Florida Sen. Tom Leek (R-Olmond Beach) has introduced the Act (Senate Bill 1548: Florida Building Code) that addresses how local governments use excess funds within their operating budgets, how to specifically use those funds, and how to prioritize stormwater projects within the Florida community.
The Senator says over the past years, the city of Daytona Beach has collected excessive permits and license fees to be acceptable, with unacceptably levied fees of around $11 million. This has led the city to be monitored during audits by the state for the past four years, and the city continues to come to the state for “critical” flood and storm-related projects, ignoring the audit and its legal obligations.
“Local governments should not receive additional state funds for improved stormwater management through requests to legislative delegations during state audits and until they spend all the collected permits and licensing fees that are acceptable. The city of Daytona Beach needs to keep their homes tidy,” Senator Leak said.
The proposed law amends s. 553.80, FS requires that local governments use certain excess funds from fees collected for code enforcement to perform necessary services or repairs in the stormwater management system and prohibit local governments from using them for that purpose if the local government has such excess funds. Conversely, if such services or repairs are not required, these excess funds may be used as legal designations.
