FloridaHB 40432025HouseWALLET

Osceola County

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

23 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 3 costs, 15 mixed.

District bonds can require property taxes

Waterlin can issue general obligation bonds for capital projects or refinancing, backed by its full taxing pledge. Outstanding principal is generally capped at 35% of the district's assessed taxable property value when the bonds are authorized. Bonds also backed by enough assessments or water or sewer revenue to repay them do not count toward that cap. Capital-project bonds require voter approval, except for refunding bonds. Once its property-tax authority is activated, the district can levy taxes for principal, interest, and reserves without a rate or amount limit.

District bond investors gain legal protections

General law limits the tax exemption for district bonds, their interest, and district project revenue. Florida's corporate income tax still applies to bond income, and the district remains subject to sales and use taxes. The bonds qualify as legal investments for specified entities and can secure certain public-fund and insurance-company deposits. Good-faith buyers who pay value are protected from challenges based on defects in the bonds' issuance or sale. Florida pledges not to impair bondholder rights or the district's operating and revenue powers; this does not guarantee investment results.

Waterlin buyers get district cost warnings

Initial property-sale contracts must warn buyers about district taxes and assessments in bold text immediately before the buyer’s signature. District records and board meetings must be open to the public. Financing and maintenance disclosures must reach residents and prospective initial buyers through developers and be filed in county property records. Developers must include the information in public offering statements when those statements are required. The district must maintain an official website by the end of its first full fiscal year.

District workers gain retirement coverage option

Waterlin can apply to cover its employees through the Florida Retirement System in the same manner as state employees. The law does not automatically enroll workers. Coverage depends on the district applying and obtaining it; contribution and benefit amounts are not specified.

Waterlin must publish budgets and audits

The district must have an independent certified public accountant audit its records at least once a year. Its manager must prepare a proposed annual budget by July 15, and the board must adopt it before October 1. The county must receive the proposed budget at least 60 days before adoption. The district must also submit an annual public facilities report to the county.

Developers can receive transferable fee credits

Waterlin can make impact-fee, mobility-fee, or similar credit agreements with Osceola County or a landowner developer. The district can sell or transfer resulting credits on terms it sets. The law sets no credit amount and promises no fee reduction for a developer or household.

Claims against Waterlin face recovery limits

Injury, property-loss, and death claims against the district are subject to Florida’s existing limits on government tort claims. This provision does not state the dollar limits. District property cannot be seized and sold to satisfy a judgment, and judgments do not create liens on district property or revenue. Bondholders retain rights to enforce liens or pledges securing district debt.

Property owners face district maintenance charges

Waterlin can charge maintenance assessments to benefited land, using an engineer's report to divide charges by benefits received. General law must separately authorize any annual maintenance tax that is not based on property value. That tax also requires the district engineer to certify that facilities or services are at least partly complete. It covers upkeep, repairs, restoration, and current expenses, with charges divided by net benefits assessed for original construction. These maintenance taxes and unpaid assessments become liens enforceable like county property taxes.

District users face fees and shutoffs

The district may charge reasonable fees for infrastructure it owns or finances with its tax-exempt bonds, without denying reasonable access. Under reasonable board rules, it may shut off services when charges are not paid on time. Service may stay off until charges, interest, penalties, shutoff costs, and restoration costs are paid. After charges remain unpaid and in default for at least 60 days, the district may sue for payment, interest, and reasonable legal costs.

District property taxes need voter approval

Waterlin can levy property taxes only after a majority of district voters approve its taxing authority in a general-election referendum. At that time, every board member must be a qualified district voter elected by district voters. Operating taxes cannot exceed $3 per $1,000 of taxable property value each year. Taxes for bond debt payments fall outside that cap. The law authorizes taxes but does not itself set a levy.

District tax bills carry strong liens

District taxes follow county tax collection schedules, including the same payment discounts and late-payment penalties. Assessments become property liens when levied, with equal priority to state, county, city, and school tax liens. Owners cannot use the statutory interest-free option for payment within 30 days after an improvement is completed and accepted. That exclusion applies to district assessments imposed under this law or other Florida law.

Owners face assessments with payment options

The district may charge property owners for improvements based on fairly shared special benefits, after notice and a hearing. Final assessments cannot exceed each property’s benefit and must receive credits reflecting actual improvement costs. Assessment liens have equal priority with local property-tax liens; unpaid assessments can lead to foreclosure. The district may allow installments for up to 40 years from the first payment, with fixed or variable interest. By resolution, the board may discount some or all financing costs for owners who pay in full before those costs arise, during its approved payment period.

Property assessments fund district improvements

Waterlin can charge special assessments for its authorized work, fairly divided by each property's special benefit and capped at that benefit. Bond-financed improvements require annual assessment installments, based on an engineer's report, with payment terms up to 40 years. Owners have prepayment options, but a late installment can make the remaining balance due immediately. Once assessments are confirmed, the district can use them to back certificates, bonds, or other debt. Each certificate is payable only from its property's assessments and cannot be pledged elsewhere before assignment to the repayment fund.

Waterlin taxes require safeguards for owners

The district may finance its work through borrowing, grants, loans, authorized taxes, assessments, and user charges. Property-value taxes are barred until every supervisor is a qualified district voter elected by qualified district voters; constitutional referendum requirements also apply. Operating property-value taxes cannot exceed 3.000 mills, excluding debt service. Non-property-value maintenance taxes require authorization under general law and are certified for tax-roll collection by June 1. Unless another law provides otherwise, district taxes and assessments on qualifying ground-leased government land cannot create liens against the government’s underlying ownership interest.

County service takeovers require advance agreements

The district faces limits on taking over services the county already funds through specified assessments or municipal service-area property taxes. To start such a service, the district must notify the county by April 1 of the prior fiscal year. The notice must identify the service and area served. Before service starts, both governments must sign an agreement that leaves county revenue unchanged.

Waterlin can add services with limits

The district may support roads, transit, parks, schools, security, mosquito control, waste collection, communications, green infrastructure, health facilities, and higher education. Outside projects require agreements and consistency with local plans; school buildings and security services need approval from the responsible public agencies. District communications services must carry Osceola County’s government channels or media. Cleanup costs must relate to government-supervised work, and district cleanup spending cannot benefit district landowners who caused or contributed to contamination. The district cannot provide retail electricity or impair existing electric utility franchise agreements.

Waterlin gains water powers with oversight

The district may provide water supply, sewer, wastewater, reclaimed-water, irrigation, and water-management systems. Its powers remain subordinate to the Tohopekaliga Water Authority’s existing powers in that authority’s service area. Water, reclaimed-water, and sewer powers there require an agreement with the authority or a state-regulated investor-owned utility. Acting outside district boundaries in Osceola County requires a county agreement or applicable county development order; assessment-funded water-management projects require plans, notice, hearings, and assessment procedures. Before asking lawmakers to change the charter’s water or wastewater service rules, the board needs an approving resolution from the water authority.

Waterlin mergers require hearings and approvals

Before seeking legislative boundary changes, merger, or termination, the board needs required resolutions or official statements from the county and water authority. Waterlin may absorb community development districts wholly inside its boundaries, remaining the surviving district. Each participating district must approve the merger after a public hearing held within 45 days after all parties sign, with at least 14 days’ published notice. After receiving approvals and the agreement, the county must dissolve the participating development districts by nonemergency ordinance. Including Waterlin land in a municipality does not change the district’s boundaries, existence, or authority.

Waterlin officials face ethics rules, exceptions

Supervisors are unpaid public officers, but receive travel and daily expense payments under state law. They must follow public-officer ethics rules, and the board must hire a manager and set the manager’s pay. Being a stockholder, officer, or employee of a landowner or its affiliate is not itself a prohibited conflict for district officials or employees. The Governor may remove elected supervisors for misconduct, dishonesty, incompetence, or failure to perform required duties. The remaining board fills ordinary vacancies; the Governor fills vacancies resulting from those removals.

Waterlin voters gradually gain board control

Landowners elect five supervisors within 90 days after the law takes effect, with one vote per acre. Initial terms end November 28, 2028, for three members and November 24, 2026, for two; subsequent elections occur every two years, with four-year terms beginning in November 2026. After the next general election following each threshold, qualified voters elect progressively more seats: 6,435 voters means one seat; 12,870 means two; 19,305 means three; 25,740 means four; and 30,000 means all five. All five seats also become voter-elected when at least 25,000 residential units are completed and fewer than 45,000 qualified voters reside there. Supervisors must be Florida residents and U.S. citizens; voter-elected members must live in the district and run in districtwide, nonpartisan November general elections.

New Waterlin district gains limited powers

The law creates the Waterlin Stewardship District in Osceola County without requiring another referendum to establish it. The county keeps control over planning, zoning, and development permits. The district gains eminent-domain power to acquire private property. Outside its boundaries, a taking needs prior county approval in unincorporated areas or city approval in incorporated areas. The district cannot take municipal, county, state, or federal property.

Waterlin bonds fund projects, not operations

The district may issue unlimited revenue bonds backed by project income, user charges, assessments, or other pledged security. These bonds need no voter approval unless they also pledge the district’s full faith, credit, and taxing power; voters may approve separate projects on one ballot. General-obligation bonds generally require a referendum and face a 35% assessed-property-value cap, excluding qualifying assessment- or utility-revenue-backed bonds. Bonds may run up to 40 years, require court validation beyond five years, and cannot fund ongoing operations. District default does not make its debt a state or general-purpose local government obligation, and local governments need not take over its services or unfinished infrastructure after default or dissolution.

Waterlin can borrow and refinance debt

The district may borrow for expenses and projects, pledging funds, revenue, taxes, or assessments; voter approval applies when constitutionally required. Negotiable debt cannot sell below 95% of face value, and interest cannot exceed the general-law maximum. Notes issued ahead of an authorized bond sale cannot exceed that bond amount and must mature within five years. Repaying those notes from current revenue or bond-related taxes or assessments reduces authorized bond issuance by the same amount. The district may issue additional bonds to finish underfunded projects and refinance qualifying debt that is due, callable within 10 years, or surrendered at board-approved prices, subject to original bond terms and constitutional voting requirements.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Erika Booth
Republican • House

Cosponsors

Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee
Affiliation unavailable

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 152 • No: 0

Senate vote • 4/30/2025

Senate Floor Vote

Yes: 36 • No: 0

House vote • 4/16/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 116 • No: 0

Actions Timeline

Chapter No. 2025-238
7/8/2025
Approved by Governor
6/23/2025
Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
6/18/2025
Ordered enrolled
4/30/2025House
In Messages
4/30/2025House
CS passed; YEAS 36 NAYS 0 -SJ 739
4/30/2025Senate
Read 3rd time -SJ 739
4/30/2025Senate
Read 2nd time -SJ 739
4/30/2025Senate
Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading -SJ 736
4/30/2025Senate
Withdrawn from Rules -SJ 736
4/30/2025Senate
Received
4/22/2025Senate
Referred to Rules
4/16/2025Senate
In Messages
4/16/2025Senate
CS passed; YEAS 116, NAYS 0
4/16/2025House
Read 3rd time
4/16/2025House
Added to Third Reading Calendar
4/16/2025House
Placed on 3rd reading
4/16/2025House
Read 2nd time
4/16/2025House
Bill added to Special Order Calendar (4/16/2025)
4/10/2025House
Added to Second Reading Calendar
4/2/2025House
Bill released to House Calendar
4/2/2025House
Reported out of State Affairs Committee
4/2/2025House
Favorable by State Affairs Committee
4/2/2025House
Added to State Affairs Committee agenda
3/31/2025House
Now in State Affairs Committee
3/27/2025House

Bill Text

er
6/23/2025
PDF
c1
3/20/2025
PDF
Filed
2/25/2025
PDF

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