A bill that would end all of Florida’s community redevelopment agencies (CRAs) within the next 20 years is advancing in the House, where even some who voted for the measure believe it’s too severe.

Members of the State Affairs Committee voted 17-8 for HB 991, which would ban the creation of new CRAs — special government entities meant to improve blighted areas by funding infrastructure, housing, and business development projects — on or after July 1.

Any existing CRA would have to be terminated by the end of fiscal 2045 or the termination date in the CRA’s charter, whichever is earliest. Existing CRAs couldn’t be extended.

The bill, as written, would also bar CRAs from initiating new projects or issuing debt after Oct. 1. Those with outstanding bonds would still be able to operate until the bonds mature, but with a closing deadline of no later than Oct. 1, 2045.

Cape Coral Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo filed HB 991 after learning that some CRAs have misappropriated funds. He said their Boards, usually composed of City Council members or their local analogs, have used the money to fund pet projects like art festivals and give themselves raises.

Giallombardo said he had pictures on his phone proving breaches of fiduciary duty by CRA Board members. He declined repeated requests to specify whom he was talking about or where the malfeasance had occurred.

“These CRAs become pockets of, let’s just call it, slush funds for some of these local governments,” he said. “And some of these are 50 years old. They just continue to kick the ball down the road,” he said. “We’re in an opportunity right now, especially with the climate — you know, DOGE and accountability — (and) I think it’s important for us to take a look at these.”

First authorized by the Legislature in 1969, CRAs are state-authorized but locally established to target and develop specific urban or rural areas affected by economic distress or underdevelopment. Their principal funding mechanism is tax increment financing (TIF), where taxable property values are “frozen” at the onset of the CRA’s creation. As property values increase over time alongside redevelopment and improvement projects, the additional property tax revenue generated feeds back into the CRA for reinvestment in future projects.

Many have been staggeringly successful. Rep. Griff Griffitts, a Panama City Beach Republican, spoke of one CRA created in his district in 2020. At the time, the taxable value of the area was $900,000. Today, he said, it’s $6 billion.

“I know the good that they can provide for communities,” he said, adding that “bad actors” still misuse agency dollars and comingle funds. He said one of the objectives of CRAs, to finance the development of affordable and workforce housing, can be supplemented or replaced by the state’s SHIP and SAIL programs that the lawmakers infused with funding through the Live Local Act.

Griffitts said HB 991 “is not perfect” and appeared to disagree with its central premise of killing CRAs outright within the next two decades. “But I think this is a really good start to put some guardrails around these CRAs.”

Griffitts voted for the bill, as did Melbourne Republican Rep. Debbie Mayfield, who similarly expressed concern about wiping out CRAs altogether and recommended instead that tighter restrictions be placed on them.

It would hardly be the first time. In 2019, lawmakers passed more stringent oversight rules for CRAs through HB 9, which, among other things, imposed new audit disclosure requirements, mandated that CRA spending must have County Commission preapproval, and provided that the state could terminate inactive agencies.

Boynton Beach Democratic Rep. Joe Casello suggested that a more reasonable approach would be strengthening the standards HB 9 established “rather than eliminating a tool that has successfully driven local economic growth.”

Delray Beach Republican Rep. Mike Caruso agreed. He said some Board members may be acting improperly, but the benefit CRAs provide to “blighted areas that the free market failed to improve” is more than enough of a testament to their worth.

“I look at this bill as if we’re chopping down a tree when we should be just trimming a branch,” Caruso said.

Giallombardo noted that funds from a CRA would remain with its given city, which could directly take on revitalization projects. But several members of the Committee pointed out problems with that perspective.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said the runway his bill provides CRAs with outstanding bonds may not be long enough, particularly for longer, multiphase projects. North Miami Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph said HB 991 would compound the negative impacts of a proposal (SB 852) Gov. Ron DeSantis supports this year to study eliminating property taxes, which could hamper local services, including “defunding the police.”

Small businesses within CRAs pay lower rents, made possible by the frozen property values, and eliminating that arrangement could drive their overhead costs to untenable levels, Lake Worth Democratic Rep. Debra Tendrich said. The bill would also prevent some less well-to-do residents from being able to buy homes and imperil local transportation provisions that benefit seniors, she said.

Casello, Caruso, Eskamani, Joseph and Tendrich voted against HB 991. St. Pete Beach Republican Rep. Linda Chaney voted for it but said she still sees the benefit of CRAs.

“I also have experienced the use of CRAs maybe not in the best interest of the taxpayer in terms of need-to-have versus nice-to-have projects,” she said. “Having said that, I would like to talk to you about maybe some refinement to this so that the need-to-have projects are funded above the nice-to-have projects.”

Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Miami Democrat, contended that HB 991 is too vague and looks to destroy rather than correct. She said she was troubled by Giallombardo’s reference to DOGE, President Donald Trump’s federal initiative through which unelected billionaire Elon Musk has taken a (somewhat figurative) chainsaw to federal agencies in the name of government efficiency.

“We see how many thousands of federal employees have been laid off and are hopeless. I don’t want that to happen in my community,” Gantt said. “We have the power and ability … to protect our citizens, to make sure that they know that they are seen. … Why can’t we be transformative in thinking of new ways to still be accomplished? We don’t want CRAs to exist in perpetuity, but we also don’t want to kill the hope in our community. And it’s not like we’re asking for unreasonable changes or clarification.”

Gantt, Joseph and Tampa Democratic Rep. Diane Hart, who is not a member of the State Affairs Committee but appeared at the meeting, each proffered amendments to HB 991. Hart’s would have deleted the ban on new CRAs after July 1. Gantt aimed to erase the bill’s prohibition on new CRA projects and debts after Oct. 1. Joseph’s would have replaced the bill’s language entirely with an allowance that any resident or business owner in a CRA could file a complaint about any violation of state CRA rules that the Department of Commerce would have to investigate.

The GOP-dominated panel rejected them all.

Americans for Prosperity signaled support for the HB 991. Mulberry Commissioner Neil Devine, 1000 Friends of Florida and representatives of Wakulla and the CRAs of North Miami, North Miami Beach and Opa-locka opposed the measure.

Lobbyist Ryan Matthews, representing the Florida Redevelopment Association, which includes all 213 CRAs in the state, said cities without CRAs wouldn’t be able to use TIF funding to multiply their investment dollars and significantly improve their ability to issue bonds for projects.

He said that Florida’s 213 CRAs aren’t averse to sunsetting, but some need more time.

“We have multi-hundred-million-dollar projects in the pipeline,” he said, adding that HB 991 passes with its prohibition on new projects intact, it “will prevent those projects from coming to fruition.”

David Cruz of the Florida League of Cities told the panel about a project underway in Southwest Florida. A developer wants to build 78 new affordable units. The company bought land, obtained entitlements, went through zoning, and secured funding. Groundbreaking is scheduled for December.

Giallombardo’s bill puts the project at risk, he said, because the developer’s previously guaranteed tax rebate through the local CRA wouldn’t be possible.

“That entire project is going to go up in smoke,” he said.

HB 991 advanced on a party-line vote, with only Caruso crossing the aisle to vote “no” with his Democratic colleagues. The bill will next go to the House State Affairs Committee, after which it has one more stop before a floor vote.

Its Senate twin (SB 1242) by Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain skidded by its first of three Committee stops Tuesday on a 4-3 vote. It’s next slated for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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