The Florida state legislature met Tuesday in an organizational prelude to the upcoming legislative session, with new leaders taking their posts and interest groups honing their legislative priorities for the coming year.
Sen. Wilton Simpson (R-Trilby) was elected Senate president, while Rep. Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor) gave his inaugural address as House speaker. Sprowls cited a number of state needs to address, including expanding rural broadband, doing away with some occupational licenses and encouraging cottage industries to bolster economic growth.
Sprowls didn’t single out one of the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s top legislative priorities in the coming months, coronavirus liability protections to shield small businesses and health care providers from a flood of COVID-19-related lawsuits from customers, patients and employees alike. The protections outlined in any coronavirus liability package should be retroactive, considering that the pandemic has been ongoing since the spring, the chamber said in an email in response to a query from the Florida Record.
“The Florida Chamber does not support blanket immunity but believes if an employer or employee has attempted to follow appropriate guidelines, whether that’s federal, state or local, and were not grossly negligent, they should be protected against frivolous litigation as they try and safely keep their doors open and employees paid,” the chamber statement says.
The chamber also hopes to see a legislative response to help the state economy in the wake of the COVID-19 situation and the passage of the $15-minimum-wage measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.
“There are plenty of ways the legislature could blunt some of those impacts here in Florida,” the chamber team’s email states, “beginning with cutting the Florida-only business rent tax, addressing our bottom-five lawsuit abuse climate, and leveling the tax-collection playing field between out-of-state or international corporations and Main Street mom-and-pop businesses.”
The chamber will also again press state lawmakers to deal with cost drivers affecting Florida’s property insurance market, including putting an end to assignment-of-benefits abuses that the chamber says lead to higher premium costs and increased civil litigation.
“Limiting the statute of limitations will ensure timeliness in the filing of claims and allow insurers to appropriately examine, adjust and pay the claim while also reducing fraud,” the chamber’s statement says. “Ultimately, it all comes down to the attorney-fee structure in property insurance that incentivizes frivolous litigation because only one party has any skin in the game.”
No in-person legislative committee meetings are scheduled in December, and the regular session is set to convene on March 2 of next year, according to the chamber.