TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – This year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed off on over 200 new state laws, many of which took effect last week.
However, he didn’t OK all of the bills that were sent to his desk.
Among the large batches of bills that he approved, there were several — including one that would have implemented speed limits for e-bikes — that he instead opted to veto.
[RELATED: Florida’s new data center law takes effect on July 1]
News 6 has collected the veto letters from each of these bills, in which DeSantis explains his reasoning for doing so.
The full list of veto letters is as follows:
HB 145 — Government Claims
“HB 145 imposes new costs on taxpayers by increasing the damage caps awarded in lawsuits against local government entities. Florida law already provides a well-established and thoughtful claims bill process to review and ultimately determine if a judgment above the statutory limits should be awarded.
For these reasons, I withhold my approval of HB 145 and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 145)
HB 325 — Inmate Development
“HB 325 creates a new program that requires state correctional institutions and facilities to include training for Class A and Class B commercial driver’s licenses.
The bill allows inmates to operate a state-owned vehicle outside of the fence for the purpose of completing program requirements or demonstrating proficiency in the program and requires that such operation must be under the supervision of a correctional officer.
Not only is this new program unnecessarily burdensome to the Department of Corrections staff and its facilities, but it also creates signification public safety concerns by authorizing incarcerated individuals to operate commercial vehicles in public thoroughfares.
Florida’s commitment to enhancing workforce development efforts and supporting our state’s trucking industry is clear, and while portions of the bill may support both goals, those can be achieved through the existing oversight of both the Department of Corrections and Department of Transportation, that do not put our roads at risk.
For these reasons, I withhold my approval of (HB 325) and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 325)
SB 382 — E-Bike Rules
“SB 382 prohibits electric bicycles (e-bikes) from operating at a speed greater than 10 miles per hour if within 50 feet of a pedestrian. The bill establishes a standard that would certainly be difficult for a bicyclist to measure when safely operating an e-bike.
Violators would be guilty of a nonmoving traffic violation and subject to fines surpassing $100, a violation that would inevitably be enforced with speed detection and surveillance devices. Separately, the bill creates a ‘Micromobility Device Safety Task Force," with no sunset date, to recommend limitless regulations related to e-bikes.
This bill will likely lead to enhanced surveillance by local governments against citizens. Moreover, the bill creates a task force, yet substantive changes are also implemented prior to any task force recommendations.
For these reasons, I withhold my approval of (SB 382) and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (SB 382)
[RELATED: Florida governor vetoes e-bike safety bill]
HB 461 — Poll Volunteers
“The bill seeks to clarify the ability for high school students to volunteer at polling locations for the purpose of receiving community service hours to meet high school graduation and scholarship requirements.
While the House and Senate sponsors had a noble intent in filing the bill, the application of the bill may result in an avenue for polls to be staffed with volunteers that may not be subject to Florida’s prohibition on single party registered poll workers for general elections. Given the bill received support in committee by representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center, this may indeed be the consequence of the legislation.
Currently, Florida high school students can already receive service hour credit for paid work and volunteering. For these reasons, I withhold my approval of (HB 461) and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 461)
SB 688 — Naturopathic Medicine
“SB 688 provides for the regulation and licensing of naturopathic medicine in Florida. The bill requires the Department of Health to establish the Board of Naturopathic Medicine to oversee naturopathic doctors and authorizes a licensure fee. The bill requires individuals to receive a license to practice from an accredited institution - all of which are out of state.
Current law allows licensed practitioners such as physicians, doctors of osteopathy, acupuncturists, and dietitians to employ naturopathic methods and recommend natural remedies.
Additionally, Floridians can already access natural remedy treatments because they do not require a prescription or U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. If enacted, this legislation may negatively impact Floridians who currently work in alternative medicine by mandating post-graduate education that cannot be obtained in Florida and require them to pay costly licensure fees to do the work they are already performing. There is no need to create additional bureaucratic hurdles.
Florida leads the nation in advancing medical freedom and access to care. Initiatives such as Healthy Florida First empower citizens to make informed choices without creating excessive regulations. Rather than relying on additional bureaucracy, Florida will continue to pursue practical solutions that promote transparency and accountability to better serve Florida families."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (SB 688)
HB 1245 — Biosolids Management
“The bill creates unnecessary regulations related to the use of Class AA biosolids and includes vendor-specific provisions requiring enrollment in fee-based accreditation programs created by an industry trade association, rather than through existing state regulatory mechanisms.
Further, the bill subjects landowners to onerous recordkeeping requirements for irrelevant information to the matter at hand, which would undoubtedly be used to file dubious legal actions.
My Administration’s commitment to improving water quality is clear, and while portions of the bill may support that goal, those can be achieved through the existing oversight of both the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Department of Environmental Protection. For these reasons, I withhold my approval of (HB 1245) and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 1245)
HB 4075 — Town of Davie
“The bill creates an exemption from state and federal outdoor advertising laws for a parcel abutting I-75, a federal-aid component of the Interstate Highway System. Given that the bill provides an exclusive exemption to the Highway Beautification Act, it may result in a reduction in Florida’s funding apportionment under federal law.
While the bill has the intent of promoting the agricultural heritage of the community, the fiscal impact from noncompliance with the Highway Beautification Act outweighs any revenue that may be derived from the promotional signage planned by the Town of Davie.
For this reason, I withhold my approval of (HB 4075) and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 4075)
HB 5403-E — Correctional Facilities
“During my time as Governor, Florida has paid off over fifty percent of its historical debt. While the federal clock continues to tick up, Florida’s ticks down. Florida has reduced its debt from $17.5 billion to $8.7 billion since 2018, paying off approximately $3 million a day.
In my budget recommendations, I proposed a pay increase for correctional officers totaling almost $374 million. However, this was not contingent on incurring massive new debt obligations for constructing a new prison hospital.
This bill takes a D.C. swamp approach to correctional pay, attempting to force our state to take on new debt to build a prison hospital by holding hostage pay increases for our hard-working correctional officers. This is not a game I am willing to play. We cannot reduce debt with one hand while adding debt with another.
For this reason, I withhold my approval of HB 5403E and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 5403-E)
HB 893 — Trust Fund Interest
“HB 893 perpetuates an Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program of dubious constitutionality. The Florida Supreme Court established this program in 1978 and implemented it in 2981 in a series of opinions that were unduly dismissive of constitutional concerns...
Under the Florida Constitution, the Supreme Court has ‘exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the admissions of persons to the practice of law and the discipline of persons admitted.’ Art. V, § 15, Fla. Const. The IOTA program plainly does not regulate attorney admissions or discipline. Indeed, this limited grant of regulatory authority ‘cannot be read to include a plenary power to regulate the business models of lawyers or their firms, to say nothing of nonlawyers and their enterprises’... The Court has never adequately explained how its limited constitutional regulatory authority properly extends to the regulation of financial institutions (through the setting of interest rates) or authorizes it to compel the donation of interest earned on client funds.
Although the Court’s usurpation of regulatory authority long predates the current composition of the Court, we should not perpetuate the errors of the past. Signing HB 893 would, in effect, represent my ratification of the constitutionality of this dubious arrangement. This I am not willing to do.
The Supreme Court’s limited regulatory authority is hardly the only constitutional concern with the IOTA program. Although the Court has attempted to justify the program by noting that it funds the delivery of legal services to the poor, even an admirable social objective cannot justify what Justice Scalia aptly described as a ‘Robin Hood Taking’...
I agree with the ‘many lawyers (who) expressed a strong, common-sense feeling that income earned from the investment of trust funds simply must be deemed in the first instance to be the property of the owners of the funds’... And I share the view that the judiciary’s ‘answer to the ‘taking’ argument is inadequate.’ Id. The IOTA program also raises due process concerns, as it is simply left to ‘the sound judgment of the lawyer or law firm’ to decide whether to place client funds into IOTA accounts, with no input from clients.
Moreover, although the Court has long attempted to justify the IOTA program by reference to the use of funds for legal aid to the poor, HB 893 expressly disclaims any such limitation. Instead, it authorizes the use of interest earned on client funds ‘for such other purposes’ that the Supreme Court may authorize. This improperly delegates regulatory authority to the Judicial Branch and raises various other concerns, including that it allows the Court (through the entity it has established to distribute IOTA earnings) to compel ‘support of certain viewpoints’ with which the clients who own the IOTA funds may disagree...
Finally, although the IOTA program has heretofore been limited to confiscating and redistributing interest earned on ‘nominal or short-term funds,’ HB 893 does not limit its application to such funds. The bill therefore may be read to authorize the Supreme Court to expand the scope of the IOTA program and exacerbate its existing problems. And even if the Court declined that invitation, the putatively ‘nominal or short-term funds’ that remain subject to the program have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings in the past fiscal year alone. HB 893 would ensure that interest on client funds will continue to be skimmed to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, to be redistributed however the Supreme Court sees fit.
For these reasons, I withhold my approval of House Bill 893 and do hereby veto the same."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (HB 893)