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Background: In 1972, the Florida Legislature elected to stop administering occupational license taxes at the state level and gave the authority to local governments. Local governments were then authorized to levy occupational license taxes according to the provisions of the "Local Occupational License Act." In 2006, 368 of the 404 municipalities and 52 of the 67 counties in Florida had some sort of local occupational license tax in place. Legislation: SB 330 (Steube) and HB 487 (Renner) proposed to authorize counties and municipalities to continue to levy local business taxes if resolution or ordinance was adopted before January 1, 2017, so long as the tax did not exceed $25.00. It also proposed to remove the authority for counties and municipalities to increase business tax rates and to impose additional business taxes in the future. Position: The County advocated against the legislation. Amended: The legislation was amended to allow for an exemption to the local business tax for hon- orably discharged veterans and their spouses, unremarried surviving spouses of honorably discharged veterans, active duty military service members' spouses, and low-income persons receiving public assis- tance, as defined in s. 403.2554, F.S., or having a household income less than 130 percent of the feder- al poverty level. Additionally, the bill provided an exemption for businesses with fewer than 100 peo- ple, if an individual to whom an exemption may apply owns a majority interest in the business. Finally, legislation would have allowed any municipality that imposes a business tax on the gross sales of all retail and wholesale merchants within the municipal jurisdiction to continue to impose such tax. Status: Died on the House Calendar. We should expect to see this again next session. .7.2 :CERTIFICAT.E PUBL IC: ,.CONVENIENCE° AND;':NECESSITY. COPCN Background: In Florida, pre -hospital emergency medical services are divided into two categories, Basic Life Support Services (BLS) or Advanced Life Support Services (ALS), the former involving non -invasive medical care to preserve a patient's vital signs, and the latter involving more invasive tech- niques (medications, intravenous fluids, etc.). An EMT or other first responder expected to provide either form of care must be licensed by the state's Department of Health. In order to be licensed, a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (COPCN) must be granted to the applicant by the counties in which the applicant is planning to work. Even though it is a mandatory pre -requisite to obtaining DOH licensure, under current law, counties are allowed, but not required, to issue COPCNs and establish standards for the issuance of those certificates. Legislation: The following amendment was offered to HB 545: [a] lacensed basic or advanced l�e support ambulance service may provide nonemergency medical transportation services in permitted ambulances in any county not- aithstanding any ordinances relating to cerlifacates of public convenience and necessity or s. 401.25. Status: This amendment was withdrawn after strong objections from local governments. 10 P211