Last Call for 2.10.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida

Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

The Senate Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday advanced a municipal utility bill that echoes several of the tensions exposed during the long-running fight over governance and rates at Gainesville Regional Utilities, even as sponsors argue it stops short of stripping local control.

SB 1724 by Sen. Jonathan Martin tightens rules governing how city-owned utilities serve customers outside municipal boundaries, requiring written service agreements, expanded public engagement, and new limits on how much revenue from outside-city limits customers may be diverted to general government use.

Under the proposal, transfers to a city’s general fund would be capped at 10%, with any excess revenue beyond actual costs reinvested in the utility system or returned to customers.

The measure would also eliminate the automatic 25% surcharge historically imposed on customers living outside city limits and lower the maximum allowable rate difference between in-city and out-of-city customers from 50% to 25%. In certain circumstances, the bill establishes rate-parity protections for water and wastewater customers.

Supporters frame the measure as a transparency and fairness fix, particularly for customers in unincorporated areas who have little political recourse over city-run utilities. Critics, including municipal officials, warn that the bill mirrors dynamics seen at GRU — where revenue transfers and rate-setting became flashpoints — by constraining cities’ ability to spread risk across their full customer base, especially once bond obligations tied to surcharges expire.

The measure cleared the Committee without opposition, with Democrats on the panel being among the bill’s most vocal supporters.

While support for the GRU Authority largely split along party lines, SB 1724’s bipartisan support is in part attributable to a separate, years-long dispute over water fees charged by North Miami Beach to customers in Miami Gardens — a conflict that has fueled arguments over “taxation without representation” and the use of surcharge revenue for general government purposes rather than utility operations.

That dispute has already produced targeted legislation, county-level intervention, and litigation, and now serves as a real-world backdrop for lawmakers weighing whether SB 1724 represents a narrowly tailored consumer protection or a broader recalibration of how municipal utilities spread risk and recover costs across their customer bases.

At the opposite end of the debate playing out in Dade, the GRU saga entered a new — albeit familiar — chapter on Tuesday, when an appeals court heard arguments in the suit over whether Gainesville residents or Tallahassee lawmakers should control GRU’s governance.

The hearing comes after Gainesville voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to dissolve the Governor-appointed authority that assumed control of the century-old utility following the passage of the 2023 law championed by former Newberry Republican Rep. Chuck Clemons.

The Authority Board has fought tooth-and-nail to maintain its grip on the city-owned utility despite Gainesville voters approving referenda in back-to-back elections — the first vote was tossed after the authority played up a technical issue in the ballot wording — to wrest back control. The Authority has painted the results of the election as “an insurrection against the state government”; the city and three-quarters of its electorate counters that the Authority is a legislatively imposed instrumentality with no basis for being.

“The fate of home rule in Gainesville and all Florida cities is now in the hands of the First DCA. As our city’s legal team correctly pointed out this morning, the Florida Constitution and the Florida Home Rule Powers Act clearly give Gainesville citizens the right to amend our charter and abolish the unelected, unaccountable GRU Authority,” Yes Campaign Manager Bobby Mermer told Florida Politics.

“We hope the DCA agrees. If they don’t, we hope every Floridian who cares about home rule and the rule of law takes notice and holds this Republican Party regime accountable come November.”

SB 1724 now heads to Rules, its final stop ahead of the chamber floor. The GRU saga, meanwhile, will continue playing out in court.

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The House Judiciary Committee advanced a sweeping bail reform bill on Tuesday after adopting an amendment fine-tuning how cash bonds, forfeitures, and charitable bail payments are handled under Florida law.

The amendment, offered by bill sponsor Rep. Jessica Baker, addresses several technical issues raised by court clerks and stakeholders as the package has moved through Committee.

Among the changes, the amendment revises how cash bonds are receipted, requiring deposits to be marked down in the name of the person posting the bond except when the funds come from a registered charitable bail organization. In those cases, the bond would instead be receipted in the defendant’s name, reflecting the donation-based nature of the payment.

The amendment also adjusts forfeiture and remission procedures. It extends the timeframe to seek remission of a forfeited bond from two years to 36 months and removes a requirement that clerks issue remissions within a fixed 10-day window.

The bill skated through Criminal Justice without pushback late last month, and it also found unanimous support in Judiciary. The bill is now headed to the House floor.

Evening Reads

—”Life in Cuba is grinding to a halt under U.S. oil blockade” via Vera Bergengruen and Deborah Acosta of The Wall Street Journal

—“Your phone is the new cigarette (and it’s worse)” via Chris Cillizza of So What

—”RFK Jr. says Americans need more protein. His Grok-powered food website disagrees” via Emily Mullin of WIRED

—”Republican cash edge threatens to swamp Democrats in the midterms” via Shane Goldmacher and Theodore Schleifer of The New York Times

—”Woke isn’t dead. Bad Bunny’s halftime show proved it.” via Constance Grady of Vox

—”Ron DeSantis officials tied to Hope Florida saga up again for Senate confirmation” via Alexandra Glorioso of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times

—”CFO pushes for government transparency — except in his own Office” via Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics

—”Senate moves along agriculture bill without provision ‘muzzling MAHA’” via Jay Waagmeester of the Florida Phoenix

—”House Committee supports bill to make Florida public records more accessible” via Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics

—”Sweeping anti-DEI education bill requiring fetal development lessons heading to House floor” via Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics

— “The 11 most interesting ideas I read on paternity leave” via Derek Thompson 

Quote of the Day

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

— Rep. Alex Andrade, on legislation he is sponsoring to overhaul the state’s public records law.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

Rep. Alex Andrade earned a Liquid Sunshine for carrying his public records bill through another committee.

Florida’s homegrown students would be served some Member’s Only cocktails if lawmakers follow through on legislation requiring the state’s top universities to reserve more slots for state residents.

The economy may seem rocky, but Floridians are looking past doom and gloom bubble talks and opting for an On the Bright Side.