Florida Senate - 2011                                    SB 1432
       
       
       
       By Senator Fasano
       
       
       
       
       11-00958A-11                                          20111432__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to county government funding; creating
    3         s. 125.595, F.S.; providing circumstances under which
    4         a board of county commissioners may use certain
    5         revenues for a purpose other than that specified by
    6         law; defining the term “eligible county”; specifying
    7         that county eligibility must be determined annually
    8         and exercised for a limited time; prohibiting the use
    9         of certain revenues for such purposes; providing an
   10         effective date.
   11  
   12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   13  
   14         Section 1. Section 125.595, Florida Statutes, is created to
   15  read:
   16         125.595 Economic distress flexibility.—
   17         (1) The board of county commissioners of an eligible county
   18  may, by a two-thirds vote of the membership of the board, use
   19  revenues from distributions of state taxes to the county or from
   20  taxes authorized by the Legislature to be imposed by the county
   21  for a purpose other than that specified in the law providing for
   22  the distributions or authorizing the imposition of the taxes.
   23         (2) As used in this section, the term “eligible county”
   24  means a county that meets three of the following criteria, as
   25  determined by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research:
   26         (a) The just value of property subject to ad valorem tax as
   27  of January 1 was lower than it was on the previous January 1.
   28         (b) The annual per capita personal income of the county for
   29  the most recent calendar year was lower than for the prior
   30  calendar year.
   31         (c) State sales tax remitted from within the county during
   32  the most recent calendar year was less than during the prior
   33  calendar year.
   34         (d) The unemployment rate in the county in the previous
   35  calendar year was greater than 8 percent.
   36         (e) The county was included in a major federal disaster or
   37  emergency declaration in the previous calendar year.
   38         (3) The determination that a county is an eligible county
   39  must be made each year, and the authority granted under this
   40  section may be exercised only one fiscal year at a time.
   41         (4) The authority granted under this section does not apply
   42  to revenues that may be used only for a purpose specified in the
   43  State Constitution or to revenues from taxes levied with the
   44  approval of the voters.
   45         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.