The Florida Senate voted to approve a bill on Wednesday giving the state control over any utility authority created by the legislature after Jan. 1, 2023.
If signed into law, the move would nullify the two individual voter referendums passed with over 70% approval requesting control of utilities be returned to the city commission.
The bill will now head to Gov. Ron DeSantis for final approval before taking effect.
“It’s impossible to overstate how unprecedented this is,” wrote the Alachua County Labor Coalition in a statement.
Written by House Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, a Republican from Coral Gables, the bill intends to ensure people living outside a city’s municipal boundaries are not unfairly taxed.
It would place a cap on how much can be charged from out-of-city customers and requires annual reports on utility rates and revenue.
The provision regarding utility control was added as an amendment to the Senate’s version of the bill during the March 11 session, giving the legislature final authority over utility administration in the applicable cities.
The bill originally passed in the House March 3 in an 81-26 vote. The House denied a proposed amendment to strike out the provision by Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, whose district encompasses Gainesville.
Though Gainesville Regional Utilities is not explicitly mentioned, it is the only authority board eligible in the state, having been appointed by the governor June 2023.
The bill would also make irrelevant an ongoing legal battle between the city and the authority, meaning further legal proceedings would have no effect.
After the first referendum, the GRU authority sued the city, claiming an attempt to supersede state power.
While a court nullified the first vote due to misleading language, it ruled the city did have the right to amend its charter. The GRU authority appealed the case, which reached an appellate court Feb. 10. A decision is still pending.
The Senate’s vote makes it clear the majority of the Legislature does not care about GRU’s ratepayers, the ACLC said in its statement.
“We deserve to be angry, and we are,” the coalition wrote. “We won’t stand for this and we will rise up. They can’t ignore us forever.”
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, whose district consists of part of Orange County, was an opposing voice in Wednesday’s Senate session. Gainesville voters aren’t divided on the issue, he said, and they feel very strongly about utility governance in the city without Legislature interference, as proven in the passed referendums.
“Why is it that you are trying to overturn the will of those Gainesville voters?” he said.
Smith asked Sen. Jonathan Martin — who proposed the GRU provision be added to the Senate’s version of the bill — if the amendment was discussed in the committee process before it was added on the Senate floor. Martin didn’t confirm or deny whether the provision was previously vetted.
Gainesville City Commissioner Bryan Eastman thanked Smith for his resistance in an Instagram post. He said the bill’s passing sets back years of work by community members pushing for local control. It’s not sustainable for a city to be half governed by its voters and half by the state, he said, especially when residents overwhelmingly oppose it.
“The conversation about how Gainesville gets back to governing itself like every other city in America does, how our utilities can ultimately be held accountable by our community that it services,” he said. “That conversation is just beginning.”
Contact Maria Arruda at marruda@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @mariazalfarruda.
Maria Arruda is a second-year journalism and political science student, currently working as the City Commission reporter for The Alligator. Previously, she reported on Student Government under The Alligator's University desk. She enjoys running, reading and going to movie theaters!
