2024 legislative session recap and budget

1:40:24You got the floor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Yeah, good morning, Ralph Lair, Intergovernmental Affairs Officer. Today we're gonna have a 2024 session uh legislative session recap and uh I'm gonna have our state legislative lobby team, Sunrise Consulting, Sean Foster and Andrew Khalittle come up and uh give a presentation for you. about all the wonderful things that the legislature did to us this year.

1:40:52Did you say all those wond wonderful things?

1:40:55They gotta come out wonderful now, Shaw.

1:40:57They're in the waterful nice little bow tie there. Yeah. Uh thank you all for letting us have the opportunity to uh to come speak before you all but to say too, that workshop that we did uh Mike was very helpful. A lot of the issues that we worked on that we talked about came before session and I would just no one forget because maybe we can talk about setting a date of doing that again over the summer. Uh but I think that was very helpful for the session and of course I think can help plan for next year's session with some ideas and issues that I think that'll come up. Uh Andrew Kallell uh has done a phenomenal

1:41:27job on on the local issues. I do want to say I I can't believe I'm bringing that he actually because of how well he's doing on uh the type of issues for counties and cities, uh the Florida League of Cities tried to hire him from me a uh A few months ago, so I'm glad he stayed with us. He is he is uh I am not kidding you, he has really come in, rolled up his sleeves on these issues. And uh when we go into these meet meetings in Fair, where I think uh Jack you guys came to me with a couple of those meetings we had in Tallahassee, you kind of see some of the uh the lead that Andrew

1:41:57and our firm kind of takes in this because obviously we represent you and a couple other counties, but we are very interested in these issues. Uh Uh this session did not get extended. We got the budget done on time. There's always a rumor that the budget's not gonna get uh done on time, but it did. 2025 sessions coming up March April, as you know. It changes, January covering, March, April. I always kind of give you an update. 2,000 bills passed, uh 16%, a little bit higher than average, actually twice as much. And uh there's other significant legislation that was very uh leading.

1:42:28What's the leaders had in the House and the Senate? Health care and social media uh that they had. Uh kind of the areas in and around Pasco County that were a great benefit to us, as you can see. Some of the items, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Weldness Center, 1.65 million. Uh, we're just talking about the F DOT, uh got the Pasco County Bridge construction, 25.3 million, Newport Ritchie got a mobile library, not all these, of course. of yours but other ones around New Port Richey Fire Station, one million. And even right here in our backyard, not

1:42:58too far, Zephyrhills, Septic Dessur, one point five million. Kind of gives you an idea right here in your backyard. Want to give you before I go into the budget real quick, just kinda guess

1:43:08what was that was a bridge?

1:43:09Can you go back? Yeah, that was your.

1:43:15The the bridge is a uh state project that just did Pasco County Bridge construction. I used more details twenty three uh twenty three pedestrian bridge. The pedestrian bridge? But it's I'll double check it a separate bridge.

1:43:32Oh,

1:43:33yeah. Okay.

1:43:34Two.

1:43:36Could you repeat that into the microphone so that the record hasn't?

1:43:39Yes.

1:43:43But that

1:43:43amount of though I'm looking at the amount, no, that wasn't

1:43:45full.

1:43:46Yeah, I'm I'm gonna double check that number right now and I'll wait for a second. So did we

1:43:50get money for a pedestrian? No, that's not the microphone. No,

1:43:52that's not the one you're thinking about. Okay. He's gonna look that up, but actually he carries carries his computer everywhere, goes the e you know, this is why he brings it. Overall budget, hundred and seventeen billion dollars. Um Things in the session went around as you communicated and we've saw in our reports very very well between the House and the Senate. Right at the end, uh the governor came back in and had some initiatives that he wanted so it kind of escalated the budget. Uh live local as you can see ship 174 million, affordable uh sale eighty-four.

1:44:23Um I will say this we have been a very healthy spot for our for our budgets, but I do want to give it a couple of indications.

1:44:31This budget is quite higher, about $4 billion higher than it was just a few years ago. And so a lot of those indications are inflation, right? The price cost of building roads and others. But I do want to give you something that was really significant just a few months ago. The first time since July of 2020, sales tax expectations did not meet expectations. So what does that mean? Meaning the revenue estimated. conference meets every single month and quarterly to give you ideas on how it's going to be for the next year, next five years. For

1:45:01the first time, sales tax revenue did not meet expectations after COVID. It's kind of yes, ma'am.

1:45:09Isn't some of this money from the Feds as a kind of a padding from

1:45:14the So we're not talking about these sales tax revenues? No. This is the general revenue. So a great question. Of that entire budget, fifty million is general revenue, meaning fifty million is what we collect through the state. The rest of that fifty to hundred and seventeen is trust fund and passed through to the federal government. So the part that I'm telling talking about right now is just the $50 billion that we have seen grow. Um, we're seeing some slow down in sales. You're seeing some slow down in home sales, right? The dock sales tax. Some of the items that have come up higher than

1:45:44expectation were our investments were higher, and so were our corporate. But it was just pretty significant the first time that we've seen sales tax revenue not hit their expectation. for almost four years. So it's kind of giving some revenue estimating conference folks some caution looking at what some of our revenue collections could be next year. That impacts you all. If we're seeing a lower sales tax revenue collections, counties will see it. Um

1:46:09Commissioner Oriano, so there is in as I put on the slide, F D O T Pasco County, there is an appr uh uh direction to F D O T and I don't have any further details for you, but twenty five point three million dollars for bridge construction in Pasco County. Okay.

1:46:25Is it pedestrian? Does it spell out what kind of reads?

1:46:29Sean, what what percent did we miss giving that revenue, that tax revenue? How much sh were we short

1:46:37on

1:46:37that?

1:46:38Well, their expectations, I'm not reading my glasses, were thirty million short. Um what we have seen what was so significant ago, Commissioner, is that we've generally have exceeded it by Over a hundred million. So in any other quarter or any type of time that we've seen that they've actually exceeded their expectation. We actually didn't exceed it but actually came below it. So pretty significant.

1:47:00Yeah.

1:47:00I mean a hundred million a year is a you know, over one billion. Some reason

1:47:03it was delayed.

1:47:04Right. Yeah. But um I and I'll just say water projects going back to this real quick, I wanted to give you a little bit of update. This is not in our our update but um We're gonna see probably some major changes in how water projects are done, Ralph. Uh I've met with Senator Albretton. He's an incoming Senate president. He doesn't really like the way the water projects are done. He sees sometimes that areas who have leadership get more preference. So obviously if you have leadership, you're happy. He liked to see more of a per uh a priority-driven process when it comes to water projects.

1:47:35And um he spoke to me about it. I actually spoke to some other groups I understand recently also. So we may see some changes. I would still say though that may be one of the priorities we want to look at again for next year and kind of dividing that up as we did in the workshop, but expect a different process if he's successful on how water projects. Right now, Rada projects are submitted through uh legislative request. They go through the committee process and they're approved by the committee leadership within that. uh committee and then above that so It's one of the last items. I always get asked about that and as Ronalf

1:48:05knows it's one of the last items that comes out of the budget because they're holding that for negotiation. So that may be one of the reasons why they're wanting to make a change. Pasco County Administrator, we got the Parkway Boulevard, we were just talking about that sidewalk project, the Wilton Way extension, the pedestrian overpass, the Pasco Fire Radio Replacement, and the Senior Center. So I'd say for a tough year we came out pretty good to some of those areas. I feel we could have done a little bit better. And um this was pretty contentious. I know you worked a little bit on this. If you

1:48:35want to talk about this one for just a bit.

1:48:37Um So I I know that um good uh good morning commissioners. Um so this is the uh public camping, the homeless bill. Um this was a very uh um contentious bill, as Sean said, in the legislature. And what this bill does is it limits uh people just can't be sleeping everywhere. Uh loc local governments will need to designate uh for recurring normal use of sleeping public camping. It has to be Someone, you know, a person who's sleeping somewhere in a right-of-way one or two times, that's fine. It's it's the

1:49:07ongoing other local governments, probably not Pasco County. The ongoing allowance of people to just sleep all over the place on public lands is kind of where this bill came from. So you as a commission will have to designate if you have public uh land and public buildings that you'd like to allow people who are homeless to sleep on, you'll have to designate that land. to get that land certified, that area certified through DCF. There's gonna be a program that you're gonna have to apply to DCF, get DCF to give you a certificate that this land can be used for um I'm not sure what the word I want to use, housing the

1:49:37homeless. That's that's not the term I want to use. Um and then that's only good for a year and then you have to re-up it. Um during a state of emergency, uh people who are displaced will you know that this this law will be suspended um and that bill was already signed into law by the governor. Uh

1:49:51okay. Lots of questions on this unless Kathy and I talked about this yesterday. What does this mean? Preempts local governments from authorizing We don't o authorize people to sleep on public property unless they're you know, in our one of our parks in a cabin or a regulated Campsite so

1:50:10So there are some and that's where this

1:50:12came in it. Go ahead. So there were some local governments. And county governments in the state of Florida that were allowing public camping uh uh in in their

1:50:22bridge in Miami,

1:50:24that kinda uh uh that would be an example uh on sidewalks near beaches uh right away. So that's what uh what they were referring to when they uh when they put that language in The bill.

1:50:34The California model?

1:50:36Umes let me ask questions. Yeah, there's more questions.

1:50:42Purchase property to make sure they're owned a certain area?

1:50:46No, you can use property and set it up for an area uh for camping if you so choose to do. It's not telling us we have to. And although they did put a small portion of money, it's not gonna be used for that. All right.

1:51:02And and I'll give you an example. I think Pinellas County, I'll ask there is has something looking at your chief of staff. D did they do that when you were there? The one next to the jail? The facilities that they have next to the jail in Penellas County? Safety Harbor. Safety Harbor. So some of the people were saying that they were looking at expanding that area with some tents and everything outside for other folks instead of keeping it out of jail. And I I was being told that this was a law that they were looking at putting some provisions if you decide to do this you're setting up you know these tents and you're trying to house folks so some of these provisions would have to be the the

1:51:32the DCF.

1:51:33Okay question.

1:51:34Yes.

1:51:35Um because um and Kathy I don't know if you want to ask these questions too but w so s somewhere someone has the idea that If um Some we've got someone living on on the side of the sidewalk in Commissioner Bradford's district on Massachusetts. Um And not only that, yesterday when I was driving into my office, a hundred yards past that gentleman who's V he's got a village around him now. Um I saw

1:52:05a a U-Haul Rental van. where a gentleman was unloading his stuff into the woods, right next to some offices on State Road on Massachusetts. And I don't know what you guys did about that. Um but I you know, I really I was on the phone so I texted my staff to do something immediately. And they f forwarded it to Bradford staff, so I'm anxious to hear what they did. But um

1:52:32So the So the difference of that commission is How do we you know does the sheriff arrest someone if they're living on a sidewalk? And can we What do we do? I mean can we or what do we do?

1:52:42The difference between what you're what you're saying folks down the street, in behind somebody's property and otherwise This is where you are setting it up and saying come here or this is a space that you can allocate as a homeless. And if you're gonna do that and and if communities are gonna do that, these are the provisions. So the difference is you know you're gonna you're never gonna stop overall homelessness. People buy a park, people buy you know a forest. This is saying if communities are gonna do this, they're gonna set it up, these are the regulations that they feel that make it safe for the for them and for the community at large.

1:53:12So Well part part you know, what's challenging is if someone's trespassing they're breaking a law. There's a law against trespassing, but all we do is Make a move. Um And I was wondering, you know, and if we put 'em in jail, that's a big expense to the taxpayer and we don't have room. So Is it possible or or maybe do we want to look at a law allowing this? And I don't mean for this to be hum inhumane, but if someone is repeatedly

1:53:42taught trespassing and they want to live outside. Can they live outside on our jail property? Not in the jail. And their tent on our property. And if we put a wa a quarter potty,

1:53:55that's the idea uh behind if you all uh if the county uh chooses to uh to camp.

1:54:02Yeah. There's a whole host of DCF requirements. But that's that is voluntary.

1:54:07No.

1:54:10What do

1:54:11we do when they don't want to come out of the woods? That's the problem.

1:54:18They're building that camp next to the sh next to the sheriff's office, and these are some of the provisions that you'd have to do by it. So in other words, they don't think that people should be in jail for for some of these, but they also want to make Sure, they get the resources. So I think you'll all have to that's a conversation and tax dollars to talk about.

1:54:32Commissioner,

1:54:33we're we're obviously

1:54:34you know for the last budget working on a number of of items, the Pasco Hope project is we're trying to bring that into fruition. That's

1:54:42voluntary.

1:54:43I correct, but it's also a low barrier shelter that that could absolutely you know contribute as assistance to the program. Obviously, the board. We we need to have the conversation on you know, what what the next move would be if if Pasco Hope is or isn't successful um or needs to be expanded and how we want to handle that. This this is authorizing the tools. Now Sean, there is a provision in here about litigation or

1:55:08Right, there is. So that the the part that I think you know we and other municipalities and counties are worried about is there is that provision that was put in there that businesses and residents could sue a local government uh if this law or or if public camping occurs in public areas near businesses, um could occur. Uh and so I've had this discussion w uh with our county attorney. This they didn't put any enforcement

1:55:38in there and and and ways that we can address that. Um it's a catch twenty-two as as he uh as he mentioned. Um but one thing that um a a possibility that we could do uh addressing with that issue is is show what we can or or or have within our ordinances. Uh I I had a meeting with uh Kathy Pearson, our assistant county administrator, and Chase Daniels with the Sheriff's Officer Office. Uh we do uh

1:56:09we had I looked around at the state, at counties and municipalities and and And they have strong loitering ordinances. Ours is is pretty simple. It kind of aligns with the state uh with that and and what what these local governments have done is they bro they they call out public camping and right-of-way near businesses on beaches. Uh they give warnings uh to the individuals. They give documentation uh and what's provided in the county for homeless.

1:56:39Uh if they are caught doing it again, they could be fined and and serve time that is already covered in the loitering law. Uh so that would be one suggestion is to look at the ordinance impossibility, uh beef it up so w so we have some language. But ultimately and I've even had this discussion uh with Sean and Andrew I think uh this is one if that happens we'll go to court and and then possibly have the the the language

1:57:09or the or the bill tossed out or sent back to kind of put some enforcement in there and uh and protection in there to the local government uh so they aren't sued. Because if if you have signs up that say no ordering, you have an ordinance that says no loitering and after hours or people doing this, you don't have the manpower to go around and and and make sure that people are abiding by the law in public areas. Um so th so it's a concern and I think, you know, it's like I said, it's

1:57:40uh we all local governments fear that concern.

1:57:43Yeah, and

1:57:43I d I don't

1:57:44think our issue so much is the on public land as it is they keep going on private land. In our campaign.

1:57:50Well that's yeah, that's a total.

1:57:53Yeah. I I think this conversation is something I want to talk about anyway. Panhandling and camps. So I think under committee reports we're gonna get into this a lot a lot more. Yeah. Um I don't want to tie these guys up for it 'cause we've still got park signals in too quick. Yeah, if

1:58:05if I may, Commissioner last meeting, so Yeah, thank you. In on uh May fourteenth is our workshop on on affordable housing, so I think there's some there's some parallel

1:58:15Yeah, we

1:58:16have a lot of people.

1:58:17And I'd love to hear what some other counties are doing.

1:58:20Okay.

1:58:21In in in the interest of time quickly, um last year we passed Senate Bill 170. Any ordinance that the county adopts must do a business impact statement. Any business stakeholder who doesn't like it, they can sue you over it. Last year, land development code was specifically exempted from Senate Bill 170. Uh the Senate Bill 1628 adds the land development code to that provision.

1:58:41Okay.

1:58:43So 328. We've got two provisions in here where we can have some conversations. One, I'm going to leave 773 at the end when it comes to the taxation bill. There were some changes in here. You'll see, as you know, very familiar with this bill, local government must reduce parking, was one of the uh requirements. Uh clarifies density. I don't need I know you guys of any of the bills. You guys were very, very much involved in this. There was some clarifying. clarifications on affordable units and quality, qualifying development units. There was also some language that the Florida, I don't know if

1:59:13you all were aware of this have finally changed, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation is really just, as we discovered, ministerial. uh in and in handing it over. When is when the study's done by the developer, it's ministerially, you know, goes through. They actually gave the right and the power to the property appraiser uh to maintain the ultimate authority to grant those exemptions. So where there was some clarification in in that language. You also know about some of the other language we'll talk about when we get to seventy seventy three about the amendment uh through the Schimberg study also. Yeah.

1:59:46Um so these are our two building permit pieces of legislation. I put 'em together on one slide. They are related but not the same. Your bill on the left and a bill eight twelve, that um Let me back up just a second when Senate Bill 267 was filed. Um 267 relates to residential construction and permitting, also just generally permitting generally. 812 relates specifically to plan developments. Um when two hundred sixty-seven was filed it had some of eight twelve in it. They kind of the legislature separated them into two different bills. Um so Senate Bill eight twelve relates to any kind of track home

2:00:16developer um who's applying to develop many homes by October 1st of this year. The county will have to have a way that they can request up to 50% of their permits for a subdivision in a planned community. The local government will need to start maintaining a list of private vendors who are available when there's excessive development going on, lots of houses being built, private vendors who are available to function as a staff AUG to get the permits and the plans reviews through the local government. Applicant can use a private provider to expedite the permit

2:00:46process generally. The developer can go ahead and contract for sale, but he can't actually close on the property until the final plat is approved. That's 812. 267's building permits generally, residential, commercial, there's time frames that are now, there were already some stock time frames in statute. These are much shorter. time frames. These to be like 10 days if you receive an application to determine if it's complete or not. Now you have five days to determine if it's complete or not. And then so many

2:01:16days to either approve deny or approve with conditions or deny the permit. Those time frames are all shorter. Um Senate Bill two eighty, vacation rentals. Um I know we talked a lot about this during session with Ralph. Um pre two thousand eleven ordinances were already grandfathered in, every other part of vacation rental regulations uh preempted to the state. Um this was their legislature's idea of providing in and in may I quote some tools to local governments allows for a

2:01:46registration fee, so not actually a licensure at the local level, but at least a registration where the vacation rental will have to provide you with um Who's on call twenty four hours? Who who owns, you know, some some some some requirements or some threshold to get your quote unquote registration. The local government then can suspend the registration if the vacation rental has so many um deficiencies and delinquencies. Go ahead.

2:02:09So can s uh Mr. Chairman

2:02:10Mari

2:02:11Can we do that even with the ordinance we have now? That doesn't preempt our grandfathered ordinance to have a retirement.

2:02:18Oh, okay.

2:02:21Say what, sir? The vo the ordinance that they have on

2:02:23the books is vested. Pre two thousand sixteen. Right. So so then you then you are fine with your current ordinance. But your specific

2:02:33not licensure. So the bill allows for a local government to have a registration. That's probably a question for your county attorney, but I would think if it's registration, not licensure, um any and all ordinances that were pre two thousand sixteen are are fine anyways.

2:02:47Well that solves a lot of our problem.

2:02:49So you can call your friends at uh county up on the northeast side of the state and thank them. Um uh DPBR will be in charge of of uh they will be the regulator from now on and there's a way their local government now can contact DPBR and say, oh we've had all these issues, can you suspend the license? But I can talk to you more detail about the bill if you have any further questions. Um 479, this is the transportation impact fee bill mobility uh funding system. Long story short, they want local governments who interact

2:03:20who overlap in a development to work together to calculate what what the impact fees should be. The local government who is the one issuing the permit, the actual permit, will be the one to necessarily collect that impact fee, divvy it up back with the other local government who's working with them. Um you're developing the impact fee. It has to be data that was within past within past. four years um and provide again, you know, proportionate distribution. It it's really I don't want to use the word forcing, but requiring local governments to work together so

2:03:50that people aren't charged multiple times for impact fee.

2:03:57It happens in South Florida. Uh but a a question for you on this one. Um would this affect us say uh if we if there was a Pasco County development near the county line or the border of Pasco And the nearest grocery stores in Hernando County. Um could they take some of our impact fee since maybe their roads are impacted?

2:04:18So I off the top of my head will not tell you yes from reading the bill, but I will tell you yes from a conversation that happened in a committee and we'll have to read concern about that. There was a specific example of Sarasota County and Manatee County working on a project. I can't remember the details, but that was discussed in a committee while this bill was being heard. Uh so I will give Back to here with I'm sorry, yeah.

2:04:39Okay. Uh 7013 uh had to do with special districts. I could do the control district. It creates a twelve year term limit for elected board members. Um I would expect some more items to come out. There's thousands of uh what they found out of these special districts. One of the items that they didn't it was pretty simple, they didn't have on their strategic goals and working on those a few of the districts. They all went through an audit and uh nothing crazy came out of any of the audits that they did for the districts around. Um but they were looking at seeing some of the capacity that these special districts

2:05:09had to increase millage rates on folks and you could see some of the reductions that they made on that also.

2:05:16Peace.

2:05:18We all know about pace loans, bad actors and pace loans. Um pace loans are for various energy efficient items, you know, energy items. Uh they've expanded the pace loan program to include uh water treatment as well. So you can you know if you're getting some kind of specific on-site sewage treatment center, something pink, uh you can use a pace loan. And then they also put in some extra regulations and oversight because a lot of these pace loan folks, I guess from my understanding Okay. uh could be potentially bad actors and predatory on homeowners. Um so that's what this bill does. Um

2:05:52Cy no go back. Cybersecurity. Um jumping over, okay.

2:05:59Yeah. Okay. Yes, it will.

2:06:01Surprise. So a little bit of information. Obviously first I wanna uh thank uh David Goldstein and your staff, your county administrator, um and all of you all, really. This was a uh Very difficult session. I know Pasco County was very much targeted at times, but I think we did a very due diligent job representing not only our county, our constituents or but also many uh around the state. So one of the items that we'll talk about real quick is how do we allow a uh a taxing authority to move forward. And we talked about

2:06:31the provision that we put in the Schinberg study. Um just to go again The Schimberg study is used to detail the surplus of deficit or surplus of affordable housing and rental units through through a region. So there was even some discussions about regions and how they come to that number. Some of those areas aren't able to get those regions. So I would say, first I want to say the president's office really had an open door with us. Our legislative delegation was very, very helpful on this. It's going to provide some. of the information beyond the Schimberg real quick, just to

2:07:01let you know those who still When you find out you have a surplus uh in 2025, 2026, those who are already received it are obviously grandfathered in. Uh the taxing authority, the county, uh upon adoption of the ordinance or resolution is gonna have to be approved by two-thirds of the vote of the governing body when they can show through the Schimberg study that the m need is being met. I think that is in the simplest terms that we can put it put it out there. Um It it was very taxing. I just want

2:07:31to I know a lot of us there's conversations and things in the newspapers from the Senate President But I would say we kept to it. Um I had many quite times we were running into the office to go talk to Jennifer as as you all know very much and and many times that's your county administrator and I were on the phone quickly and talking about this this amendment. Uh I want to thank first of all this President's office. They had even major pushback in those final hours and then the final day of saying you know they weren't happy with this. Developers and c and lobbyists

2:08:02who represented these developers were pushing back for more severe changes because they knew that it would push the need to not be there as much. When I when I say that, I think we're very fortunate now from getting to look at it, and I was told if we weren't happy with 100% of what was in that bill. That they would come back and help us change or make sure that we got the information from the Schoenberg study that we needed. So right now we felt we weren't getting everything that we needed from it, but they promised to work with us, meaning the president's office,

2:08:32and you know the funding comes from the legislature to the Schemberg study to do the Schoenberg study. So I'm pretty confident that they're gonna be able to work with us. I know this was. was a sensitive subject, but I really think for the best for the county we came out. This uh resolution came in there and I want to thank you all again. Um thank you all very very much for coming to Tallahassee, talking to your legislative delegation, talking to everybody that you could to help get get this across. Commissioner Weightman, I know you were waving the flag on this you know a long, long

2:09:02time ago. We saw this coming and I think there's gonna be both benefits. It's one, I think you're going to see affordable housing is going to be increased in the areas where there's a need. And where's the need? The need is truly under that 80%, right? We don't have a need between the 80% and 120 AMI. The 90% meets what's already happening with rents. And all of a sudden, when you had this picture, when you showed them what an 80% AMI was with your delegation, not in the president's office, but other legislators, the light went on. all of a sudden of what nonprofits are truly

2:09:32trying to do for AMIs uh below eighty percent for folks. So thank you all again. I'll take any of the questions that you have on that. I think that was really our last slide. I know we took a a little bit of aside. Last thing sovereign immunity, uh repail local business taxes uh under Chapter 2005 did not pass. Uh tourism development tax changes did not pass as you all know. And County Commission term limits. So those are some items that we will be following up with you over the summer, kind of give you an idea, just like we did with Senator Ben Albretton, on his emphasis

2:10:03being on uh how they do water uh projects in the future. And I see a finger pointing this. Mr. Mariano has some questions.

2:10:10Yeah, I'd say this was, in my years, the most difficult s situation to go through with the state legislature of all the things we had to go through by far. The the results. Could have been devastating. Uh Commissioner Weightman, your your early leadership in picking on about shaking every single uh development coming in. If we had provisions, Jeff, you and David together, making sure that we had the right provisions going, Denishu, you as well, helping everything go through. But uh the the work up there, Sean, was was amazing on your end. Uh you and Andrew were like incredible to work with, teaming up with Ralph, working

2:10:40with Carbella b probably back and forth on the phone, just trying to look at all the things, David being a a leader in the r in the state as far as, you know, the go-to guy to find out what's really going on. But the the meetings you gave to us, uh the communications you kept going even after the session started and we're back here. uh for you to keep on pushing and pushing and pushing, it got better and better and better and uh without uh you and Andrew up there fighting for us so hard and doing so effectively wouldn't happen. So thank you for your great service.

2:11:08Well I I appreciate it. Like I said it was a very uh Difficult time I know for everybody and I appreciate you all's communication and willingness to work with us. It kind of made that job a little bit easier up there. Uh we have the benefit we don't represent any developers, any builders, you know, there's no conflict of interest with ours. We have one focus in mind and that's serving your interests. Very well. Thank you. Thank you.

2:11:28Yeah, I know we're I know we're out of time today. I we have a big lunch meeting, but um And we have a little more time before we have to have our ducks in a row for the next session, but certainly wanna Take a look at appropriations around the state and see how we fared and See if we're, you know, on the right track for the plans that we have. D I mean I know this is out there, but do you have any idea when it's gonna get signed?

2:11:56So I was told two different scenarios. One I was told in the next two weeks and the next one I was told at the end of June. So I will tell you one I was told it was just in two weeks hasn't happened yet. So that one, so yeah, I've been and it was, it was so it was it came from the governor's office to expect everything to be signed in the next two weeks. He was actually even holding off on some appointments and some uh the governor's holding off on appointments and endorsements on folks until the g budget got passed. Um so I hope sooner than what we have seen in the past.

2:12:25So that is a big one. He just said we did send him the retirement bill, which is a pretty big bill on the budget, so that could give us some indication when we see it come through. So

2:12:32And w uh so when when is the deadline to sign the bill? If there's

2:12:36Well, a couple of years ago if you recall, he did it the day before your fiscal year started.

2:12:41Is that July? July fourteenth or something? July first.

2:12:44Right.

2:12:45July first.

2:12:47It was June thirtieth and you had July first. He literally did it two days before. And that's the only time I've ever seen that happen in my recollection, and I know you're taking a deep breath right now. There

2:12:56there was other money that is going to Pasco through our non profits. Um I know I encouraged as I I encouraged nonprofits and the cities to please ask for money. Um so there's there is more money coming to the county, may not be through us.

2:13:13So maybe I was gonna I was just gonna say we just set up uh uh a time where we're looking at doing our workshop uh for our next legislative session and we'll probably toss around some ideas. Uh I'll get with Sean and maybe we can even have our um delegation uh interact with us on that. I mean it is an election year. Uh all of our uh state reps have to uh go up for election. Um but it's something we'll consider but but no we'll be having a w a workshop and we'll be playing it way in advance for next year's

2:13:43session. Okay. Great. All right. All right. All right. Thank you.