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NorthFlorida

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Jun 7, 2013
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In Tallahassee there's a bill that just passed the House (425) and is going to the Senate (188) to BAN any regulations on "vacation rentals" in Florida. This means that counties in Florida (such as Flagler) that are trying to regulate Air hosts, create a more level playing field and so on will not be allowed to do so because it will be State law that they can't. I heard on NPR the Representative sponsoring the bill say it was an issue of "property rights' of homeowners" to do what they want with their property. After a little research I discovered that the Senator apparently bought some investment property in Sarasota and was annoyed to find out there were regulations that stopped him from renting it out for less than 60 days. (probably on Air!).
It's becoming a problem in coastal towns because homes are becoming party houses on the beach. Other towns seem to have thrown up their hands because there aren't enough inspectors (or lobbyists) to figure out how to make sure the correct taxes are being collected and remitted.
I wrote emails to all the Representatives and Senators sponsoring (there are 5) but, of course, received no response because they didn't like what I had to say!
 
Always amusing how politicians say local control is best. That is, until they get their check from the lobbyists. Then they want to ban localities from doing anything for their citizens that affect their corporate overlords.
This is a relatively recent phenomenon (past 10 years or so) and you can look at the states that tend to do this and make your own deductions about who it is that likes to pass these sort of laws.
 
About 5 years ago (maybe a bit more) West Virginia did a pilot project of granting Home Rule to cities. It started with 5 cities - mostly big cities. Then it worked so well it was expanded - Shinnston applied fo and got Home Rule. The cities had to say what they wanted to do under Home Rule and make a presentation of why they wanted/needed it to get approved.
We wanted to do a 1% sales tax (was not done due to retail screaming NO!) and eliminate the requirement to have 3 Dem & 2 Repub poll workers at City elections since we hold non-partisan elections (still working on that one. Quite honestly, I forget what the other one was but we did that one.
The Legislature is now in session. One camp wants all the cities to have Home Rule and another camp wants to pull the plug on Home Rule. Will be interesting to see who wins. Local control vs State control.
 
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