Florida lawmakers are already proposing new laws for 2025. Take a peek at their plans
Florida lawmakers are filing a slew of bills for the upcoming legislative session, including proposals in response to a boating accident that killed a high school girl, public concern about weather modification that surfaced after two devastating hurricanes and the governor’s scrapped plan to bring pickleball and other recreational activities to state parks.
Dozens of measures have already been proposed in the Florida House and Senate ahead of the March 4 start to the 2025 legislative session. Here is a rundown of 13 bills to watch.
Fleeing a Deadly Boating Accident
Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican, proposes that a person who flees a boating accident that results in someone’s death face a first-degree felony, which can include a prison sentence of up to 30 years and a fine of $10,000. If the person is under the influence, they would face a mandatory minimum prison sentence of four years.
Garcia filed SB 58 in response to a high-profile Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed 17-year old Luciana Fernandez, the senator told the Herald/Times. Real estate developer George Pino, who was piloting the boat, was initially charged with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating in 2022, but prosecutors changed it to “vessel homicide” in 2024 after a witness came forward with new evidence.
The senator’s bill would add the additional penalties to a different section of law that deals with “a collision, accident, or other casualty.” Pino, who has been accused in a now-settled lawsuit of being under the influence, drove his boat into a channel marker, capsizing it and ejecting all 14 passengers, who were aboard to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday. Pino has not been charged with an alcohol-related offense.
Unrelated to the incident, the measure would also expand the definition of vessel homicide to include “the killing of an unborn child by causing injury to the mother.” Garcia said she is proposing the change to “align it with our motor vehicle regulations.”
The definition of vehicular homicide has included the killing of “an unborn child” since 2014. The bill that expanded the vehicular homicide definition was co-sponsored by Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, when he was in the House.
Weather Modification
Garcia also filed a bill to ban “weather modification activities” in Florida. The measure, SB 56, prohibits the “injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance, or an apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of this state for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, the weather, or the intensity of sunlight.”
Her proposal follows weather-modification concerns from the political right that proliferated on social media after Florida and other southeastern states suffered severe damage and loss of life from back-to-back hurricanes at the end of September and the beginning of October. Claims of weather control were prominent enough that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a public statement that “No one creates or steers hurricanes; the technology does not exist.”
“Cloud seeding is the only common weather modification activity currently practiced in the United States — typically by private companies in western mountain basins in winter in order to help generate snow in specific locations, or in the desert southwest to replenish water reservoirs in summer,” states the NOAA fact check.
Garcia, whose bill was derided on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, said she wants to have a debate about weather modification in general. She wouldn’t say if the debate would include the possibility of human-made hurricanes. She sent the Herald/Times a news article by NPR with the headline: “Startups want to cool Earth by reflecting sunlight. There are few rules and big risks.” The article was about the lax regulation around “solar geoengineering” also known as “solar radiation management.”
NOAA considers the emerging practice to be a form of weather modification, according to a document included in the article, something the senator also pointed out.
“Cloud seeding, solar radiation, and weather modification in general all face significant skepticism,” Garcia said, noting recent White House and World Economic Forum reports on solar radiation “The fact of the matter is that there is little oversight and regulation of these issues, which allows for doubt and fear, regardless of the science.”
Protecting State Parks
Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican, has proposed a measure that would prohibit recreation in state parks “that require sporting facilities, such as golf courses, tennis courts, pickleball courts, ball fields” and the like.
Harrell’s bill, SB 80, comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ environmental protection agency unveiled plans in August to expand these types of sports in state parks. DeSantis said Florida will go “back to the drawing board” on the plan after public protests on the matter.
If Harrell’s bill becomes law, the governor’s team could draw up plans to improve public access to state parks by focusing on “related amenities, including roads, parking areas, walkways, and visitor centers” while “minimizing impacts to undisturbed habitat.”
Park developers could also build “camping cabins that have a maximum occupancy of six guests.”
Any changes would have to be made available by the Division of State Lands to the public at least a month before the required public hearing on the update.
Housing for Farmworkers
Sen. Jay Collins, a Tampa Republican, wants to enable farms to provide on-site housing for “legally verified agricultural workers.” The measure, SB 84, prohibits the government from inhibiting “the construction or installation of housing for legally verified agricultural workers on land classified as agricultural land” that is “operated as a bona fide farm.”
The structures, spaced at least 10 feet apart, would be used for seasonal or year-round farm workers. They would include “buildings, mobile homes, barracks, dormitories used as living quarters, parking areas, common areas such as athletic fields or playgrounds, storage structures” and would have to meet federal, state and local building standards.
A housing site built before July 1, 2025, would be grandfathered in under the bill.
Tax Breaks for Resilient Buildings
Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, a Doral Republican, is proposing tax credits for “resilient buildings.” To qualify, the building must have a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (known as LEED) certificate in building design and construction or operations and maintenance.
The building owner can apply for just one tax credit per building. The tax credits range from $0.50 to $2 per square foot of the building every year for five years depending on the type of LEED certificate held by the building.
Political Flags
Sen. Randy Fine, a Melbourne Beach Republican, wants to prohibit a “governmental entity” from displaying a flag “that represents a political viewpoint.” The banned list would include rainbow flags or others that represent viewpoints on “racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology.”
The bill, SB 100, would also require any governmental entity like an agency, local government or public school that displays an American flag to place it in a “prominent position that is superior to any other flag that is also displayed.”
“An active or retired member of the United States Armed Forces or the National Guard may at any time use reasonable force to prevent the desecration, destruction, or removal” of the American flag. They can also move it to a “position of prominence” consistent with the bill.
College Tuition for Undocumented Students
Fine is also proposing to end in-state tuition for young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers. Republican Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Núñez championed the legislation in 2014 when she was a member of the Florida House.
Albritton, the Senate President, said he wants to phase-out the benefit.
Lowering the Age to Buy a Gun
Fine wants to remove a gun-safety law passed by the Republican-led Legislature in 2018 after the Parkland school massacre. The bill, SB 94, would lower the minimum age to purchase a gun from 21 to 18.
Red Flag Law
Rep. Joel Rudman, a Navarre Republican, is proposing to roll-back a different Parkland provision that allows law enforcement to petition for a court order to remove firearms from those who are believed to be a threat to themselves or others.
The bill, HB 31, also allows owners to openly carry otherwise legal guns. But Albritton, the senate president, has already said he doesn’t support the concept.
Both Fine and Rudman have said they plan to run for Congress. Both members will have to resign from the Legislature first, per state law.
Private Beaches
Rudman is also proposing to repeal a different 2018 law that reportedly created a headache for beach goers. The bill, HB 6001, repeals a law that allows private beach owners to more easily keep out the public. Rudman’s bill would allow local governments more control over customary use of beaches.
3 Bills From the Left
Even though Democrats are still in the super minority in both chambers and have little power, two proposals they’ve filed so far have a chance at getting attention.
One of the bills would mandate the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation provide windstorm coverage to any homeowner, including condominium associations. This measure has been co-sponsored by a House Republican in the past who is no longer serving in the Legislature. The other Democratic offer that could be heard would allow adult children and parents of adult children to collect certain wrongful death damages in medical malpractice cases by repealing a so-called “free-kill” law.
A third bill would require outdoor heat-illness protection for Florida workers after the Tampa Bay Times reported 19 heat deaths previously kept from a federal agency. The Legislature banned local governments from providing their own heat protections to outdoor workers earlier this year.
Herald/Times Bureau reporters Ana Ceballos and Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 2:19 PM.