Florida Senate - 2025 SB 432
By Senator McClain
9-01323-25 2025432__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to the power of county commissioners
3 to levy special assessments; amending s. 125.01, F.S.;
4 deleting special assessments as a source of funding
5 for certain municipal facilities and services;
6 deleting the ability of the legislative and governing
7 body of a county to levy and collect special
8 assessments; deleting special assessments as a
9 mechanism to finance services or programs rendered
10 specially for the benefit of property or residents in
11 unincorporated areas; providing an effective date.
12
13 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
14
15 Section 1. Paragraphs (q) and (r) of subsection (1),
16 paragraph (a) of subsection (5), and paragraph (a) of subsection
17 (6) of section 125.01, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
18 125.01 Powers and duties.—
19 (1) The legislative and governing body of a county shall
20 have the power to carry on county government. To the extent not
21 inconsistent with general or special law, this power includes,
22 but is not restricted to, the power to:
23 (q) Establish, and subsequently merge or abolish those
24 created hereunder, municipal service taxing or benefit units for
25 any part or all of the unincorporated area of the county, within
26 which may be provided fire protection; law enforcement; beach
27 erosion control; recreation service and facilities; water;
28 alternative water supplies, including, but not limited to,
29 reclaimed water and water from aquifer storage and recovery and
30 desalination systems; streets; sidewalks; street lighting;
31 garbage and trash collection and disposal; waste and sewage
32 collection and disposal; drainage; transportation; indigent
33 health care services; mental health care services; and other
34 essential facilities and municipal services from funds derived
35 from service charges, special assessments, or taxes within such
36 unit only. Subject to the consent by ordinance of the governing
37 body of the affected municipality given either annually or for a
38 term of years, the boundaries of a municipal service taxing or
39 benefit unit may include all or part of the boundaries of a
40 municipality. If ad valorem taxes are levied to provide
41 essential facilities and municipal services within the unit, the
42 millage levied on any parcel of property for municipal purposes
43 by all municipal service taxing units and the municipality may
44 not exceed 10 mills. This paragraph authorizes all counties to
45 levy additional taxes, within the limits fixed for municipal
46 purposes, within such municipal service taxing units under the
47 authority of the second sentence of s. 9(b), Art. VII of the
48 State Constitution.
49 (r) Levy and collect taxes, both for county purposes and
50 for the providing of municipal services within any municipal
51 service taxing unit, and special assessments; borrow and expend
52 money; and issue bonds, revenue certificates, and other
53 obligations of indebtedness, which power shall be exercised in
54 such manner, and subject to such limitations, as may be provided
55 by general law. There shall be no referendum required for the
56 levy by a county of ad valorem taxes, both for county purposes
57 and for the providing of municipal services within any municipal
58 service taxing unit.
59 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a county may
60 not levy special assessments on lands classified as agricultural
61 lands under s. 193.461 unless the revenue from such assessments
62 has been pledged for debt service and is necessary to meet
63 obligations of bonds or certificates issued by the county which
64 remain outstanding on July 1, 2023, including refundings thereof
65 for debt service savings where the maturity of the debt is not
66 extended. For bonds or certificates issued after July 1, 2023,
67 special assessments securing such bonds may not be levied on
68 lands classified as agricultural under s. 193.461.
69 2. The provisions of subparagraph 1. do not apply to
70 residential structures and their curtilage.
71 (5)(a) To an extent not inconsistent with general or
72 special law, the governing body of a county shall have the power
73 to establish, and subsequently merge or abolish those created
74 hereunder, special districts to include both incorporated and
75 unincorporated areas subject to the approval of the governing
76 body of the incorporated area affected, within which may be
77 provided municipal services and facilities from funds derived
78 from service charges, special assessments, or taxes within such
79 district only. Such ordinance may be subsequently amended by the
80 same procedure as the original enactment.
81 (6)(a) The governing body of a municipality or
82 municipalities by resolution, or the citizens of a municipality
83 or county by petition of 10 percent of the qualified electors of
84 such unit, may identify a service or program rendered specially
85 for the benefit of the property or residents in unincorporated
86 areas and financed from countywide revenues and petition the
87 board of county commissioners to develop an appropriate
88 mechanism to finance such activity for the ensuing fiscal year,
89 which may be by taxes, special assessments, or service charges
90 levied or imposed solely upon residents or property in the
91 unincorporated area, by the establishment of a municipal service
92 taxing or benefit unit pursuant to paragraph (1)(q), or by
93 remitting the identified cost of service paid from revenues
94 required to be expended on a countywide basis to the
95 municipality or municipalities, within 6 months of the adoption
96 of the county budget, in the proportion that the amount of
97 county ad valorem taxes collected within such municipality or
98 municipalities bears to the total amount of countywide ad
99 valorem taxes collected by the county, or by any other method
100 prescribed by state law.
101 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.