MONROE COUNTY SETS PRIORITIES AHEAD OF STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Water high quality funding, inexpensive wind insurance coverage and marine safety are amongst Monroe County’s precedence listing for the Florida Legislature in 2025. 

Just lately, county commissioners accepted an agenda of legislative objects they hope acquire traction as members within the state Home and Senate convene March 4 for a 60-day session in Tallahassee.

Funding for water high quality initiatives via the Florida Keys Stewardship Act stays excessive on the county’s listing. Lisa Tennyson, county legislative affairs director, mentioned the county can be seeking to safe $20 million for initiatives, together with the continuing canal restorations all through Monroe County. The Stewardship Act was accepted by the Florida Legislature in 2016. Since then, the county has secured roughly $100 million for initiatives to guard the Keys’ nearshore waters.

County officers are hoping the Stewardship Act will get funded via the state’s Land Acquisition Belief Fund. That would offer annual funding for this system with out the necessity to request and battle for cash within the state funds every session. 

Wind insurance coverage, specifically the affordability for policyholders within the county insured via Residents, is one other key precedence for county officers in the course of the upcoming session. Residents Insurance coverage supplies protection to property homeowners who’re in good religion and may’t get hold of a coverage via the non-public market. With charges persevering with to extend through a state-approved glide path, the county will push for a ten% cap on annual will increase for Keys policyholders who’re insured via Residents. Tennyson mentioned Florida Home Speaker Danny Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton have insurance coverage excessive on their precedence lists this session. 

“Hopefully it means they are going to contemplate actions which can be extra consumer-friendly slightly than specializing in the pursuits of the insurance coverage business,” Tennyson informed county commissioners throughout a December assembly in Key Largo. “It does give us a glimmer of hope.”

Tennyson added the county may even be supporting a push to roll again a requirement for Residents policyholders to hold flood insurance coverage though their houses and properties aren’t vulnerable to flooding. 

The county additionally needs the state to make clear how native governments can deal with the removing of migrant vessels from nearshore waters so that they don’t develop into a detriment to the setting. At present, the state handles the removing of grounded migrant vessels through an govt order signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. As soon as that order expires, Tennyson mentioned, the native governments may very well be chargeable for dealing with the removing of migrant vessels. Tennyson mentioned the county’s native derelict removing program doesn’t handle the difficulty of migrant boats. 

“They usually carry diesel gas and require an instantaneous removing course of, which presently we don’t have pointers for,” she mentioned. 

County officers additionally need the state to proceed funding street elevation initiatives in Monroe County. Tennyson mentioned the state has awarded $60 million in grants to the county for numerous roads in unincorporated Monroe County. 

A request for added constructing allow allocations may even be part of the county’s legislative agenda within the upcoming session. In December, county commissioners voted 4-1 to request a change the statutes governing the Florida Keys as an Space of Crucial State Concern (ACSC) – specifically, a provision presently requiring a 24-hour clearance time for everlasting residents within the occasion of a hurricane evacuation, used to cap the variety of constructing rights all through the islands. 

The decision requests a rise for the hurricane evacuation time of as much as 26 hours – a timeframe that, in response to previously-discussed hurricane evacuation fashions, might add roughly 3,550 new models to the Keys. The decision requires a good distribution of any new constructing rights over a 40-year interval, however permits for models to be “borrowed ahead” from future years in the event that they’re used for inexpensive or workforce housing.