2018 Legislative Session

Cam Fentriss, FRSA LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL

The 2018 legislative session is right here, right now. This session is early and in an election year. A safe guess is that the priority of many politicians is to hit the campaign trail. But before that, there will be a handful of those running for one office or another looking to strengthen their position by passing (or stopping) legislation. What any of these individuals thinks will help his or her campaign may be something we think will hurt (or help) our industry. As you read our reports, alerts, and your newspapers, please keep these factors in mind.

What can we expect? It may make more sense to start with what we can NOT expect. Two big items:

Workers’ compensation reform is most likely to be handled like moving the pile of rocks from one place to another and back. Given our pro-trial lawyer Republican leadership, we already knew that the chances are slim of passing legislation to fix the Castellanos decision. This year the chances are even less given the rate decrease for 2018.

There is some possibility that problems related to assignment of benefits (AOB) will be addressed, but it is not looking good. There have been a few hearings/panel discussions but, for the most part, these have included a “mocking tone” that is not very convincing as to real interest in solving the problem. This is the case even with increasing rates for property insurance.

What we can expect (or fear) is a longer list.

At the very top of that list is an assault on the construction lien law. House Speaker Richard Corcoran has made it clear he wants it limited or destroyed. Most likely would be to prohibit the use of it for residential construction. This has been one of his goals for four years now, and this year may be his last real opportunity to do it. Also, since he is running for governor, he may view a lien law fix as a solid consumer benefit feather in his cap. We expect his plan to be sneaky (see below) and maybe show up in more than one place, and we expect to deal with this until the absolute end of session.

Another risk (or set of risks) are “really good” ideas coming out of our recent hurricane experiences. Tucked into a very long list of recommendations from the House Select Committee on Hurricane Response and Preparedness is this recommendation: “[C]onsider changes to the construction lien law to protect homeowners from double paying for construction if the construction is paid directly by the homeowner.” In addition to that little gem, this same list also includes a suggestion to expedite reconstruction through “changes to construction licensing regulations.” I do not know what they meant by that, but I do know what are our concerns about that kind of a suggestion. But wait – there’s more. Another suggestion is to “[e]valuate the performance of Florida’s building code and determine if any changes to the code or code adoption processes are warranted.” For now, we can acknowledge that we will be spending time explaining how some of these good ideas are not that good or already a part of Florida’s regular government activity.

Representative Ross Spano (R-Riverview) has filed House Bill 89 that would make any contractor who fails to carry public liability insurance and property insurance or has a policy that excludes “such required coverage” personally liable for damages to a consumer that would have otherwise been covered by the intended insurance. That sounds good to all those who think that cheating contractors have personal pockets full of cash that they would not even try to hide. The actual case is that the potential for detrimental interpretation is enormous and the reality of lack of enforcement is known to us (not so much to those unfamiliar with how unscrupulous contractors operate). We are trying to interest him instead in using a licensure law (chapter 489) restitution, fine, and licensure suspension mechanism to solve this problem. We have explained that contractors who save a buck buying inadequate insurance coverage are the same ones who underbid the legitimate contractors, so we want the problem solved just as much as he does, but we want to make sure the solution actually solves the problem.

Finally, there is House Bill 299 by Representative Stan McClain (R-Ocala) that would cut the members of the Florida Building Commission from 27 to 11. That is a huge drop for questionable reasons. The proposal cuts out most of the government seats but it also cuts out the air-conditioning/mechanical contractor, mechanical/electrical engineer, the disabilities person, manufactured buildings, and product manufacturers seats, among others. How can one justify cutting the air-conditioning/mechanical seat but keeping the pool contractor seat? The short answer is that nothing about this bill makes sense because it seems to be about politics and revenge. Nothing else.

In addition to this sampling, we will also be watching and worrying ourselves over the efforts coming out of the Constitution Revision Commission (this happens every 20 years). There are hundreds of proposals, many are completely off the wall, but plenty of these may make it into a final set of recommendations.

We will need to worry and stay alert until the last day of session scheduled for March 9, 2018. We will contact you if elected officials need to know their voters are watching and happy/unhappy with what is up for a vote. As always, if you receive an email alert from FRSA between now and then, please be sure to open it up right away and take action. This is how your FRSA membership helps the roofing industry make a difference in Florida.

FRM