Florida Senate - 2016                              CS for SB 264
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Community Affairs; and Senator Smith
       
       578-03652-16                                           2016264c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to a special assessment for law
    3         enforcement services; creating s. 166.225, F.S.;
    4         authorizing a municipality to levy a special
    5         assessment to fund the costs of providing law
    6         enforcement services; requiring a municipality to
    7         adopt an ordinance and reduce its ad valorem millage
    8         to levy the special assessment; providing a
    9         methodology for the apportionment of the special
   10         assessment and the reduction of the ad valorem
   11         millage; requiring the property appraiser to list the
   12         special assessment on the notice of proposed property
   13         taxes; specifying exceptions to the reduction of the
   14         ad valorem millage by more than a certain percentage;
   15         authorizing the Department of Revenue to adopt rules
   16         and forms; providing for construction; providing an
   17         effective date.
   18          
   19  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   20  
   21         Section 1. Section 166.225, Florida Statutes, is created to
   22  read:
   23         166.225 Law enforcement services special assessment.—
   24         (1) GENERAL.—The governing body of a municipality may levy
   25  a law enforcement services special assessment to fund all or a
   26  portion of its costs of providing law enforcement services if
   27  the governing body:
   28         (a) Adopts an ordinance, conditioned to take effect only
   29  upon approval by a majority vote of the electors of the
   30  municipality voting in a referendum, levying the law enforcement
   31  services special assessment which apportions the cost of law
   32  enforcement services among the parcels of real property in the
   33  municipality in reasonable proportion to the benefit each parcel
   34  receives, but levies no more than $200 per parcel; and
   35         (b) Reduces its ad valorem millage pursuant to subsection
   36  (3).
   37         (2) APPORTIONMENT METHODOLOGY.—The methodology used to
   38  determine the benefit that a parcel of real property derives
   39  from law enforcement services may be based on the following:
   40         (a) The square footage of structures on the parcel.
   41         (b) The location of the parcel.
   42         (c) The use of the parcel.
   43         (d) The projected amount of time that the municipal law
   44  enforcement agency will spend serving and protecting the parcel,
   45  with assessed parcels grouped by neighborhood, zone, or category
   46  of use. Projections may include the amount of time that will be
   47  spent responding to calls for law enforcement services and the
   48  amount of time that law enforcement officers will spend
   49  patrolling or regulating traffic on the streets that provide
   50  access to the parcel.
   51         (e) The value of the real property served or protected,
   52  including the value of each structure on the parcel and the
   53  structure’s contents. However, this factor may not be used as
   54  the sole factor or as a major factor in determining the benefit
   55  of law enforcement services to a parcel of real property.
   56         (f) Any other factor that may reasonably be used to
   57  determine the benefit of law enforcement services to a parcel of
   58  real property.
   59         (3) REDUCTION IN AD VALOREM MILLAGE.—
   60         (a) In the first year that the special assessment is
   61  levied, the governing body of the municipality must reduce its
   62  ad valorem millage, calculated as if there were no law
   63  enforcement services assessment, by the millage that would be
   64  required to collect revenue equal to the revenue that the
   65  governing body expects to collect from the special assessment.
   66         (b) When preparing the notice of proposed property taxes
   67  pursuant to s. 200.069 in the first year of the assessment, the
   68  governing body of the municipality shall calculate the rolled
   69  back millage rate pursuant to s. 200.065(5) and shall determine
   70  the preliminary proposed millage rate as if there were no law
   71  enforcement services assessment. The governing body shall then
   72  adopt the proposed law enforcement services assessment and
   73  determine the equivalent millage rate pursuant to paragraph (a).
   74  The preliminary proposed millage rate must then be reduced by
   75  the amount of the law enforcement services assessment equivalent
   76  millage rate and the resulting millage rate reported to the
   77  property appraiser, together with the amount of the law
   78  enforcement services assessment, pursuant to the notice
   79  requirements of ss. 200.065 and 200.069. The property appraiser
   80  shall list the law enforcement services assessment on the notice
   81  of proposed property taxes below the line in the columns
   82  reserved for non-ad valorem assessments. After the first year of
   83  the assessment, the millage rate and rolled-back rate for the
   84  notice of proposed property taxes must be calculated pursuant to
   85  s. 200.065(5) and be based on the adopted millage rate from the
   86  previous year.
   87         (c) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the governing body of a
   88  municipality is not required to reduce its millage, excluding
   89  millage approved by a vote of the electors and millage pledged
   90  to repay bonds, by more than 75 percent, or by more than 50
   91  percent if the ordinance levying the law enforcement services
   92  assessment is approved by a two-thirds vote of the governing
   93  body of the municipality.
   94         (4) RULES AND FORMS.—The Department of Revenue may adopt
   95  rules and forms necessary to administer this section.
   96         (5) CONSTRUCTION.—The levy of a law enforcement services
   97  special assessment pursuant to this section shall be construed
   98  as being authorized by general law in accordance with ss. 1 and
   99  9, Art. VII of the State Constitution.
  100         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.