Latest news with #SB628
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Lucy's Law, other bills would stiffen reckless boating penalties. What is HB 289?
Florida leads the nation with the most boats registered, more than 1.04 million in 2023 according to a report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It also has more accidents, with 659 reported that year and 59 boating-related fatalities. Two bills working their way through the Florida Legislature would increase penalties for boaters driving recklessly. House Bill 289 is called "Lucy's Law" after 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez, who died in 2022 after the driver of the boat she was in struck a channel marker in Biscayne Bay off Miami-Dade County. Another passenger, 18-year-old Katerina Puig, was left permanently disabled. George Pino, the driver, refused a breathalyzer test at the time and was charged with felony vessel homicide. The bill would increase penalties for reckless boating and mandate boating education. A companion Senate bill, SB 628, also increases penalties for unsafe boating but lacks the mandated education. A different Senate bill, SB 58, increases penalties, requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to add a symbol on state ID or driver's license cards if the person has completed approved boating safety courses, requires ignition interlock devices placed on boats owned or leased by convicted offenders, and increases penalties for refusing a blood, urine or breathalyzer test under reasonable cause. Increase penalties for people violating boating rules and operating vessels recklessly Reckless operation that does not result in an accident would be bumped up from first to second-degree misdemeanor Reckless operation that results in an accident that causes damage to the property or person of another would be a first-degree misdemeanor Reckless operation that results in an accident that causes serious bodily injury would be a third-degree felony Increase penalties for boaters leaving the scene of an accident without giving all possible aid to all persons involved and notifying law enforcement as follows: Property damage would be a second-degree misdemeanor Injury to a person other than serious bodily injury would be a third-degree felony Serious bodily injury would be a second-degree felony Death of another person or unborn child would be a first-degree felony. An "unborn child" was added by amendment. A person who willfully kills another person must be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term 66 of imprisonment of 4 years A person who knowingly provides false information regarding a boating incident resulting in these damages commits a second-degree misdemeanor Require a person convicted of BYU manslaughter to be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 4 years. Suspend a person's motor vehicle driver's license if they are convicted of boating under the influence Require mandatory boating education for a person convicted of a noncriminal boating infraction Mandate boating education for all Florida boaters unless the boater was born before Jan. 1, 1988, has been a Florida resident for at least 5 consecutive years, and has documentation they have completed approved boating safety certification Florida state law currently requires boat drivers born on or after Jan. 1, 1988, to complete a boating safety course. That leaves many boat owners over 36 years of age without formal training in maritime safety. About 83% of the drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2023 had no formal boater education, according to the FWC's Division of Law Enfrocement report. "Right now, it's the Wild Wild West," said Luciana's father Andy Fernandez, who proposed the bill. "It's not like when I started. There are more people boating. The boats are bigger and faster. There are cellphones and loud music. "The stats don't lie. ... We don't want to hurt the (boating) industry. ... We want to effect meaningful change." If approved by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov, Ron DeSantis, HB 289 would go into effect on July 1, 2025. Contributing: Timothy O'Hara, Treasure Coast Newspapers This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida boating laws change would increase penalties for recklessness
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grove bill would credit farmers for overtime pay
State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, has proposed a solution to the challenges farmers face adjusting to a state overtime law that has raised their costs while effectively reducing their workers' earnings. Her Senate Bill 628 would create a payroll tax credit to cover the difference between farmworkers' regular hourly wages and the overtime rate they receive since 2016's Assembly Bill 1066 phased in overtime provisions that have long been common in most other industries. The bill Grove introduced last month was co-sponsored by the California Association of Winegrape Growers and the California Farm Bureau, both of which said in a news release the legislation would benefit growers and farmworkers alike. "If legislators genuinely want to increase take-home pay for farmworkers, growers are going to need support from Sacramento to make it possible," President Natalie Collins of the winegrape growers group said in last week's release. Grove said the provisions of AB 1066 have been hard on laborers who need more hours of work as well as growers trying to get their product to market. 'S.B. 628 is a commonsense solution that ensures farmworkers have more opportunities to earn, while providing relief to our agricultural businesses who sustain the world's food chain supply,' Grove said in the release. While farmworker advocates say the change was long overdue, farmers and some laborers have complained that AB 1066 has brought about a sharp reduction in hours worked in Kern County agriculture. Laborers who were accustomed to working six days per week often work only five now because farmers say they don't have the ability to pass on the added costs. A 2023 study out of the University of California, Berkeley found farmworkers worked a combined 15,000 to 45,000 fewer hours in 2019 and 2020 while making between $6 million and $9 million less per week than if AB 1066 were not in place. Farmworker advocates disputed the study's conclusions, saying other factors may be at play, such as employment of more laborers. They faulted the report for including no information on how workers felt about receiving equal treatment as workers in other industries, and said global warming may be the actual cause of any decline in work hours. Last week's news release announcing SB 628's introduction noted two U.S. states have similar tax credits. It said Oregon offers a refundable personal or corporate income tax credit for employers based on how much overtime they pay ag workers through 2028. New York's credit extends to 2028. The farm bureau called Grove's proposal an investment in food security, rural communities and long-term sustainability of farming in California. It emphasized that, besides helping agricultural producers, SB 628 would give "a real and richly deserved boost in take-home pay for farm employees."
