Movers bill trucks narrowly past Commerce committee

Sen. Burt Saunders' bill that would preempt local governments from regulating household moving companies made it through the Senate Commerce Committee by a 5-3 vote. While Saunders and moving industry officials said it would streamline their work and still protect consumers, local government officials balked.

"You statement is the consumer is better protected with less regulation. That seems arbitrary to me," said Sen. Rudy Garcia, who voted no with Charlie Justice and Jeremy Ring.

"Quite frankly, they [local officials} should be happy the state is taking over on this," Saunders said.

Comments

"Quite frankly, they [local officials} should be happy the state is taking over on this," Saunders said.

Trasnlation: They should be happy we’re not shoving another unfunded mandate up their as*es, just so we can look like we’ve done something!

classic GOP conundrum...the government closest to the people works best for the people, versus efficiency and regulatory oversight of government...oh, what to do?!

This repub says GOP has become all talk no walk. Just look at the half billion $$$ we are giving private company CSX to double track their "S" freight line. Last year CSX made more than one and one half billion in profits. Getting a half billion this year from Florida taxpayers should really boost company execs pay.

Please -- this bill makes total sense. One statewide regulation instead of 67 different ones. If you know anything about business, regulations should be consistent.

Yep, what it will do is preempt local government, make the state responsible, charge the companies a fee to be put in a "trust fund" which will then be "raided" by the Legislature and so the state won't enforce the "regulations" and the consumer will continue to be screwed!!!!!!

At least that is what happens with all the DBPR "trust funds."

3:54 just moved to DC and its pretty much the same up here too on a grand scale.

which reminds me 8:25, what's 67 counties when you also have to deal with 50 states? might as well have the feds be the only regulatory body, right?! ;)

[Bruce Cotton]

This bill has been coming for a few sessions.

Some of the south Florida Counties are charging local movers a "usage fee" to drive through their county.

A move from key West to say Stuart would cost more because Dade, Broward and Palm Beach each would charge a mover to drive across thier county

Big government Republicans. Centralize it so local citizens lose control of quality. Ignore citizen complaints or corporate violations. Collect larger campaign donations to stay feeding at the trough longer.

Bruce,

What prompted those counties to levy the fee? Are they getting sufficient funding from the state to cover the costs to public infrastructure use? Are the fees collected being spent where they were collected, or are they going into a general revenue black hole?

[Bruce Cotton]

2:26

I assume that the counties saw an opportunity to make some money for their coffers and they went for it.

Another question would be why they would be charging movers to use roads they don't maintain at all like state or US highways.

Are you ready for this? Local governments are actually losing money on the administration of their local regulatory programs that provide no greater protection than the state law. Despite charging movers $750 + $10 per truck in Palm Beach County in 2006, it costs the local taxpayers an additional $15K to manage 49 complaints where the mover faced actions in 10 for an industry that conducts thousands of moves in that county every year. Meanwhile, they are cutting essential services to make up for the lost revenue due to Amendment 1 and spending tens of thousands of dollars on lobbyists to defeat this common sense legislation in Tallahassee. How is that responsive to the people?