Bill Text: FL S0394 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Unlicensed Activity Fees
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-04 - Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see HB 303 (Ch. 2016-79) [S0394 Detail]
Download: Florida-2016-S0394-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2016 SB 394 By Senator Hays 11-00555-16 2016394__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to unlicensed activity fees; amending 3 s. 455.2281, F.S.; prohibiting the Department of 4 Business and Professional Regulation from imposing a 5 specified fee in certain circumstances; providing for 6 applicability of the waiver; providing an effective 7 date. 8 9 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 10 11 Section 1. Section 455.2281, Florida Statutes, is amended 12 to read: 13 455.2281 Unlicensed activities; fees; disposition.—In order 14 to protect the public and to ensure a consumer-oriented 15 department, it is the intent of the Legislature that vigorous 16 enforcement of regulation for all professional activities is a 17 state priority. All enforcement costs should be covered by 18 professions regulated by the department. Therefore, the 19 department shall impose, upon initial licensure and each 20 subsequent renewalthereof, a special fee of $5 per licensee,.21Such fee shall bein addition to all other fees imposed, 22collected from each licenseetoand shallfund efforts to combat 23 unlicensed activity. However, the department may not impose this 24 special fee on a license renewal for any profession whose 25 unlicensed activity account balance, at the beginning of the 26 fiscal year before the renewal, totals more than twice the total 27 of the expenditures for unlicensed activity enforcement efforts 28 in the preceding 2 fiscal years. This waiver applies to all 29 licensees within the profession, and assessment of the special 30 fee may not begin or resume until the renewal cycle subject to 31 the waiver has ended for all of the licensees in that 32 profession. This waiver does not apply to a profession that has 33 a deficit in its operating account or that is projected to have 34 such a deficit in the next 5 fiscal years. Any profession 35 regulated by the department which offers services that are not 36 subject to regulation when provided by an unlicensed person may 37 use funds in its unlicensed activity account to inform the 38 public of such situation. The board with concurrence of the 39 department, or the department when there is no board, may 40 earmark $5 of the current licensure fee for this purpose, if 41 such board, or profession regulated by the department, is not in 42 a deficit and has a reasonable cash balance. A board or 43 profession regulated by the department may authorize the 44 transfer of funds from the operating fund account to the 45 unlicensed activity account of that profession if the operating 46 fund account is not in a deficit and has a reasonable cash 47 balance. The department shall make direct charges to this fund 48 by profession and mayshallnot allocate indirect overhead. The 49 department shall seek board advice regarding enforcement methods 50 and strategies prior to expenditure of funds; however, the 51 department may, without board advice, allocate funds to cover 52 the costs of continuing education compliance monitoring under s. 53 455.2177. The department shall directly credit, by profession, 54 revenues received from the department’s efforts to enforce 55 licensure provisions. The department shall include all financial 56 and statistical data resulting from unlicensed activity 57 enforcement and from continuing education compliance monitoring 58 as separate categories in the quarterly management report 59 provided for in s. 455.219. The department mayshallnot charge 60 the account of any profession for the costs incurred on behalf 61 of any other profession. With the concurrence of the applicable 62 board and the department, any balance that remains inForan 63 unlicensed activity account, a balancewhich remainsat the end 64 of a renewal cycle may, with concurrence of the applicable board65and the department,be transferred to the operating fund account 66 of that profession. 67 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.