Legislature Renews Home Rule Assault

By Paul Feuer and Dave Trecker

Is government best when it’s closest to home?

The Florida legislature apparently doesn’t think so. It’s continuing its assault on home rule with seven bills this session. (There may be others we missed.)

The bills themselves are not earthshaking; one is downright silly. Taken alone, each has little impact. But taken together they continue the drip, drip gradual wearing away of home rule.

The assault has been going on for some time. Last year, there were eight bills, two of them sufficiently alarming to cause real concern.

House Bill 17 would have transferred to the state the right to regulate businesses, professions and occupations. The language was that broad. Tallahassee would have decided where grocery stores could be located.

The other, Senate Bill 1158, would have forbidden local government from enacting rules or ordinances that had an adverse impact on economic growth. What constituted “adverse impact” would have been decided in Tallahassee.

Thankfully, neither of these preposterous bills passed.

But, undeterred, the home rule antagonists are at it again. Here is this year’s line-up.

House Bill 17/Senate Bill 432 would set rules, reporting standards and funding requirements for Community Redevelopment Agencies tasked with upgrading depressed areas. HB 17 goes even further. It would allow only the state to create new CRAs after October 1, usurping a basic right of local government.

None of this makes any sense. Bureaucrats in Tallahassee know nothing about depressed neighborhoods in Collier County, or elsewhere for that matter. The argument that only the legislature can ensure CRA accountability and transparency is specious. Local government is far better equipped to set its own standards and change them whenever necessary.

In other troubling legislation, House Bill 521/Senate Bill 574 would preempt cities and counties from regulating trimming or removal of trees on private property. No matter if the trees presented a danger to surrounding property, the locals would have no say. Tallahassee would decide.

Then there is Senate Bill 1776, which would forbid local government from regulating vegetable gardens.That’s right. You can’t make this stuff up. General ordinances on irrigation or fertilizer use are okay, but don’t tamper with vegetable gardens!

House Bill 773 and Senate Bill 1400 are more serious. They would strip from local officials the right to regulate vacation rentals, including licensing, inspection and fees. A misbegotten attempt to protect rental property owners, these bills overlook the rights of neighborhoods and nearby businesses, not to mention the renters themselves. The impact on tourism could be considerable. The Naples Daily News called these bills “Tallahassee overreach,” and rightly so.

In most cases, erosion of home rule is tough to justify. The state legislature meets a few months a year; local government meets 10-11 months. The legislature has three representatives from our area out of hundreds from elsewhere in the state, hardly a good ratio for making local decisions. City councilors and county commissioners are easy to contact; state decision-makers less so. Most importantly, city and county authorities are close to the action and know their communities. Tallahassee bureaucrats, hundreds of miles away, do not.

So we call on our state delegation – Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, Rep. Byron Donalds and Rep. Bob Rommel – to oppose HB 17, 521 and 773 and SB 432, 574, 1400 and 1776.

In so doing, they will be striking a blow for home rule in Collier County and affirming what most of their constituents already know: Government is best when it’s closest to home.

Feuer is chairman of the Collier County Presidents Council and Trecker is president of the Collier Citizens Council.