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Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment |
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This history resource page is kept to allow you to look back at previous updates as a reference only. Please go to the home page for the most current updates to avoid any confusion. In this type of political environment, things do change quickly and the home page will keep you informed via the latest updates. June 7, 2011 Dear Fellow Supporters, It seems as though I just sent you our summary of the 2011 Legislative session, where we did well, but were stopped just short of our goal of beginning to reign in the DEP. What? You thought there would be a summer lull while we prepared for next year’s session. Not on your life! It has just come to our attention that the DEP is now interpreting “income, whether direct or indirect” and specifying the collection of these 6% fees in greater detail. Click here to see a copy of a current DEP audit now taking place at a condominium association located on Tierra Verde, so you might see what the DEP is now trying to enforce. They want to collect 6% fees on any income related to docks on submerged lands. They are viewing everything as “income”, even though the collection of maintenance fees and assessments as well as the collection of the annual submerged land lease fee is strictly passed through as an expense to all owners. This audit is a “do over” of the annual income reporting forms completed and submitted every year, and is an effort to collect more money by defining everything as income. Also, the determination of “fair market value” of a boat slip that is sold is in play. Boat slips that are sold with a unit must have a fair market value of the slip determined, in order to calculate the 6% due to the DEP. The tax appraiser’s value is completely inaccurate for the purpose of determining value, particularly when a unit is in bank foreclosure and/or a short sale occurs. These are just some of the issues that are coming out of this audit. Some of you may have gotten your audits, but for those who haven’t, you need to be aware of how aggressive and intimidating the DEP is now becoming. The reason I am bringing this to your attention is that we need YOUR SUPPORT, as well as your board and your management companies, now more than ever in an effort to fight these new interpretations of fee collections and resolve the inequities in the administration of the submerged land lease program. This type of exploitation is government out of control and that’s why we are starting early this year. We are off to a great start! Representative Jim Frishe has already filed our legislation for the 2012 Session (which starts in January and ends in March) and we just received our bill number, HB 13, as of June 2, 2011 which can be viewed by clicking here to read a copy of HB 13. Armed with the great successes he had in getting our legislation through all the necessary House committees during the 2011 Session, Representative Frishe is now working closely with Senator Jack Latvala who will be our new sponsor on the Senate side. We appreciate all of the hard work and efforts that Senator Fasano and his staff put forth over the past few years and he will continue to co-sponsor our 2012 legislation along with Senator Jones and many other Senators. We anticipate having a Senate Bill number in the very near future. In addition to all of our efforts to date, we will be hosting a “Town Hall Meeting” this fall in Pinellas County. Both Representative Frishe and Senator Latvala will be present to discuss the issues, review our strategy, and encourage more support and active participation. We would like to encourage as many owners/associations as possible to attend. The date and place have yet to be determined but I would encourage your feedback (priority38@aol.com) as to what might work for you (weekend? evening?). What do we need for YOU to do? Please continue to contact your local legislators, asking for their support of HB 13. As soon as we have the Senate Bill number we will let you know. We need to keep the heat on as many legislators as possible. Since we are getting such an early start for the 2012 Session we anticipate even better success especially with the aggressive work planned by Representative Frishe and Senator Latvala.
May 16, 2011 Dear Fellow Supporters, After a tumultuous past few months, the 2011 Session finally ended on May 6th. Our submerged land lease legislation made it through every committee except the Budget Committee where it finally died. It was through your great support that we were able to get it this far. Representative Frishe aggressively pushed HB173 and got it through the Florida House of Representatives with unanimous success. It went through Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Finance & Tax Committee, and the State Affairs Committee with flying colors! SB332 got off to a slow start on the Senate side and was then put on the agenda of 4 committees: Senate Environmental Preservation & Conservation, Community Affairs, Judiciary Committee, and finally the Budget Committee. It passed through the first 3 committees with unanimous success but ended up in the Budget Committee on the last day when session ended. We were not successful getting it on the Special Order Calendar. The fact that we were very successful in getting our legislation through all the House committees and 3 of the 4 Senate committees puts us in a very good position for the 2012 Session. With no election this coming November, the legislature remains largely the same. With committee meetings starting in July/August, we will be getting a very early start and hopefully moving our legislation through all the necessary committees. We will be working with the same legislation as before, however, there will be new bill numbers assigned since it is a new session. The next Session officially starts in January 2012. The legislators who will be voting on our bills are very familiar with our issue and should hopefully pass our legislation with the same unanimous success as it did during the 2011 session. There is also a stronger interest in our legislation on the Senate side with several Senators wanting to sponsor our legislation. We are currently discussing our options so that we can have the best chance of success. This past session really got the attention of a lot of policy makers who are finally grasping the unfairness of our issue. Again, for all the committees it passed through it was almost unanimously in our favor. This past session brought the most awareness to our issue, by far, that we have ever seen since we started addressing it in July 2008. What is our strategy? Representative Frishe will again be sponsoring it on the House side and hopefully pushing our new legislation through the various committees with the same unanimous success as during the 2011 Session. We will have the Senator sponsoring our legislation finalized within the next month. New bill numbers will be assigned and we’ll start working our way through the committees. Since our issue is now very familiar to our legislators, it will not be regarded as “new legislation” that would require a lot of in depth analysis and understanding. What do we need for YOU to do? As in the past, please contact your local legislators via phone, fax, email, letters to again reiterate the importance of this issue. Continue to spread the word & alert other associations and homeowners that we need their involvement and support. Try to engage as many new people as possible, as our strength lies in numbers! Our coalition was AGAIN successful in keeping the submerged land lease fees from increasing. We have been fighting potential increases of up to 425% since 2008.
April 22, 2011 We are in the final moments of the Fourth Quarter of the 2011 Session. This is most likely our last chance to affect the progress of our legislation this year. Please contact Senate President Mike Haridopolos and respectfully ask that he work with Senator Fasano to amend the multi-family submerged land lease language of CS/SB 332 onto a viable vehicle, such as CS/CS/CS/SB 530, in either the Budget Committee or the Floor. To this end, an automated message has been set up on our take action page to get the word to the appropriate legislators to keep our effort moving forward. Everything is set up for your convenience. Thank you all so much for your continuing support! April 5 Yesterday, our HB173 passed through the House Finance and Tax committee by a vote of 24-0, thanks to YOUR CONTINUED OUTSTANDING SUPPORT. Next up, we need to email Chair Seth McKeel to agenda our legislation for the State Affairs Committee, which is the last House Committee. Once HB173 is on the agenda, we will send out a new update with guidance on emailing that entire committee. Time is critical and we need your continued great support to keep our legislation moving through the various committees. Please go to our e-mail page and send the automated message. This message will go to Chair Seth McKeel, which is most important right now. It will also be sent to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Speaker of the House Dean Cannon as well as your legislators. Everything is set up for your convenience. Thank you all so much for your continuing support! Please consider sending a separate note to Representative Jim Frishe (jim.frishe@myfloridahouse.gov) thanking him for all of his hard work on our behalf and successfully moving our legislation along to this point. April 3, 2011 A new week, another email update. I know some of you feel that “you sent your email” and therefore are done. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I hope you can find the time to continually support our email campaigns to Tallahassee. In this last month of the legislature, things change rapidly on a daily basis. As our bills progress from one committee to another, it is essential that each subsequent committee hearing our bill, hear from you first, with your support for the bill. For the month of April we will be asking you to email at least once a week, and perhaps twice, as our bills progress. Last week, HB173 passed the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee by a vote of 13 to 0, due in large part to your support. This week, the House Finance and Tax Committee will be hearing HB173 on Tuesday April 5, 2011. As our legislation continues to move through the various committees it is VERY IMPORTANT that we email these committee members to support our legislation. Please send your emails. This message will go to the House Finance and Tax Committee, which is most important right now. It will also be sent to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Speaker of the House Dean Cannon as well as your legislators. Everything is set up for your convenience. Thank you all so much for your continuing support! April 1, 2011 Dear Fellow Supporters, Thanks to the extensive efforts of Representative Frishe, our bill (HB173) is now moving in the House. Now we need to continue pushing on the Senate side for the companion bill (SB332). It is extremely important to continue sending emails to Senate President Haridopolos as well as your legislators to let them know how important it is that SB332 be heard. This is vital at this point in time! Please go to the email page on this website and send the automated message. This message will go to Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Speaker of the House Dean Cannon as well as your legislators. Everything is set up for your convenience. Thank you all so much for your continuing support! March 30, 2011 Dear Fellow Supporters, Below is a message that I just received from Representative Frishe: Submerged Land Leases Since Session of last year a dedicated group of people have been working with me in an attempt to change the Florida law regarding multi-family complexes and the inequity of charging these families for a boat dock over Florida-owned submerged lands. Single family residents in Florida are treated differently than multi-family residents. After many hours of meetings and negotiations, I believe we have reached a consensus on a solution to the biggest problems. It does not contain everything each side wants, however, it is a huge step in the right direction. We must keep in mind that this is a process with many different stakeholders. However, our efforts have certainly shifted the momentum from where it was just a couple of years ago when vast lease fee increases were being pursued. Keep “encouraging” the House and Senate leadership to support HB 173 as amended and SB 332 and let’s try to get this done in the brief time we have left for this Session. THANK YOU for all you have done to spread the word and please continue to support this effort. Representative Jim Frishe March 26, 2011 Representative Frishe has been working very hard with the DEP on revisions to our legislation that meets with the administration’s approval. The original language for HB173 and SB332 has been substantially revised due to the political climate in Tallahassee and the reality of the fiscal impact of our legislation. These bills in their original format were essentially stopped and were not being moved forward despite the thousands of emails sent to our legislators. The revised language can be viewed here: REVISED HB173. This bill is being heard on Monday (March 28, 2011) at 3 PM by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. The importance of this legislation is that we have a vehicle that has been approved by the DEP and other committees that gets us a starting point. The complexity of the submerged land lease program developed over many years and cannot be fixed overnight. It is all about compromises. This is the first time a statute will be in place that is specific to private multi-family residences and we will continue to work on language changes. This is a process and has to be addressed in incremental steps. Please go to the email page on this website and send the automated message. Everything is set up for your convenience. It’s only a couple of mouse clicks. Thank you all so much for your continuing support! March 09, 2011 As lawmakers begin the 2011 legislative session in Tallahassee, our crucial submerged land lease legislation is on the table and it is imperative that we KEEP SENDING A MESSAGE to our legislators in Tallahassee. Our coalition continues to work from several angles but the key to our success is for YOU TO KEEP THE EMAILS AND LETTERS GOING. Encourage your friends, neighbors and other associations to do the same. We have to keep emphasizing how inequitable our situation is and only through the support of HB173 and SB332 will we be able to create a fair and equitable solution. February 17, 2011 Thank you for all the messages that are being sent to Tallahassee. I have been copied on many of them and your voices are loud and clear. Please continue to send messages to Senate President Mike Haridopolos per our February 12, 2011 update. We must keep the pressure on. At this time, we would like you to send another message to Representative Jim Frishe asking him to continue pushing HB 173 to be heard as a committee bill. We respectfully request that he work with Representative Steve Crisafulli to agenda HB 173. Please use THIS website (www.fhft.org) and send the message for Representative Jim Frishe. February 12, 2011 As the 2011 Legislative Session gets closer we need to focus our efforts even more. Some of the committee meetings have been cancelled and will be rescheduled in March. At this time we need for YOU to email President Mike Haridopolos. We do not want you to use the automated FHFT website. For this message we would like you to write in your own words a few simple sentences describing the problem. The emphasis needs to be: please fix the glitch in the submerged land lease program as it affects multi-family residences. Multi-family residences are private residences and need to be treated as such. They are currently regulated as commercial entities and are being taxed like a business, even though there is no income generated. They need to be taken out of the commercial environment and treated as private residential as they are tired of being taxed like a commercial business. Multi-family residences cannot raise any revenue to compensate for this economically unfeasible situation. SB 332 and HB 173 specifically defines “private residential”, separating private residential, both multi-family and single family, from commercial entities and creates a fair and equitable solution. As stated above, please send this message to President Haridopolos (haridopolos.mike.web@flsenate.gov) and send a copy to: dean.charles.web@flsenate.gov The emphasis needs to be on the fact that there is a big glitch in the submerged land lease program. The current situation is very unfair and we need for our legislators to agree on this fact. Multi-family residents are being taxed and regulated like a business and not treated as private residential. Please take a few moments to send your own message. Keep it short, simple, and respectful and please copy Senator Charles Dean, Representative Steve Crisafulli, Senator Mike Fasano, and Representative Jim Frishe. The email addresses are all listed above. Working through a complex issue like this entails approaching the problem from several angles. This email is very important as we need to stress the importance of “fixing this problem”. For those who donated to our coalition a very big THANK YOU!! Your support is greatly appreciated! Please spread the word and encourage your friends and neighbors to support our efforts. February 08, 2011 As the 2011 Legislative Session gets closer, it is important to KEEP THE PRESSURE ON. Committee meetings, both in Senate and the House, are underway and we are targeting the week of February 21st for our legislation to be heard. Please go to our e-mail page and send the message to please agenda SB 332 and HB 173. The message is preset so it will only take a few moments of your time. If you have already sent a message in the past few weeks, please send it again!! This message will go to both Senator Charles Dean, Chairman of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee and Representative Steve Crisafulli, Chairman of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. These legislators need to hear from YOU. Please send the message now and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. Your support is greatly appreciated! February 04, 2011 IN THE NEWS! Headline in the Island Reporter reads "FL House, Senate to Consider Legislation". Read this article about our issue here. January 27, 2011 Dear Fellow Supporters, We need your immediate assistance! As of January 25, 2011 our House Bill (HB173) is now in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee. In a very positive change for our cause, the House has just reassigned Representative Steve Crisafulli as the new Chair of this important committee. NOW is the time for you to go to our website and email Representative Crisafulli, respectfully requesting that he “agenda HB 173.” The link above will direct you to a preset message that can be changed if you wish. Our Senate Bill (SB332) will be on the agenda of the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee next month. Once the date is set, I will be going to Tallahassee for the meeting. Your continuing support and donations are greatly appreciated. Please continue to spread the word. Backgrounder We have been waging our campaign for fairness in submerged land lease regulations for over three years now. It has come to my attention, that while this issue is crystal clear for those of us directly involved, it may have become somewhat fuzzy for those of you who are reading these updates, or for those of you who recently moved here and are unaware of the consequences. For those of you new to the submerged land lease issue, private multi-family residences are treated differently than single-family residences when it comes to paying for the dock in front of your property. Multi-family residences are lumped in with commercial properties and are currently subjected to the same fees and regulations as commercial properties. The reason we continually solicit your support is that if this legislation is approved, submerged land lease fees will essentially go to zero as of July 1, 2011. That would be a significant impact on any association budget. As many of you already know, we now have a companion House Bill, HB-173 (summary and bill are here), that was filed by Representative Jim Frishe of Pinellas County on January 12, 2011. We are very pleased with his support and excited about the 2011 Legislative Session. We will continue to press House leadership on the issue and would be thrilled with a committee bill as well. We also heard from Senator Charles Dean, Chairman of the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, who will agenda SB-332. Senator Dean will make sure SB-332 gets a fair hearing in one of his next few committee meetings. Our members have written a presentation that includes a good summary of the issues and you can read it here along with the text of HB0173: Click here to read a summary and the text of HB0173 The text of the Senate and House Bills are posted on the official state website now. They were listed as identical at the time of this update. Click here to read SB332 on the Florida website Click here to read HB0173 on the Florida website Our handout has now been updated with this information and is available by clicking on this document, for anyone to view and download as needed. Once we get the House Bill number we will update that as well. With the 2011 Legislative Session just around the corner, things will start progressing rapidly. As updates are forthcoming your support will be vital. Please continue to spread the word and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.
January 27, 2011 We need your immediate assistance! As of January 25, 2011 our House Bill (HB173) is now in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee. The House has just made some late Committee Chair changes and the new Chair is Representative Steve Crisafulli. This is a good adjustment for us as he is from Merritt Island which has a lot of condominiums. NOW is the time for you to go to our website and email committee Chair Steve Crisafulli, respectfully requesting that he “agenda HB 173.” The link above will direct you to a preset message that can be changed if you wish. Our Senate Bill (SB332) will be on the agenda of the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee next month. Once the date is set, I will be going to Tallahassee for the meeting. Your continuing support and donations are greatly appreciated. Please continue to spread the word. January 17, 2011 We have been waging our campaign for fairness in submerged land lease regulations for over three years now. It has come to my attention, that while this issue is crystal clear for those of us directly involved, it may have become somewhat fuzzy for those of you who are reading these updates, or for those of you who recently moved here and are unaware of the consequences. For those of you new to the submerged land lease issue, private multi-family residences are treated differently than single-family residences when it comes to paying for the dock in front of your property. Multi-family residences are lumped in with commercial properties and are currently subjected to the same fees and regulations as commercial properties. The reason we continually solicit your support is that if this legislation is approved, submerged land lease fees will essentially go to zero as of July 1, 2011. That would be a significant impact on any association budget. As many of you already know, we now have a companion House Bill, HB-173 (summary and bill are here), that was filed by Representative Jim Frishe of Pinellas County on January 12, 2011. We are very pleased with his support and excited about the 2011 Legislative Session. We will continue to press House leadership on the issue and would be thrilled with a committee bill as well. We also heard from Senator Charles Dean, Chairman of the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, who will agenda SB-332. Senator Dean will make sure SB-332 gets a fair hearing in one of his next few committee meetings. When it is put on the agenda we will alert you. At that time you will need to contact each committee member and respectfully ask for their favorable consideration. Our website will be set up at that time so the message can be automatically sent. I want to thank you again for your donations and your support as we continue to make great progress. It is still vitally important that you continue to contact your own legislators about this issue and keep it in the forefront, especially now that we have both a Senate bill and a companion House bill. January 16, 2011 Our members have written a presentation that includes a good summary of the issues and you can read it here along with the text of HB0173: Click here to read a summary and the text of HB0173 The text of the Senate and House Bills are posted on the official state website now. They were listed as identical at the time of this update. Click here to read SB332 on the Florida website Click here to read HB0173 on the Florida website Please read the update below to see how to support this effort by e-mailing the appropriate government officials. January 12, 2011 On January 7, 2011 I gave a presentation to the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation summarizing our issues and asking for their support. The presentation was well received and we now have the strong support of the Pinellas County legislators. A presentation handout was given to all the attendees detailing our issues along with color photos and a copy of our proposed legislation, SB-332. We respectfully requested the delegation members to seek the support of their colleagues statewide. Our proposed legislation is now officially Senate Bill 332 (SB-332) and has begun the legislative process in Tallahassee. Our handout has now been updated with this information and is available by clicking on this document, for anyone to view and download as needed. Once we get the House Bill number we will update that as well. What do we need for you to do NOW? At this time we would like to ask that you take a few moments and use your own e-mail system to send three messages. We will need you to use YOUR OWN email to send a message, rather than this website’s e-mailer. You should be able to copy and paste the text of these messages into your own e-mail system. Please remember to include your name and address with the message, as the aides want that information for their records. 1. trudi.williams@myfloridahouse.gov (Subject: Proposed Committee Bill as companion to SB332) We respectfully request that as Chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee please do a PCB (Proposed Committee Bill) as a companion to SB 332. Our legislation addresses the inequities of the submerged land lease program and creates a fair and equitable solution for multi-family residences as compared to single family residences. SB332 puts all private residences, whether single or multi-family, on the same level playing field, thus allowing the same exemptions. 2. jim.frishe@myfloridahouse.gov (Subject: House Companion Bill needed for SB 332) Dear Representative Frishe: We respectfully request for you to file a House Companion Bill 3. dean.charles.web@flsenate.gov (Subject: Agenda SB 332) Dear Senator Dean: We respectfully request that as Chairman of the Senate Environmental With the 2011 Legislative Session just around the corner, things will start progressing rapidly. As updates are forthcoming your support will be vital. Please continue to spread the word and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. For those who have contributed to our coalition….a big THANK YOU! With your support we are able to continue moving forward on our issues. We are still in need of funds to help us through the 2011 Session. December 30, 2010 As the end of 2010 nears we have some new updates. We recently met with Senator Fasano and after discussing our legislation we now have our revised bill from bill drafting (The bill can be viewed by clicking here.) Our lobbyist, Travis Moore, also met with Representative Jim Frishe, the new Majority Whip in the House, who has agreed to help us with our bill in the House. This new position gives Representative Frishe a key role in leadership in the House. We would like for him to assist with Chair Trudi Williams and the Speaker’s Office to get the House to move on it as a Committee Bill. If not, we would like for him to sponsor it as a Member General Bill. Please contact him at jim.frishe@myfloridahouse.gov and respectfully request him to do so. November 22, 2010 After a very exciting midterm election, we are ready to continue working towards our goal of a fair and equitable solution to the submerged land lease program. With many new conservatives elected it is now vitally important to send them our “message”, again bringing awareness to the gross inequities we have been facing. We also need to keep our issue in the forefront for those we have contacted in the past and reemphasize our message. With the 2011 Legislative Session on the horizon, we are again pushing for our legislation to be a committee bill. However, to cover all bases, we are working with several Representatives in case it needs to be introduced as a member bill. Senator Fasano continues to work with us and will be promoting our bill on the Senate side. A meeting has been scheduled with Senator Fasano on November 29, 2010 to review our legislation and plan our strategy. You may recall the poorly written Senate Bill 1012 from the 2009 Session which, thanks to thousands of emails from you, died in committee. For the 2011 Session we will introduce a much revised version of the old SB1012. We have developed language that addresses our issues, incorporates our language from last year, and keeps it “revenue neutral”. Last year, due to the fiscal impact of our legislation, it was extremely difficult to get the House to move forward on it. What do we need you to do? Go to our website and “email your legislators”. There is a short message ready to go that will let your legislators know about this issue. You can either send this message, type in your own message, or better yet mail a letter. I cannot emphasize this enough. We need to SEND THE MESSAGE so that your legislators will know there is a problem. They need to hear from you! Enlist the help of your friends and neighbors to do the same. The more messages they receive from concerned homeowners the better chance we have of fixing the problem. Letters have been sent to Governor Elect Rick Scott, Senate President Elect Mike Haridopolos, House Speaker Elect Dean Cannon that outlines our talking points and includes the new language of our legislation. We are very supportive of their vision of smaller, limited government and conservative leadership. For those who have contributed to our coalition….a big THANK YOU! With your support we are able to continue moving forward on our issues. We are still in need of funds to help us through the 2011 Session. Please send your donation to: October 10, 2010 In the next few weeks the midterm elections will be here. This is an extremely active and volatile election. It is very important for you to focus on the candidates in your district and get answers to the many important issues we are facing. Of course, when speaking on behalf of FHFT, the inequities of the submerged land lease program for multi-residential facilities, MUST be your key message. Call/write or email your candidates. Go to meetings and express your concerns. Get answers to your questions! We continue to educate the candidates and bring our issue to the forefront. We are working closely with Senator Fasano’s office and have presented the Senate with revised language addressing the submerged land lease program inadequacies. His office has also been working closely with the Senate President’s office staff to have our issue ready to launch right after the election. As a Senate priority, they will be able to assist us in having the House prioritize it as well. Thanks to your continued participation, we are making progress on our goal of trying to put legislation in place to protect us from the efforts of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to drastically increase submerged land lease fees over the past few years. Our recent conference call on August 5, 2010 with the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) was a good open dialogue. Agreement was reached on two key points: (1) The lease fee structure and language in the Florida Statutes and Florida Administrative Code is very complex and confusing and needs to be streamlined. In addition to these points we have agreed to review SB1012 from the 2009 Legislative Session and submit our comments and changes to create a bill that Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment could support. The OPPAGA staff has agreed in turn to analyze our draft language from the 2010 Session and offer their comments as well. As we continue to work with the OPPAGA staff on this study we are also directing our efforts in other directions in preparation of the 2011 Legislative Session. We will be having a meeting on August 27, 2010 with our lobbyist to plan our strategy moving forward. We have contacted all 3 gubernatorial candidates for their position on our issue. To date only Rick Scott’s office responded: “ As I indicated during our call, I have not had the opportunity to speak with Rick about this specific subject, however I can tell you that rules such as the one we discussed are the types of regulations that Rick believes need to be reviewed in order to determine if they serve a valid public purpose, if they are fair and if they should be eliminated. As Governor, Rick will not support any increase in the fees you are currently paying and I am sure he will be willing to have the DEP regulation in question reviewed.” Remember that the DEP attempted to get legislation passed during the last three years!! 350% increase in 2008 In 2010 the bill was not introduced due to the proactive and offensive actions of our coalition. We have again prevented ANOTHER huge increase and saved everyone thousands of dollars this year. This proves that we need to continue our goal of trying to get legislation in place to protect us from these runaway fees and increases. What can you do to support our efforts moving forward? 1. Donations are needed for expenses incurred which include our lobbyist, website maintenance, communication efforts, etc. August 4, 2010 As the summer progresses we continue to work with the legislature and policy makers to change the Rules in the Florida Administrative Code. If we can get a resolution to our issues and change the DEP’s rules and procedures via this format we can eventually enact legislation. We are continuing to try and resolve this problem by creating pressure from the legislature. As you know the legislature is working on the OPPAGA (Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability) study request that was passed during the 2010 Legislative Session and having them expand on the OPPAGA study that was done in October 2008 (published in the Senate Interim report). Our request is to study in more detail the specific issues of how submerged land leases are administered to private multi-family residences. If the rules and procedures aren’t changed by session via legislative pressure, then the legislature will need to change the law during session to assure DEP compliance. We have a conference call set up for August 5, 2010 with the head of the Environmental Committee, the President’s (Senate) office, Senator Fasano’s office, our lobbyist, Travis Moore, and myself. We will have an update on this conference call shortly. We have also sent out letters to all 3 candidates for governor requesting their position on our issue. Emphasis was placed on the fact that thousands of waterfront property owners are concerned about the unfair and runaway costs imposed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). As we hear back from these candidates, updates will be forthcoming. We are also meeting with legislative candidates and continue to bring awareness to our issue. As candidates are meeting with you in your neighborhood invite them to discuss policy issues. Set up town hall meetings if possible and raise your concerns. I cannot emphasize this enough! Again, we are working on several fronts to promote our cause and we urge you, as homeowners, to do the same. We will have more information for you shortly and, as always, please continue to spread the word. This is of vital importance. May 21, 2010 Due to your participation and involvement, Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment (FHFT) picked up significant momentum during the recently concluded 2010 Legislative Session. With your help, FHFT had a full time presence in the halls of the Capitol every moment of the Session. In an effort to address significant budget shortfalls, an effort was once again mounted to raise revenue by attempting to significantly increase (up to 425%) the state’s submerged land lease fees. Because of our advanced advocacy efforts we were able to derail this attempt before it became introduced as legislation or in the annual Appropriations Act. We diligently monitored and reviewed scores of amendments as the legislative process unfolded to make certain no attempt at raising fees gained any traction until the already unfairly administered lease process has been reformed. To that end we were successful in getting the Legislature to finally agree that the current submerged land lease process is inherently unfair to multifamily residential communities. However, there was no agreement on how to plug what would be a more than $3 million annual shortfall without significantly reducing DEP related services the revenue is allocated to cover. But “we can’t” isn’t good enough for the FHFT. So we used our political capital to force language into a Senate bill which would direct the Office of Program, Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) to do a study on the current situation, with direct input from FHFT, and make legislative recommendations on how to adequately reform the process. This language provided FHFT with just the leverage we needed to immediately bring all the stakeholders to the table. Because there were concerns that the bill might not pass due to unrelated circumstances, (as you know, the legislative process is extremely unpredictable), we immediately moved to rally consensus around a legislative request by Senator Fasano for the study to be conducted. Attached is the request he made on our behalf with appropriate sign off by other interested industries who are now supporting this effort. (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REQUEST). As you will notice, the request lists FHFT’s “talking points” describing how unfair the current submerged land lease fee structure is. This report must be completed by October 1, 2010, in time for the next round of interim Legislative Committee meetings. We have already provided Senator Fasano and Representative Patronis (who was also instrumental in getting this OPPAGA request submitted) with our website info and contact information regarding Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment (www.fhft.org). In our continuing efforts to rectify this situation and bring more awareness to our cause we are working on a “bulletin board” on our website (www.fhft.org) where individuals/associations can post some of their experiences with submerged land lease /DEP issues, etc. This website is being provided to the legislative group conducting the OPPAGA study and any updates/past or current experiences relating to submerged land lease issues would be of great interest. In addition to everyone’s great support and response to our emails and updates during the 2009 and 2010 Legislative Sessions it is of vital importance to CALL &/OR WRITE (not just email) your local Senators and Representatives. With the 2010 elections coming up this fall it is important to let your legislators know what is going on and how we need this unfair situation addressed. WE NEED TO KEEP THE PRESSURE ON AND THIS ISSUE IN THE FOREFRONT!! Another initiative we are developing, with your assistance, is to schedule informal local “town hall” meetings to discuss this issue and solicit more input from various groups and associations. We would appreciate any inquiries/interest regarding this idea. May we come to your community? Please let us know right away so we can schedule and advertise these events. Please continue to monitor this website (www.fhft.org) and add your input to the new “bulletin board” which should be ready in the next 2 weeks. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and we need to keep building on the momentum we have and keeping the pressure on. As the OPPAGA study moves forward we will continue with our updates. Give yourself a moment to say thanks! For the 2010 Session, when the Legislature was once again looking for revenue from a variety of sources, YOU were able to keep another huge increase (425%!!) from being passed. April 21, 2010 It has been a very hectic legislative session with all of the issues we have been dealing with compounded by Florida’s budget shortfalls. Per our last update we were working on an amendment to be added to SB1118 (Senator Altman’s bill) that would direct the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) to conduct a study on our specific issues. Senator Fasano was able to get this amendment added to SB1118 however when it went to the House some new concerns were raised because of the generalizations of the Florida Statutes to which we were referring. We have worked with the Legislature to create a request and develop new language that is more specific to our unique situation. In doing do we have gained the support of the yachting and marine industry along with the aquaculture industry. The request needed to specify that it would not encompass commercial marinas, aquaculture or oil and mineral leases. Senator Fasano is directing this letter to the Senate President and House Speaker requesting OPPAGA to conduct this study. Because this request is being made now and with the support we have behind it, it is not necessary for an amendment. Within a few days the request will be finalized by Senator Fasano’s office and put in motion. The next update will have the request for the OPPAGA study along with any other current information. As always, your continued support is greatly appreciated. April 6, 2010 SB1118 by Senator Altman relating to docks is scheduled to be heard by the Senate on Tuesday April 6th. We have worked with Senator Fasano to develop the following language to be amended onto this bill: Section 4.The Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability shall conduct a study and prepare a report on the effects of rules relating to the state’s sovereign submerged lands on private, multifamily residential dwellings. In conducting the study, the office shall solicit input and information from relevant stakeholders, including such homeowner organizations as the Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment, Inc., and the Space Coast Condominiums Association. The scope of the study must include, but is not limited to, the practical implementation effects of rules adopted pursuant to ss. 253.67-253.75 and part II of chapter 258, Florida Statutes, on multifamily residential dwellings, the current sales tax being levied on the sale of boat slips associated with such dwellings, the basis of the 5-year renewal fee, and the annual income-reporting requirements for nonincome-generating private, residential multifamily docks or piers. The report must be submitted to the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives by October 1, 2010. We have been successful so far in keeping any increases from being advanced, as was the case in 2009. It is important that the legislators be made aware of the current unfair submerged land lease fee structure as it affects private multi-family residences. It is imperative that you contact your Senator IMMEDIATELY and respectfully ask for their support of Senator Fasano’s amendment to SB1118 so that these issues can be remedied. In the coming days we will be pursuing similar language in the House. Again, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!! March 2, 2010 Today is the first day of the annual 2010 Legislative Session. Please take the time immediately to email your local legislators (House Member and Senator) a note similar to the one below: Respectfully, as you begin your work this Session, please keep in mind those of us in your District who reside in multi-family communities and who are treated by the DEP as commercial entities (such as marinas) and therefore pay a much higher submerged land lease fee than single family homes (many of whom don’t pay any lease fee). Please make certain the proper legislative committees of jurisdiction are working to craft a fair and equitable solution. Feb. 23, 2010 We are still finalizing the proposed House Bill regarding our submerged land lease legislation. However, it is NOW time to start sending the message to selected Representatives and other staff members involved in this issue. The draft message is on the “Email Your Legislator” page and the message will go to: Speaker Larry Cretul, Representative Trudi Williams, Representative Ellyn Bogdanoff, Representative Baxter Troutman, Susan Reese, Adam Blalock, Michael Kliner, Dudley Goodlette, Aaron Nevins, Amanda Fortuna, and Gino Casanova. As always, we appreciate your support. Please continue to spread the word and encourage others to send the message! February 11, 2010 January 19, 2010 I hope everyone had a great holiday season! The upcoming 2010 Session is about to start and we are ready to go!! Our team kept working hard in preparation for the 2010 Legislative Session. Our lobbyist, Travis Moore, met again in Tallahassee with House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chair Trudi Williams. This time the meeting included her committee staff director and the attorneys for the committee. They agreed to place the issue of submerged land leases, as they pertain to residential facilities, on the Committee’s agenda for a February workshop in Tallahassee. The goal will be having the committee agree to "fix"/address the issue via a PCB (proposed committee bill) during the session. This is a very "chair" driven process so given Trudi Williams' support, this is a very positive development. Travis has also spoken again with the Becker & Poliakoff attorney who is assisting with bill drafting and has introduced him to the staff attorneys with the House and Natural Resources Committee. Since the deadline for House members (not Committees) to request a bill draft from House Bill Drafting is Jan. 22, to keep the "Member bill" as an option, Travis had Rep. Bogdanoff of Ft. Lauderdale submit a bill draft request just using the Mike Fasano senate bill language as a placeholder. That has all been completed. We are starting the new legislative year off in good shape. As always, we appreciate your support and look forward to a very successful upcoming session. Over the next few months things will get a lot more hectic and updates will be more frequent. Stay tuned!! December 18, 2009 As we are getting to the end of 2009 we continue to make significant headway. Last week Travis Moore, our lobbyist, was back up in Tallahassee working the capitol on behalf of our issue. He had a very productive meeting with Representative Trudi Williams who chairs the Florida House of Representative’s Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources (our issue falls under this committee’s jurisdiction). Chair Williams (who is from Ft. Myers) and her staff were very interested (having received our emails on the subject they knew it to be a big concern for many Floridians) and seemed to be willing to have the Committee look into the issue by having a workshop hearing in the coming weeks. This hearing will present the opportunity of creating a solution to our issue by doing a Proposed Committee Bill (PCB). They asked for additional talking points and information to analyze the issue further. We have provided this and will be following up with them in the next few weeks. We are also working with other community association attorneys and getting them connected with House Committee legal staff to get a workable, sensible solution crafted. We will get language out to you as soon as we have something. Thank you for your continued efforts and support. Stay engaged and have a very Happy Holiday season. November 4, 2009 Due to your hard work, we now have some significant progress to report to you. Do not send additional messages to our legislators yet; the time will come for that later. This is just some additional information that will help to keep you informed on this very important issue. A draft of Florida Senate 2010 bill 584 is now available for review by clicking here (removed to avoid confusion with current bill). Significant additional work is continuing and we should anticipate changes prior to it being finalized. We will continue to provide updates and let you know when the time comes to communicate your thoughts to the various committees and individuals involved in the process. October 12, 2009 If you have already sent the message to the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, it is not necessary to send it again. It is more important to focus on the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Both committees are now hearing the same message as committee deliberations have started. Our bill should be completed this week and ready for final approval. October 6, 2009 As we move into October various legislative committee deliberations will be starting shortly. There is a new message (“Email Your Legislator”) that is addressed to the Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee (Senate side). When you enter your information (and personalize your message), the Committee members, as well as their legislative assistants and the staff director will be getting your e-mail. Your local legislators (that received the last message) will also be included in this update. It is important that we keep sending the message to all legislators at key times. Our bill is currently being drafted with Senator Fasano’s office and should be ready within the next few weeks. On the House side committee meetings will also start soon and, as stated previously, Representative Bogdanoff will be working closely with key members on our legislation. KEEP in TOUCH and WATCH for UPDATES! In the next one to two weeks our message will change slightly as we address the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee (House side).September 6, 2009 We have met with Representative Ellyn Bogdanoff of Ft. Lauderdale who is a very influential part of House Leadership as Chair of the House and Finance Tax Committee. This Committee is in charge of approving increases in taxes and fees which generate revenue for the state, including submerged land leases. As chair of this committee she is in a position of certainly stopping “negative” proposals such as what the FDEP attempted last session with SB1012. This is key. Representative Bogdanoff has agreed to make sure the House takes a close look at the unfair way the FDEP currently charges submerged land lease fees to multi-family residences the same as commercial marinas, while single family residences typically pay nothing. She has committed to help secure key House sponsorship of legislation which will serve as leverage to pressure FDEP to modify their rules or face the real possibility of a change in the law. She will work with other House Chairmen to see about having the issue workshopped in committee which could lead to drafting into a House committee bill. Senator Fasano has agreed to again sponsor any companion measure in the Senate. What does FHFT need for YOU to do at this time?
We have generated a lot of support in the past few months from such organizations as: CONA (Council of Neighborhood Associations) |
May 4, 2009 Dear Fellow Supporters, WE HAVE WON ROUND 2!! Score another for the good guys. Last fall we successfully defeated the exorbitant increases the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) was trying to pass via their administrative rule change entitled "fee simplification." And now, in this 2009 legislative session, we defeated them again when they tried to sneak even bigger increases through via the "shell bill" approach. Shell bills are introduced to keep the public from discovering their real purpose. Late in the legislative session an apparently nondescript bill suddenly becomes filled with a number of amendments tailored to specific lobbyist, legislator, or bureaucrat specifications. This is exactly what happened with Senate Bill 1012 (SB1012). Since the FDEP couldn't get their increases via democratic and public forums they tried to sneak it through in this legislative sleight-of-hand. Of course there was no public discussion or notification to the people most affected by these increases. And it ALMOST worked.... Once again YOU, the public, rose to the task and let our legislators know, in no uncertain terms, that the harmful amendments in SB1012 needed to be removed. THANK YOU!!!!!!! It was only through your repetitive emails and phone calls that we were successful. As of this writing, SB1012 is a dead bill! Although we have defeated of the FDEP's latest attempt to unfairly burden us with huge increases, you can bet this is NOT the end of it. They will be back: count on that. Our plan for the 2010 session is to work on legislation to exempt private residences (both single family and multi-family) from these unfair and discriminatory fees. If we don't get such legislation in place we will never be protected from the FDEP bureaucracy. We will be contacting you later this summer/fall as we organize our approach. Once we have a Senator such as Mike Fasano aligned with a co-sponsor from the House it will be important that your voices be heard again. Since 2008 your comments have been critical in defeating the FDEP's attempt to raise our fees. You will be heard again, only this time it will be in support of a bill exempting us from these unfair and discriminatory fees. As we get closer, we will keep you posted. Again, THANK YOU ALL for your hard work. YOU did a GREAT job!! Democracy works. Terri Pentek |
September 23, 2008 Subsequent to public notices entitled "Fee Simplification" the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in July of 2008 proposed changes to Chapter 18-21 of the Florida Administrative Code (FAC). Those changes would have drastically increased the fees paid by Florida homeowners for the use of State submerged lands for docks and boat slips. The proposed fee increases were exorbitant, unfair, and discriminatory. FDEP's proposals triggered a virtual revolution of homeowners across the State. The attempt by FDEP to sneak this change in under the misnomer of "Fee Simplification" was particularly galling. During the month of August alone the FDEP and our elected representatives received thousands of emails, letters, and phone calls objecting to the FDEP proposals. On September 5th FDEP decided to allow more time for public comment in additional workshops throughout the State, the times and places to be announced. An in-depth study of the current FAC 18-21 and FDEP's proposed changes reveals a number of serious issues:
Now that FDEP has put its proposed changes on hold pending additional public comment, what do we need to do to make sure that Florida homeowners are treated fairly in whatever future decisions are made? First, we cannot ease off our pressure on FDEP. We must clearly identify the issues and then offer suggestions for the fair and equitable resolution of these issues. These are our 'talking points':
On behalf of everyone who has worked so hard on this project -the FHFT Coalition - a sincere thank you for your continuing support. Media Coverage: |
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