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
Coalition Leader
Florida Homeowners for Fair Treatment
www.fhft.org