Fla Senate passes bill ordering local governments to pay up if new rules hurt businesses

Yet another government mandate in Florida, which strips locals of the ability to decide what they think it best for them. Now they have to bend over and allow corporations use their resources as they wish and sue the locals if they get in the way. For example, local governments, or residents, in Miami cannot create local laws to limit alcohol sales to stop at 2AM. Locals didn't like the fact that people drink and make noise until the morning hours, but now they have no say about it anymore.

Senate passes bill ordering local governments to pay up if new rules hurt businesses
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/po...-politics/article257791098.html#storylink=cpy

The Florida Senate has an answer for local governments that want to regulate businesses: Go ahead, but it’s going to cost you.

A bill that will allow businesses to sue for damages if a local ordinance or voter-approved referendum costs their business 15% or more of their profits passed on a 22-14 mostly party-line vote Thursday.

If it had been in effect in 2020, Key West residents who voted to ban cruise ships with more than 1,300 passengers from docking at the city ports would have been subject to paying the cruise lines for lost business during the months the ban was in force.

If it had been law last year, Miami-Dade County, which imposed a fertilizer ban on lawns and plants during the rainy season to prevent algae blooms and fish kills, could have been forced to pay businesses that saw big drops in fertilizer sales.

And if the bill becomes law this year, Miami Beach residents, who voted in a non-binding referendum last year to impose earlier last-call hours for alcohol sales at local bars, could be held liable for damages if the new law leads to lost business.

 

Local Governments should be liable for any damages they cause just as the citizens are. A friend hit a road sign with his car and mangled it. He received a notice from the city, that he had to pay for a new sign and the installation. They put a lien on his property till it was paid.

 

What does that have to do with anything?

Why can't the citizens of Miami vote and decide that alcohol sales need to end at 2AM?

Why can't Key West say no to cruise ships?

 

It will be interesting to see what happens at election time - they may have made business owners happy, but turning a blind eye to the public's wishes is going to cost them votes.

 

As a matter of fact there was an annual music event in Miami which attracted all kinds of druggies and the music was so loud it made pictures fall off the wall in surrounding high-rises. It was voted out, but this law would impose it on the city indefinitely. Why does the State government need to micro-manage everything?

 

should be able to buy these items online in this day and age, no reason to ban alcohol and tobacco sales online

when covid first started, you could here, but they nipped that in the bud fast

 

On line? Its about bars and discos etc.

 

yep, and states should not be able to ban online sales either, businesses should be able to sue the state

 

The locals should have a say. I used to live close to "gentlemen's club" aka a strip joint and the citizens voted them off the neighborhood. The cops were there every week, and it attracted all kinds of trouble so they were kicked out. Why should the law make it impossible to get rid of them?

 

That ship started sinking when that Whackadoodle tried to strongarm the Board of Education. It's almost like he's waving a blinking neon sign that reads "Vote for my next opponent!".

 

agree but the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should protect the disabled that want to have access to alcohol or cigarettes too

what is the difference when you buy, or where you buy?

usually strip clubs are on the outskirts of town, but sometimes the town comes closer with time to fill that void as the population increases

 

The problem was not the selling booze per se, but what comes with it: loud music and drunken tourists at all hours of the day.

Well, here they want to be as close to the beaches as possible, because that's where the drunken tourists aka their clients are. The ones where locals hang out are around the highways, which is where they belong.

 

yes, people prob like to party on beaches at night, prob comes with owning beach front property

 

That’s not how it works.
Each festival applies for a whole bunch of permits from local municipality early in advance. Denying the permit over, let’s say, noise, is not a regulation.

 

You are responsible for damage you do to city property, if you won't pay they have the right to put a lien on your property to collect their money. If the city damages your property (business owner), why then shouldn't be responsible for they damages they caused? What is their recourse?

 

I agree with the left on this one. I'm a businessman and always put my trust in business rather than government. But it is not the role of government to protect businesses. They can take care of themselves. This is not good legislation. If there is a beef, let the courts work it out. Legislation almost always paints with too broad a brush.