TALLAHASSEE, Florida – The new year will bring a handful of new laws to the Sunshine State. They include higher penalties for not stopping for school buses, the official end of greyhound racing bets and a slightly higher minimum wage.
Legislators approved and the governor signed more than 200 bills in the last legislative session, which ended in March. Most of these new laws came into effect on the first day of July or October.
Below are some of the few remaining laws as of December 31 or January 1.
SCHOOL BUS SECURITY: HB 37
Approved unanimously by House and Senate legislators in the last session, this bill will increase fines for drivers who illegally pass buses carrying and unloading children. Drivers who do not stop face a minimum fine of $ 200, above $ 100. The minimum for illegally passing a bus on the side that children enter and leave now will be $ 400, doubling the current violation to $ 200.
VOTING SYSTEMS: CS / HB 1005
Another bill that was unanimously approved in the last session, HB 1005, allows election supervisors and county counting councils to use automated tabulation equipment that is not part of the voting system to perform manual and automatic recounts.
The policy will also require precision testing of voting systems at least 25 days before early voting begins in the state. This is a correction to the current law, in which the systems are tested after the beginning of the collection of votes by post in some cases.
INSURANCE CLAIMS DATA: CS / SB 292
SB 292 requires an insurer to provide the insured with a “run loss” statement within 15 days of receiving the claim. Claims are a report generated by an insurer that shows an insured person’s claim history.
The new policy also prohibits operators from charging a fee for preparing or providing reports.
AMENDMENT 12: HB 7009
This is known as an implementation bill, a piece of legislation that puts an approved constitutional amendment into action. HB 7009, scheduled to start on December 31, establishes the legal basis for amendment 12. Floridians overwhelmingly approved the 2018 voting initiative to prevent public officials and public officials “from abusing their positions in order to obtain a ‘disproportionate benefit’ to themselves or other specified persons or entities. “
Additional action by lawmakers will be needed to implement other provisions of the amendment that will take effect in late 2022. This includes provisions that prohibit public officials from lobbying for compensation during their tenure and for six years after leaving.
AMENDMENT 13
December 31 will be the last day to bet on greyhound racing or other dog racing in the state of Florida. Voters approved amendment 13 in 2018 with almost 70% of the vote.
The amendment added the following text to the state constitution:
“After December 31, 2020, a person authorized to conduct gambling or pari-mutuel operations may not compete with greyhounds or any member of the subspecies Canis Familiaris in connection with any bet on money or anything of value in this state, and persons in this state you cannot bet money or anything of value on the result of a live dog race taking place in this state. ”
MINIMUM WAGE
The state’s minimum wage increases nine cents on January 1 to $ 8.65. Workers who receive tips will receive at least $ 5.63 per hour. The fees are linked to a 2004 constitutional amendment that requires the state to raise wages to help offset living expenses.
Florida residents are expected to see a much larger increase in the minimum wage in September, to $ 10 an hour, after voters passed Amendment 2 in November. Rates are expected to increase gradually each year to $ 15 in 2026. In subsequent years, the minimum wage will be adjusted annually based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Employees and Office Workers (CPI-W).