Latest news with #MackBernard
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida bill would ban these rent hikes for affordable housing. What to know
Have you ever had a landlord tell you your rent was going up in the middle of your lease? If a bill working its way through the Florida Legislature passes, they may not be able to, but only for low-income households. House Bill 365 blocks landlords who receive federal, state or local incentives for affordable housing from raising rents mid-lease. The restriction applies only to rental agreements of 13 months or less that begin on or after July 1, 2026. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Debra Tendrich, D-Lake Worth, has been approved by the House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism and Civil Justice and Claims subcommittees. It now goes to the House Commerce Committee and then the floor. The Senate version, SB 382, from Sen. Mack Bernard, D-by West Palm Beach, is in the Community Affairs committee. Rents and home prices in Florida have shot up in the last decade, although they have stabilized somewhat in the last couple of years, and housing remains a problem. "Affordable housing" is defined in Florida statutes as housing where monthly rents or mortgage payments — including taxes, insurance, and utilities — do not exceed 30% of area median annual adjusted gross income for low-income households within the state. These rates are determined annually by HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) by county or Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). In Florida, the current statewide area median income (AMI) for a family of four is $88,600. Over 2.4 million low-income Florida households pay more than 30% of their incomes towards housing, according to a 2024 report from the Florida Housing Coalition. Over half of them — or 1.3 million low-income households — spend more than 50% of their income toward housing costs. "This makes it difficult for those households to save for retirement or emergencies and difficult to afford other necessities such as food and childcare," read an analysis of the bill. Under HB 365, which is only two pages, landlords of units that qualify as affordable housing who have received federal, state, or local funding or tax incentives because of that are prohibited from raising the rent during the term of a rental agreement. Landlords may still raise the rent if: A tenant is renewing their rental agreement The increase is required for compliance with federal laws, rules, or regulations If the Legislature passes it and Gov. Ron DeSantis signs it, the law would go into effect July 1, 2025 for rental contracts that begin on or after July 1, 2026. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Rent-hike ban in Florida for certain leases may become new law
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Floridians got two minutes each to defend their right to amend the constitution
Three dozen people lined up to try and rescue Florida democracy, making their arguments two minutes at a time. A bill kneecapping Floridians' right to amend the state Constitution passed anyway last Monday. Along party lines, the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee passed Senate Bill 7016 on a 6 to 3 vote, with Republicans voting yes, and Democrats no. The three defenders of democracy were Sens. Tina Polsky of Boca Raton, Mack Bernard of West Palm Beach and Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg. Gathering the nearly 1 million signatures needed to get a citizen-led amendment on the ballot is already a herculean task. SB 7016 makes it impossible. No more volunteers gathering signatures outside supermarkets and in condo card rooms unless they register with the state. No more room for honest errors when returning petitions to election supervisors. The threat of steep fines and felony counts hangs over almost every aspect of an already long and arduous process. Grassroots petition drives would likely grind to a halt. Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading the charge. The bill comes wrapped in the same tired clickbait that made him a Fox News favorite in his presidential campaign: election fraud. Remember when DeSantis declared that Florida pulled off the most secure election in the country in 2020? A funny thing: There was no fraud talk then. But now, he appears unhappy with the idea that voters can override even governors. He wants lawmakers to prevent that, and they are obliging him. Some lawmakers are unaware of the scope of the sprawling Senate bill. Others don't want to admit the truth: There would be fewer citizen-driven constitutional amendments if elected officials were doing their job and listening to people instead of talking down to them. It is citizens, after all, who used ballot access to do what lawmakers refused to do on their behalf: enshrine ethics in government, create a livable minimum wage, establish universal pre-kindergarten, buy protected lands and much more. SB 7016 undercuts this by mounting an assault on gathering signatures of people favoring an issue. Starting a petition drive will require a $1 million bond. The cost of verifying signatures will double, possibly triple. Even friends and neighbors volunteering to collect signatures will have to register with the state. Fines of up to $5,000 are possible for each petition turned in late. Anyone violating the new limit on collecting signatures could face felony charges. If a paid petition gatherer is deemed by the state to be a bad actor, every voter signature they gathered will be thrown out, and the voters who signed those petitions will not be told. That assumes voters feel comfortable signing. Under this bill, they will be required to produce more personal information, such as the last four digits of their Social Security number. They will get a letter from the state, asking if they really meant to sign the petition. And if a citizen-led amendment somehow still manages to get on the ballot and pass, anyone can sue to overturn it. Where's the evidence of widespread fraud justifying this current crackdown on voting rights? The bill's sponsor, Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, cites a 942-page report compiled by DeSantis' Office of Election Crimes and Security. We agree with Grall that concerned senators should read the report. Specifically, they should look at the hundreds of weak cases dropped by DeSantis' election police relative to the number of people criminally convicted; the number of alleged fraud cases merely requiring routine voter list upkeep; the many criminal complaints the Florida Department of Law Enforcement declined to investigate; and the heavy emphasis on the governor's pet peeve, which are these constitutional amendments. They should also discover what's not there: A fair and honest appraisal of the DeSantis administration's role in intimidating Florida TV stations and siphoning off tax dollars to sway votes on last year's abortion and marijuana amendments. They should keep in mind the administration's last-ditch effort to kick those amendments off the ballot; intimidating knocks on the door by his election police to see if a voter really signed a petition, and nuisance calls to election supervisors who had already verified petition signatures, telling them to check again. Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, successfully amended this bad bill to include a ban on using public money for political purposes, as the DeSantis administration did in 2024. That's the right thing, but it's a hollow victory. SB 7016 goes next to the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee and another defeat for direct democracy. If it passes intact, there won't be a problem with using taxpayer money to fight a citizen-led amendment, because if petition-gathering withers away, so will the grassroots constitutional amendments, and with them, the voices of citizens will be further silenced. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@
