New Florida law dedicates more money for hurricane relief and home hardening
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis provides additional grants and resources for Florida’s Big Bend region after communities were destroyed by Hurricane Idalia in August.
HB 1-C was sponsored by Rep. Jason Shoaf, R-Blounstown, in the House and Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, in the Senate.
The legislation also provides $176 million in funding for the My Safe Florida Home Program. The program provides money for free home inspections. It matches funding for home hardening projects with the goal to reduce insurance premiums.
The bill passed unanimously in both the House and Senate, 110-0 and 39-0, respectively. Shoaf emphasized the financial resources and relief it will provide communities.
“The storm had a significant impact on agricultural production in the region,” Shoaf said on the House floor.
“More than 3.3 million acres of Florida agriculture land were affected, including damage to agriculture related infrastructure that will need to be repaired or replaced, post-storm cleanup expenses and production losses that may carry over to 2024 and beyond,” he continued.
Shoaf had explained that the bill provides a “number of tax relief provisions” for agriculture producers.
He added that there will be a sales tax expedition for certain fencing and building material used to repair non-residential farm buildings, as well as fuel tax refund for agriculture shipments and debris removal from properties.
“The bill also appropriates funds to assist those communities most impacted by this disaster in our state,” Shoaf said. “It specifies that the legislature intends to provide the entire match requirement for FEMA public assistance to local government in our state, within counties designated in the FEMA disaster area.”
Simon said on the Senate floor that he was “overjoyed” at the bill they had crafted for the special session.
“From all of my folks that I’ve talked to and all of the miles that we’ve driven over the course of the last few months, this, this brings the help that they were so desperately asking for,” he said.
