Latest news with #R-Seminole
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Bipartisan bill aiming to better future for Florida's at-risk youth heads to governor
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A bill now heading to the governor's desk promises to help keep children on the right path. Florida lawmakers passed legislation that prioritizes early intervention, ensuring at-risk youth receive the support they a bi-partisan push, the legislation revamps state statue to create a more efficient and responsive juvenile justice framework. Florida enacts Dexter's and Trooper's Law to combat animal abuse The bill aims to improve agency coordination with a focus on promoting education, strengthening families, and preventing youth from being involved in criminal behavior. 'As a former Department of Children and Families attorney, I have witnessed how delayed interventions, and systemic red tape can derail a child's future. I've seen parents begging for help, and I've seen the consequences when help comes too late,' said State Rep. Bracy Davis (D- Ocoee). Sponsors of the bill say schools, courts, service providers, and families now all have a role to play in building a better path forward for Florida's youth. 'These are youth who are running away from home. They're not showing up to school. They are right there at the cusp of something different — whether that's dependency or delinquency — and so the services are there to make sure that they don't go down that path,' said State Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole). Jacques added that one important piece of the bill focuses on improving the education system and addressing student attendance issues. 'Since the pandemic, unfortunately in Florida, we've seen a drop in attendance when it comes to school. So right now, with this bill, we've added additional measures for the schools to track how many absences are occurring and they have to report those in a more robust fashion — and not just the number of absences, but who is absent so we can start intervening in a very early stage,' Jacques said. Representative Jacques worked alongside the Department of Justice to get the bill across the finish line. He says this was a priority for the governor's administration and expects him to sign the bill into law. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
E-Verify legislation starts to move at the statehouse, passing its first committee
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) – The state legislature is now at the halfway point in the 2025 legislative session and as the end swiftly approaches, lawmakers in Tallahassee are pushing for more immigration reform. Before the legislative session began, lawmakers met for three special sessions on immigration. A key debate in those sessions was whether or not the state needed to strengthen the process to verify workers' citizenship through the federal system E-Verify. Now, that conversation Ron DeSantis, Republicans, and even some Democrats in the statehouse have all pushed for tougher worker citizenship eligibility requirements. Several bills have been filed on the issue, including from Senators Jason Pizzo (D-Sunny Isles Beach), Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill), and Representative Berny Jacques (R-Seminole). This week, for the first time, one of them started to move. Berny Jacques' House bill to require all private employers to use E-Verify passed out of its first committee stop. But before receiving majority support, lawmakers and members of the public shared concerns with the legislation, saying it puts unnecessary red tape up for small businesses.'I'm looking at specifically in my district on both sides of the Bay, small businesses who may not have knowledge of that, who may not get this. How are we going to not be punished?' said Representative Michele Rayner, (D- St. Petersburg). 'Would you be open to a grace period of education? How do we make sure that people who would probably want to do the right thing aren't going to necessarily be penalized for maybe just not knowing the law?' The bill would allow for a 30-day non-compliance window if the employer fails to use the E-Verify system. If businesses continue to not comply – fines will start to stack up.'I just think there's a better way of doing this. I think to Rep Rayner's point, if we could postpone this and do more education on the front end so that folks don't have to face these massive fines and fees just because they don't know,' said Angela Nixon (D- Jacksonville). '$1000 a day, $1000 can put a business under, a small business under.' While Democrats say there is a better way of doing this, Republicans argue these requirements are needed to ensure that Florida jobs go to American workers not to those who violate immigration labor laws. 'They can go and be a green card holder. They can have a work visa, they can be here in some sort of status. So, it's not just because you're an immigrant, you're not allowed to work. This is about the unauthorized aliens, those that don't meet any of these statuses that I just talked about, operating and lurking here in our state, it is an issue,' said Rep. Jacques. 'It is an issue because if one of these individuals slip through the cracks and commits either a crime or an accident, and harms one of our own. That is an issue because it is a preventable death. It is a preventable accident if we had just simply enforced our laws.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Battle of the bills? Several state lawmakers introduce efforts to toughen E-Verify measures
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WLFA) — After three back-to-back special sessions on illegal immigration and a bill to crack down on the issue, Florida state lawmakers say these efforts are far from over. Not only is Governor Ron DeSantis pushing these efforts forward, the legislature is still filing bills on the issue. During the last special session on illegal immigration, a key debate between lawmakers was E-Verify. Looking at ways to bolster the process to verify workers' citizenship here in the state, that dispute has only continued as we approach regular session, which is now just days away. Weeks ago, Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature passed what's being called the 'toughest' immigration bill in the country. However, efforts to address immigration only continue at the statehouse. Not one, not two, but so far three state lawmakers are taking aim at the federal program E-Verify. 'If you're employing somebody, you need to run them through the system to make sure that they are able to work legally here in our state and in our country,' said Representative Berny Jacques, (R-Seminole). Currently Florida law requires businesses with at least 25 employees to verify workers' citizenship status. Representative Jacques looks to extend this for all employers to use E-Verify. 'Even though we just passed the strongest anti-illegal Immigration bill during the last special session, there's still more to be done,' said Rep. Jacques. 'Florida is not a destination place for illegal aliens. Go somewhere else, in fact, just stay out of our country.' This is not the first effort we have seen this year on the matter, Democrats have introduced similar legislation that enforce harsher penalties like permanent revocation of business licenses, if caught employing unauthorized workers. 'If you have a system that allows for basically, you know, objectively large loopholes and gaps, you should not be beating your chest about how we're the toughest on illegal immigration in the country,' said State Senator Jason Pizzo, (D-Miami). Senator Pizzo criticized Jacques' bill calling it toothless and instead touts the bill he filed last week. 'It's a good start if it was on his own. However, what it translates to or what it seems like is let's go ahead and write down that we're tough, but if you don't put an enforcement or a penalty provision in a bill, you're not being serious,' said Sen. Pizzo. Pizzo adds that his bill actually has teeth, including fines varying from $10,000-$5000,000 and temporary or permanent license suspensions based on their violations. 'I have heard he put a bill forward and I hope he's doing it in good faith because this is not a member that's been with us on all of these fights against illegal immigration,' said Rep. Jacques. When questioned on the similarity of Senator Pizzo and his bills, Representative Jacques said he is open to working with anyone at the capitol to push forward this effort. 'I welcome all partners, and I put the call out for anybody who will join us in this effort to make sure that E-Verify applies to all employers. No exceptions, no excuses,' said Rep. Jacques. Adding to the list, Republican State Senator Blaise Ingoglia recently filed legislation on illegal immigration, which requires all employers to use E-Verify for all employees, a zero tolerance for companies knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, including fines up to $500,000, and creates a cause of action to sue the employer of an illegal immigrant that injured or kills someone. With nearly three identical bills and democrats and republicans tackling the same issue, is there a chance they can join forces? Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New bill would crack down on corporations buying Florida homes
A bill filed in the Florida House of Representatives Wednesday could make it more difficult for Wall Street-backed landlords to buy homes in the Sunshine State. 'When you have corporations buying up single family homes meant to be residential, it takes away from the supply and therefore has an impact on cost,' said Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, the representative who introduced HB401. A first of its kind analysis from the Tampa Bay Times found that large corporations own more than 117,000 single family homes across Florida, including around 27,000 in the Tampa Bay area. Proponents of the growing single family rental industry say it's creating more options for those who can't afford to buy. But the Times found these landlords neglected ongoing maintenance issues, evicted tenants at higher rates and accelerated gentrification in Black neighborhoods. Disproportionate concentration of ownership among a handful of companies is linked by researchers to rising rent and sales costs, and experts said the companies' tactics can shut out individuals buyers in the housing market. Jacques said the Times reporting confirmed what he was hearing on the ground from constituents and helped inspire the bill, also known as the Strengthening Homeownership Act. It would help distinguish between traditional owner-occupied single family homes and rental homes owned by corporations. These rentals would be categorized as 'single family hybrid' housing. Local governments would have the power to prohibit them in certain neighborhoods through zoning rules. There's also some language to protect mom and pop landlords, who Jacques said are not the target of this bill. If an owner has three or fewer properties in the same county, their homes will be considered 'single family' instead of 'single family hybrid.' Legislation filed in Congress and other states have sought to place an outright ban on corporate owned rentals that would force certain companies to sell off their assets. Jacques said he opted to leverage existing land use rules to make the policy more appealing to his colleagues who might be hesitant to intervene in the free market. He added that this also gives local governments a choice in how to proceed rather than forcing a top-down mandate. 'This will not be micromanaged by Tallahassee,' he said. In other states, governments have attempted capping property ownership at a certain number of homes, or taxing companies that own more than a given amount. Mad Bankson, housing research coordinator for the Private Equity Stakeholders Project, said the use of zoning law was a creative way to address Florida's corporate concentration trend. 'Because this is such new territory and has become a problem relatively quickly, that's something we really like to see,' Bankson said. But it could also make the law more 'legally vulnerable,' to challenges, Bankson said. Municipalities will also have to establish their own guidelines and how they would be enforced. Lei Wedge, a professor of finance at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, noted the bill wouldn't have much impact on corporate-owned rentals already in existence. 'This new bill they're trying to introduce will only affect when a land developer develops this land, whether land is primarily for single-family use, or could be multi-family use,' Wedge said. 'It's not going to change anything (about) the current situation.' Wedge said outright restrictions on corporate buying would be more effective. 'If you want to stop it, you need to stop them from buying the homes — instead of the land use," she said. The National Rental Home Council, a trade group representing some of the largest companies operating single-family rentals, contends its members play a crucial role amid growing housing demand in a market with ballooning population. In an interview with the Times last year, CEO David Howard said he's seen ownership of single-family rentals shift from smaller local landlords as large firms moved in, but that trend hasn't made it harder to buy a home or hurt renters. 'This bill seems to be nothing more than a blatant attempt to prevent renters from having the right to live in certain communities, and I think that can be very problematic,' Howard said in an email to the Times. 'Why would it ever make sense for the state to reduce the range of housing opportunities available for families in Florida? We need more choice in housing not less.' Howard said companies have provided rental opportunities in both existing homes and new builds sprouting across the region.
