:26:07] Please relate to them. [00:26:09] I was very pleased to see them recognize it. [00:26:13] I'm not sure that doing stuff to mitigate the effects is necessarily going to be the be-all, end-all, [00:26:22] but Mr. Altman is on the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, [00:26:27] and they have a climate coalition resiliency group at the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, [00:26:38] and I would encourage Representative Sprouse and Senator Simpson to avail themselves of the expertise that that group's got. [00:26:47] I think it would help both of them be way up to speed where they're going to need to be as we're facing this. [00:26:54] I agree, and I have to just tell you that, too. [00:26:56] This governor has been very proactive in a lot of environmental issues that a lot of folks had not expected him to be. [00:27:03] Senator Simpson has made it a priority to put funds and dollars into restoring the Everglades, [00:27:08] and, again, his number one priority has been that septic sewer project that he's been talking about for years. [00:27:14] So that doesn't surprise me that you were pleased. [00:27:16] I'm glad to see Chris Rouse also come along in that. [00:27:20] He's a very conservative person in his beliefs, and so I'm very happy to see that. [00:27:27] Thank you. [00:27:28] Mr. Altman? [00:27:29] I want to segue off of that to just overview that your report to us has been about the state [00:27:37] and what you've learned as our legislative lobbyist, and when I look at our situation, [00:27:45] whether it's federal dollars, state dollars, and county, [00:27:49] and when I look at where we seem to have our hardest time right now, [00:27:54] and that has been cooperating and coordinating, getting support from our county. [00:28:03] As an example, money coming in for septic sewer, but yet when we talk to our public works director [00:28:15] through the city manager, we hear our rules are we have to kind of prove that there's an environmental problem [00:28:21] in order to force people to hook up the sewer. [00:28:23] So there's a state law that says hook up the sewer, but we have a county that's not implementing that, [00:28:29] and we have a service area that allows us to put the sewer in, [00:28:33] and we've been authorized to operate that enterprise, in particular, Trouble Creek Road, [00:28:41] which also was in the news, I guess, over the weekend, but Trouble Creek to the Gulf, [00:28:46] where a lot of our environmental problems can occur, [00:28:50] having heard in the past that you can literally smell the sewage after a large rainfall [00:28:55] because of the leaching up from this in the ground. [00:28:59] So to the degree that you're giving us all this good information, [00:29:06] it seems to me, Debbie, that what we really need is better results from our county [00:29:16] in terms of looking at what is just a small percentage of their population of 10% [00:29:20] that's really carrying a lot of the ball, whether it's through our law enforcement efforts [00:29:26] or our fire department or many of the departments that we have. [00:29:31] We're putting our city's tax dollars to work and also paying our county taxes and not getting that. [00:29:39] Now, Debbie, you meet with the county administrator? [00:29:41] I do. I meet with the county administrator at least one time per month. [00:29:45] I call him on issues that are common between the two of us, [00:29:52] and we do also interface regularly with the sheriff's office, [00:29:58] and they have provided me with information.

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

3. 3Adjournment