Governor Ron DeSantis vetoes two bills
Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Today, Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the following bills:
CS/HB 1427 – Nursing Education Programs
“To meet the needs of the state’s aging and growing population, Florida has made
significant investments in healthcare workforce education including funding for new facilities,
PIPELINE funding to reward the highest quality programs, and LINE funding to foster
partnerships with local healthcare enterprises.“CS/HB 1427 impedes these investments by establishing unnecessary burdens on nursing
education programs. The bill also institutes bureaucratic overreach by allowing the Board of
Nursing to impose a host of additional regulations on nursing programs and their directors.
These policies will deter programs from accepting students, encourage them to focus on test
preparation rather than training students to work in healthcare, and will hinder the state’s ability
to recruit and maintain nursing programs and directors in the first place.“Florida is committed to accountability and to providing students with high-quality
education. However, this bill will limit opportunities for students and those looking to make a
career change and undermine the progress that has been made to bolster the state’s nursing
workforce.” – Governor Ron DeSantis
HB 11 – Municipal Water and Sewer Utility Rates
“HB 11 attempts to resolve a local utility rate dispute between the City of Miami
Gardens and the City of North Miami Beach in Miami Dade County. Rather than encouraging
those municipalities to resolve the dispute themselves, or providing a comprehensive
solution for all municipal utility customers in the state, the bill passed by the legislature
benefits one class of ratepayers in a single municipality but may lead to ratepayers in a
neighboring municipality paying more.“It is not the role of the state to referee such a dispute. Municipalities should be
encouraged to resolve these disputes locally. Absent that, the legislature can institute
measures – applicable to the entire state of Florida – to ensure that ratepayers inside and
outside city limits have a voice in the rate setting process.” – Governor Ron DeSantis
To view Veto letter HB 1427, click here.
To view Veto letter HB 11, click here.
The very last sentence is what is needed here. The solution, as the Governor pointed out, is a statewide law. It would require a municipal utility to have representation by customers, both inside outside a city to have a voice. The rate should be the same with the utility collecting the city taxes or the county taxes, as applicable, with no “special fees” for a portion of the customers.