FHBA Sets 2010 Legislative Priorities

Creating jobs and cutting through red tape will be the priority message the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) delivers to lawmakers during the 2010 Legislative Session scheduled for March 2 – April 30.

With more than 283,000 Florida construction workers jobless and costly mandates to doing business threatening the building industry’s livelihood, it’s more important than ever for lawmakers to focus their attention on job creation and economic stimulus.

Leading and uniting Florida’s construction industry behind a focused agenda is vital to protecting the home building industry’s ability to do business. That’s why FHBA members have established a consensus agenda providing lawmakers with the legislative goals of home building professionals. FHBA’s 2010 Legislative Priorities were developed by seeking input from all local home builder associations through FHBA Area Leaders, and unanimously approved by the FHBA Governmental Affairs Committee last December.

During the 2010 Legislative Session, lawmakers will have the opportunity to put the brakes on Florida’s decline, improve Florida’s economic climate and create a more hospitable environment for private sector job growth. Positive legislative actions will send strong signals to Florida businesses that our state can be competitive.

To achieve these goals, FHBA encourages lawmakers to follow these six guiding principles.

1. Promises Made Should Be Promises Kept
In 1992, the Florida Legislature, supported by the Florida Home Builders Association and others, increased the doc stamp paid on real estate transactions with the agreement that these funds would be applied toward affordable housing programs.

Recent years have seen the trust fund arbitrarily capped at $243 million, and hundreds of millions of dollars swept into General Revenue to balance the budget.

At a time when our real estate and construction markets are still reeling from excess inventory, there is no better use for these trust fund dollars than to be spent on their intended purpose – helping low income families and seniors with down payment assistance so they may have their chance at the American Dream of homeownership and reducing the state’s housing inventory at the same time.

For every $1 million the state spends on affordable housing programs, it receives $7.66 million of economic impact and realizes 77 jobs created. Appropriating the $174.7 million currently available would generate 13,452 jobs and $1.338 billion in economic activity.

PRIORITY: The legislature should remove the cap and fully fund the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

2. Reduce Uncertainty
The growth management reform law that resulted from the 2009 Legislative Session is now tied up in a lawsuit – creating great uncertainty in the development industry. This uncertainty is stifling the very kind of investment in Florida’s urban areas that it was designed to create.

Understanding that construction on already-approved projects has been delayed by economic conditions, the growth management reform measure allowed businesses to seek permit extensions until such time as the economy improves. This same reform measure also allowed DRI exemptions. But due to the lawsuit, these businesses and their projects are in legal limbo.

PRIORITY: The legislature should pass bridge legislation which validates the permit extension and DRI exemption portion of the 2009 law. This will clarify to individuals and businesses that took action to extend a permit or claim a DRI exemption, that their reliance on the law is guaranteed and legally valid.

3. Remove Unnecessary Barriers to Recovery
Florida’s real estate market, including the condominium market, has been in turmoil for over three years. Supply far outpaced demand, and for condominiums where too few owners remained in a building to keep it afloat, many financially collapsed.

Now, with bargain prices and low interest rates, investors have returned to Florida’s condo market. However, due to an unnecessary barrier in Florida law, many investors are choosing to remain on the sidelines at a time when Florida desperately needs them to help reduce inventory and return stability to the market.

PRIORITY: The legislature should pass condo bulk-buyer legislation which allows investors to purchase more than seven units in a building without the investor having to accept the legal and financial liabilities of the original developer.

4. Prevent Ill-Conceived, Costly Mandates
In 2009, the International Code Congress (ICC) adopted a mandate that automatic fire sprinklers must be installed in all new one- and two-family dwellings effective January, 2011.

Unless the Florida Legislature takes action this session to prohibit this mandate, the Florida Building Commission will be forced to include the mandate in the 2010 Florida Building Code. This very expensive mandate will be passed along to home buyers. Conservative estimates indicate the mandate will cost over $4,000 in an average size home, or about $2 per square foot. Smoke alarms perform as well, or better, at a fraction of the cost.

It should be noted that, at present, no other state has allowed this mandate into their building code, and over 20 states have filed or are considering legislation to block this mandate.

PRIORITY: The legislature should send a clear signal opposing the ICC mandate and supporting consumer choice by passing legislation to prevent the fire sprinkler mandate from being adopted into the Florida Building Code. 

5. Prevent Job Killing Regulations
Despite Florida’s 11.8 percent unemployment rate, some state agency bureaucrats are moving forward with rulemaking efforts that will thwart job growth and eliminate even more jobs. It’s simply unexplainable. These agency rulemaking efforts will add to the cost and amount of red tape it takes to do business in Florida. Companies that might otherwise choose to expand or relocate in Florida are investing elsewhere…in states where taxes, fees and the time to get permits are not as difficult.

PRIOIRTY: The legislature should pass legislation requiring state agencies to conduct an independent analysis on any proposed rule to determine the effect it will have on private sector job growth. Additionally, the legislature should impose a temporary moratorium on any agency rulemaking effort that may thwart job growth or increase the net costs and regulatory burdens on small businesses.

6. Reduce Cost Burdens on Taxpayers
In recent years, several state agencies and some local governments have attempted to mandate expensive and scientifically unproven performance-based septic treatment systems on homeowners living in or near certain springsheds. 

Florida’s springs are vitally important to our state’s natural beauty and wildlife, our recreation and our overall quality of life. Reducing nitrogen releases into our springs and aquifers is a noble goal. 

But adopting standards and outcomes before technologically feasible, or before cost-effective solutions are identified or even available, is essentially putting the cart before the horse. Adopting laws or rules which could prematurely require the use of scientifically unproven and expensive septic systems thereby forcing this cost burden onto existing and future homeowners is not the solution.

PRIORITY: The legislature should appropriate the $2 million necessary to complete Phase II of the Department of Health research project. This project is testing and developing prototype lower cost, passive alternatives to reduce nitrogen from septic tanks before nitrogen standards are established in law.  Our citizens deserve the completion and results of this project, which will identify cost-effective solutions, rather than having scientifically unproven, expensive systems effectively forced on them in this economy.

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