| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to county government funding; creating s. |
| 3 | 125.595, F.S.; providing circumstances under which a board |
| 4 | of county commissioners may use certain revenues for a |
| 5 | purpose other than that specified by law; defining the |
| 6 | term "eligible county"; specifying that county eligibility |
| 7 | must be determined annually and exercised for a limited |
| 8 | time; prohibiting the use of certain revenues for such |
| 9 | purposes; providing an effective date. |
| 10 |
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| 11 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 12 |
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| 13 | Section 1. Section 125.595, Florida Statutes, is created |
| 14 | to read: |
| 15 | 125.595 Economic distress flexibility.- |
| 16 | (1) The board of county commissioners of an eligible |
| 17 | county may, by a two-thirds vote of the membership of the board, |
| 18 | use revenues from distributions of state taxes to the county or |
| 19 | from taxes authorized by the Legislature to be imposed by the |
| 20 | county for a purpose other than that specified in the law |
| 21 | providing for the distributions or authorizing the imposition of |
| 22 | the taxes. |
| 23 | (2) As used in this section, the term "eligible county" |
| 24 | means a county that meets three of the following criteria, as |
| 25 | determined by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research: |
| 26 | (a) The just value of property subject to ad valorem tax |
| 27 | as of January 1 was lower than it was on the previous January 1. |
| 28 | (b) The annual per capita personal income of the county |
| 29 | for the most recent calendar year was lower than for the prior |
| 30 | calendar year. |
| 31 | (c) State sales tax remitted from within the county during |
| 32 | the most recent calendar year was less than during the prior |
| 33 | calendar year. |
| 34 | (d) The unemployment rate in the county in the previous |
| 35 | calendar year was greater than 8 percent. |
| 36 | (e) The county was included in a major federal disaster or |
| 37 | emergency declaration in the previous calendar year. |
| 38 | (3) The determination that a county is an eligible county |
| 39 | must be made each year, and the authority granted under this |
| 40 | section may only be exercised one fiscal year at a time. |
| 41 | (4) The authority granted under this section does not |
| 42 | apply to revenues that may only be used for a purpose specified |
| 43 | in the State Constitution or to revenues from taxes levied with |
| 44 | the approval of the voters. |
| 45 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011. |