The Florida Senate

606.01  Legislative findings and intent.

606.02  Short title.

606.03  Definitions.

606.04  Single business identifier.

606.05  Custodian.

606.01  Legislative findings and intent.--

(1)  The Legislature finds that:

(a)  As documented by the Governor's Single Business Identifier Interagency Task Force, state government places a heavy burden on the business community of this state through the requirement to obtain and maintain numerous licenses, permits, and registrations.

(b)  While such requirements are necessary to ensure the public safety and welfare, present methods for the business community to meet such obligations, as prescribed by law and administered and enforced by state agencies, are cumbersome and place an undue hardship on business entities in this state.

(c)  The potential exists for the state to more easily identify and eliminate duplicative or outdated licensing requirements and thereby reduce its cost of operation without jeopardizing the public safety or welfare.

(2)  It is the intent of this act to establish a master business index within the Department of State and to facilitate a reporting mechanism which consolidates and coordinates business entity licensing and reporting requirements whenever possible.

History.--s. 1, ch. 97-15.

606.02  Short title.--This act may be cited as the "Florida Business Coordination Act."

History.--s. 2, ch. 97-15.

606.03  Definitions.--As used in this act:

(1)  "Business entity" means any form of corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, joint venture, business trust, or sole proprietorship that conducts business in this state.

(2)  "Department" means the Department of State.

(3)  "Master business index" means that database maintained by the department which indexes all business entity records maintained by any state government agency.

(4)  "Single business identifier" means the unique record number assigned to a business entity by the department in compliance with the provisions of this act.

(5)  "State agency" means any state government agency, department, or commission which has jurisdiction over business entities.

History.--s. 3, ch. 97-15.

606.04  Single business identifier.--

(1)  The department shall create a master business index, using as an initial base the commercial regulation and registration program databases the department currently maintains. Each business entity shall be assigned a unique single business identifier for interagency use.

(2)  The department is authorized to take the actions it deems necessary to integrate all nonbusiness entity or commercial registrations it maintains into the master business index such that all registrations maintained for a business entity are reflected in the index in a consolidated manner.

(3)  The department is authorized to take the actions it deems practical to consolidate its various renewal or annual mailings, to include the altering of specified mailing dates and filing deadlines.

History.--s. 4, ch. 97-15.

606.05  Custodian.--The Secretary of State is hereby designated the custodian of the master business index.

History.--s. 5, ch. 97-15.