Legislative Update; Report as of Adjournment on March 13.
The Regular Session began on January 13 and adjourned on March 13, with a Special Session scheduled for April to finalize the budget and discuss property tax cuts.
FPA’s Legislative Task Force chaired by Todd Wilson met weekly during session to discuss bills of concern and coordinate action items. Here are the bills we followed.
Expansion of Publicly Accessible Websites; SB 380 by Sen. Trumbull (R. Panama City); HB 1009 by Rep. Griffitts (R. Panama City); Clerk of Courts SB 543; HB 925
Under current law (s. 50.0311), public notices can be published on a “publicly accessible website” which is defined as the “county’s official website or other private website designated by the county.” These bills expand “publicly accessible websites” to include not just counties and county-designated private websites but also those of a municipality, clerk of the circuit court, comptroller, and the tax collector, or their designated private website.
Importantly, the bills include “notice of sale” foreclosure notices that presumably could be run on the clerk’s website or designated private site.
The House companion bill is like the Senate bill but has an additional change, which we oppose, deleting the U.S. Mail registry of citizens requesting notices via USPS.
For additional support opposing these bills, see the 2025 study “Newspaper notice as a government transparency mechanism: Evidence from Florida” by researchers at Texas A&M, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. This 50-page study examined the role of newspaper notices on citizen engagement using Florida’s 2022 legislation allowing government website-only notice as their testing ground.
The study–accumulating and analyzing newspaper notice, public participation, and permit data in Florida–found that where a government website was adopted, there was a significant decrease in public engagement. There were less speakers at public meetings and an increase in commercial permits consistent with reduced citizen opposition.
We believe adding even more governmental website to the mix, as these bills propose, will further fragment and dilute public notices. It will cause additional confusion over where they can be found by affected entities and the public and result in even more public disengagement.
STATUS: The Senate bill passed the Judiciary and Community Affairs Committee and is now in Rules Committee. The House bill passed its committee references and the floor and then sent to the Senate in messages. These bills have failed to move as of adjournment. However, near the adjournment date, another bill relating to clerks of court passed the House floor (HB 925) and was sent to the Senate, where it was amended to add a section that allows clerks of court to use their website for property-related notices. The amended Senate bill was later passed by the House (which laid its own bill “on the table”) and the next step is forwarding the bill to the Governor.
Self-Storage Unit Notice; SB 98 by Sen. Harrell (R. Stuart), HB 135 by Rep. Smith (R. Winter Springs)
The Senate bill is like those filed in previous years. The bill allows replacement of newspaper notice of self-storage unit liens with notice on a “public website that customarily conducts or advertises personal property auctions.” The Senate bill has been referenced to the following committees: Judiciary (Chair: Clay Yarborough), Regulated Industries (Jennifer Bradley), and Rules (Kathleen Passidomo).
STATUS: The Senate bill was heard in Judiciary Committee on Nov. 4, passing 8-1, and is now in the Regulated Industries Committee. The House bill passed the Civil Justice Subcommittee and is now in the Commerce Committee. Since then, both bills have not moved.
Notice of Bid Solicitations, HB 405 by Rep. Griffitts (R. Panama City)
An amendment to HB 405 was recently filed that continues the expansion of the county website notice option, in this case to notice of solicitation of county/municipal competitive bids. The language says such notice can be either in the newspaper or on the county website.
STATUS: The House bill passed the floor and was sent to the Senate in messages. The Senate bill (SB 526) is similar but does not contain this notice language; it is currently in the Rules Committee. Neither bill is currently moving.
Marsy’s Law, HB 1113 by Rep. Tuck (R. Sebring); Criminal Justice Subcommittee; SB 350 by Sen. Grall (R. Fort Pierce); Governmental Oversight and Accountability
In 2023, the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion in the City of Tallahassee police identity case finding that Marsy’s Law does not protect identification of law enforcement officers who claim to be victims. Furthermore, it does not protect id of victims’ names in general. Since then, bills have been filed this session (like the last two session) to reverse the above court decision regarding victim and law enforcement officer identities. The bills propose to make confidential any public record revealing the identity, address, or personal information of a crime victim if it could be used for intimidation or harassment. They create an exemption for a victim “temporary” 72-hour exemption on release of law enforcement officer names involved in “use of force.”
STATUS: The House bill passed the floor and was then sent to the Senate floor, where it passed. The next step is forwarding the bill to the Governor.
Take-Down Defamation Bills
We have yet to see any bills requiring publishers to remove articles or statements from the internet like those filed last session. We will be following this closely and will update members with any new developments.