Watch CBS News

100+ New Laws Go Into Effect July 1st

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – Beginning Wednesday, 130 new laws produced by the Legislature, and signed by Governor Rick Scott, will go into effect.

Starting Wednesday, the state will no long collect sales tax on gun club memberships, people with 64-ounce beer containers known as "growlers" can get them filled at breweries, and governments in Florida will have to start looking to buy American-made U.S. flags.

Lawmakers also decided that, as of Wednesday, the state's decades-old ban on gay adoption will no longer be in statutes, children can secretly record sexual abusers and law enforcement agencies can't require officers to issue any preset number of tickets.

At least one of the new laws has an uncertain future.

The requirement of a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, approved largely along party lines, faces a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, which also wants the law put on hold while the lawsuit proceeds.

A number of the new laws make technical changes to state statutes or have ties to the $78.2 billion spending plan.

Here are highlights of the laws taking effect July 1:

BUDGET

The spending plan for the fiscal year, at $78.2 billion, is the largest in state history. It was approved in a June special session after lawmakers failed to come together on health-care spending during the regular session.

The package includes boosts in funding for public schools, universities and colleges, and the Agency of Persons with Disabilities, and will cover repairs to 94 bridges and the replacement of 16 others. The budget also includes $38.5 million for the protection of the state's natural springs and $15 million for Florida Forever.

TAX CUTS

A wide-ranging tax cut package, which came in lower than what the House and Gov. Scott wanted, still clocks in at $372.4 million in the next fiscal year.

There are tax cuts on the cost of gun club memberships, college textbooks, luxury boat repairs, certain agricultural supplies and services, school extracurricular fundraisers, aviation fuel at select flight-training academies, and on motor vehicles purchased overseas by internationally deployed service members from Florida.

For many Floridians, the most noticeable item will be a reduction in the communications-services tax on cell-phone and cable-TV bills. The savings are projected at $20 a year for people paying $100 a month for the services.

Another notable feature is the 10-day sales-tax holiday starting Aug. 7 on clothing under $100, school supplies that cost $15 or less and the first $750 of personal computers purchased for non-commercial use.

ADOPTION

Government workers who adopt foster children will now receive a $5,000 payment, the payments increase to $10,000 for adoptions of children with special needs. The measure also repeals the state's decades-old ban on gay adoption.

MILITARY

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will now accept a military personnel identification card as proof of a social security card number during the application process to acquire a driver license or identification card.

Young service members are able to rent hotel rooms in Florida. Some hotels and other lodging establishments have minimum age requirements. The law requires hotels, motels and bed-and-breakfast inns to waive age restrictions for active-duty service members with valid military identification cards.

Woman Veteran, World War II Veteran, Navy Submariner, Combat Action Badge Ribbon, Air Force Combat Action Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross license plates will all be created.

A memorial in the Capitol Complex will be built in memory of the 241 members of the U.S. military killed Oct. 23, 1983 when a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives drove into a headquarters and barracks area in Beirut, Lebanon.

PATRIOTISM

The "All-American Flag Act" requires U.S. and Florida flags purchased by governments in Florida after Jan. 1, 2016, to be made from materials grown, produced and manufactured in the United States.

EDUCATION

Known as "Gabby's Law for Student Safety," the law revises how "hazardous walking conditions" are identified and handled. The law allows school district superintendents to make formal requests to the government agencies with jurisdiction over roads to correct the hazards. The government agencies would have to include the work in their next annual five-year capital improvements programs or declare why the corrections aren't being planned.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Local law-enforcement agencies are officially banned from using ticket quotas. Local governments will have to submit reports to the Legislature if traffic-ticket revenues cover more than 33 percent of the costs of operating their police departments. The law is a reaction to the speed trap that was nestled along U.S. 301 in the small North Florida city of Waldo.

Children under the age of 18 will now be able to secretly record conversations related to sexual abuse or other violent acts. The proposal stemmed from a Florida Supreme Court decision last year that ordered a new trial for a Lee County man who had been sentenced to life in prison for sexually abusing his stepdaughter.

Dubbed the "43 Days Initiative Act," the law extends the statute of limitation on felony sexual battery offenses from four years to 10 years. The title of the law is tied to a sexual offense victim who reported the crime four years and 43 days after the crime, which meant that no charges could be brought against the offender.

DRONES

Aerial drones will be prohibited from capturing images that could infringe on the privacy of property owners or occupants. The law allows people to initiate a civil action against a person, state agency or political subdivision that violates the prohibitions. However, the prohibition doesn't include agencies countering the risk of terrorist attacks, police who obtain search warrants that authorize the use of drones, property appraisers making tax assessments, and utilities maintaining their facilities.

ENTERTAINMENT

A House bill which was signed into law clears up confusion created by a 2013 law that shut down Internet cafes. This year's law is intended to make it clear that amusement games can continue operating at businesses such as Dave & Buster's and Chuck E. Cheese's.

ALCOHOL

Brewers will now be able to fill 64-ounce beer containers known as "growlers" for off-site consumption. The law limits cup sizes to 3.5 ounces for beer tastings and caps the number of vendor licenses that can be issued to a brewer. The law ends the use of the tourism exemption for on-site alcohol sales that brewers have been operating under since 1963.

Also, craft distillers will be able to sell up to two factory-sealed bottles annually of each product directly to each customer visiting the property.

UTILITIES

Future Public Service Commissioners will be limited to three consecutive four-year terms. The law also requires utilities to notify customers of the best available rates and prevents electric utilities from charging higher rates through extensions of billing cycles --- a provision directed at Duke Energy.

MEDICAL

Terminally ill patients will be allowed to access certain experimental drugs. Dubbed the "Right to Try Act," the law focuses on drugs that have been through what is known as "phase 1" of a clinical trial but have not been approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The law also provides liability protections to doctors and drug manufacturers.

INSURANCE

A House bill signed into a law repeals a law capping at four the number of vehicles that can be covered by a single family insurance policy.

A Senate measure now provide flexible insurance options for flood coverage.

PUBLIC RECORDS

A Senate measure provides an exemption to email addresses that the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles collects related to driver's licenses and motor-vehicle records.

Also, another Senate measure exempts taxpayers' email addresses obtained by tax collectors in the process of sending tax notices.

There will be a public-records exemption for certain videos made by police body cameras. The exemption would apply to videos made on private property without the approval of a property owner or individual.

 

 

The News Service of Florida's Jim Turner contributed to this report.

 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.