By David Royse
The News Service of Florida
Gov. Charlie Crist signed 26 bills into law late Thursday, including one aimed at making Florida cities better able to woo Major League Baseball teams for spring training.
Crist said the measure (HB 7205) will allow the state to better compete with Arizona as the home of spring training. The measure allows cities and counties to work more closely with private initiatives to recruit teams that do not currently train here.
“The sports industry has a $36 billion-a-year economic impact in our state and it is vital that we continue to promote an economic environment that fosters success,” Crist said in a statement.
Among the other 25 bills signed into law, Crist approved SB 366, which targets shops that sell bongs and other smoking paraphernalia and SB 808, which bolsters penalties for methadone sales that lead to death.
Crist also signed HB 7179, which lets local governments to establish renewable energy incentive programs known as PACE programs, for Property Assessed Clean Energy. Governments could loan homewoners the money for certain home improvements and then repay the loans through an assessment on their property taxes.
The governor also signed HB 7243, which aims to begin moving the state toward certain recycling goals, although environmentalists said the bill by the time it passed was pretty watered down, with no new serious statewide requirements for amounts of recycling by businesses.
Bills the governor signed:
HB 173 Tax on sales, Use, and Other Transactions
SB 366 Retail Sales of Smoking Pipes and Devices
HB 449 Sanctions for Certain Court Pleadings
SB 502 Special Investigators
HB 551 Pub. Rec. & Meetings/County/Complaints on Conduct/Disclosure
SB 704 Capital Felonies
HB 731 Commercial Transactions
SB 808 Murder/Unlawful Distribution of Methadone
SB 998 Trust Administration
SB 1012 Juvenile Justice Facilities and Programs
SB 1150 Registration/Farm Labor Contractors and Employees
SB 1152 Funeral, Cemetery, & Consumer Services Act
HB 1237 Probate Procedures
HB 1401 Export of Goods, Commodities, & Things of Value to Foreign Countries
HB 1411 Foreclosures
SB 2046 Employee Leasing Companies
SB 2086 Consumer Debt Collection
HB 7019 Trust Funds/Creation/Mortgage Guaranty Trust Fund/OFR
HB 7109 Tax Refund Program for Qualified Target Industry Businesses
HB 7121 OGSR/Hurricane Loss & Exposure Data
HB 7157 Taxation
HB 7179 Qualifying Improvements to Real Property
HB 7205 Professional Sports Franchises
HB 7217 Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Emergency Assessments
HB 7219 Corporate Income Tax
HB 7243 Environmental Control
