Thanks to your advocacy efforts, provisions that would have prohibited the expenditures of TIF funds on festivals, grants to promote tourism, and grants to socially beneficial nonprofit entities, a cap on administrative spending at 18 percent, a requirement that a lobbying registration program be created for CRAs, and a requirement that new CRAs be created by a county-wide referendum that requires the approval of two-thirds of the electors' votes to pass were
ALL REMOVED
from the final bill.
Now that the bill has been amended, the FLC position on this legislation is neutral. Thank you to all the municipal officials who contacted legislators regarding the issues we opposed in the originally filed bills. Thank you also to the Senate for addressing the League’s concerns.
Below is a summary of CS/HB 9:
- Requires four hours of ethics training for CRA commissioners.
- CRAs must use the procurement processes of the city or county that created the CRA.
- By January 1, 2020, each CRA must publish on its website digital maps of its boundaries.
- Beginning March 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, each CRA must file with the city or county that created it:
- the most recent audit,
- enumerated performance data, and
- an assessment of whether the CRA has achieved the goals of its community redevelopment plan.
- A sunset on the earlier of the termination date in the CRA's charter as of October 1, 2019, or on September 30, 2039. The termination date may be extended by a simple majority vote of the city or county that created the CRA. If as of October 1, 2019, the CRA has debt that matures after September 30, 2019, the CRA may remain in existence until the maturity of the debt.
- Includes a provision for the termination of CRAs that have been inactive for six years.
- Permits the governing body which adopts the ordinance providing for the funding of the trust fund may reduce the contribution of each taxing authority below 95 percent, but not below 50 percent.
- Provides that CRAs may expend funds only pursuant to an annual budget adopted by the CRA board.
- A CRA must submit its annual budget to the county in which the CRA is located within 10 days after adoption of the budget.
- CRAs may expend funds on expenses necessary to exercise its powers. In other words, there are NO new spending restrictions.
- Eliminates the requirement that budgeted funds be spent in three years and instead provides that funds may be re-appropriated if a project changes.
- A separate stand-alone audit of CRAs with more than $100,000 in annual revenues and specifically requires the auditor to opine that all expenditures were legally authorized.
CS/HB 9 will next go to the Governor. Once he receives the bill, he will have 15 days to sign, veto or allow the bill to become law without his signature.
