Palm Beach County legislators head into election-year session. Here is their wish list.

The annual lawmaking and budget-setting session of the Florida Legislature kicked off earlier this month, and legislation filed by Palm Beach County lawmakers awaits action.

Florida legislators gathered in Tallahassee earlier than usual because it's an election year. The session started the week before Iowa's Republican presidential caucus, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' came in a distant second place.

Most of Florida's 160 legislators endorsed the governor for president last year, but a dissenter was Republican Rep. Rick Roth of Belle Glade, who endorsed former President Donald Trump.

"I'm hoping that he comes back to Florida, and we have a successful session, and he's able to focus more on the legislation that we're trying to pass," Roth said of the governor.

All that said, Palm Beach County lawmakers have proposed measures on a wide range of topics including environmental issues, cost of living assistance and property insurance.

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Although Palm Beach County Democratic lawmakers outnumber their Republican counterparts, the county's three GOP members have a better chance to pass their bills because of the Legislature's Republican supermajority. Last year, Democrats struggled to fight back on issues like abortion and gun rights since they lacked the votes.

Here are the priorities of the Palm Beach County delegation for this session:

Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Boca Raton

Gossett-Seidman said her legislative priorities include waterway bills, tackling homeowners associations, addressing insurance issues and keeping taxes low. One of her main bipartisan water bills, HB 165, would make it so all reporting and communications are moved from state agencies to the Department of Environmental Protection and to establish a central reporting location for the public to learn about unsafe water incidents.

Gossett-Seidman said that the goal is to inform people about incidents like the sewage pipe break in a Boynton Beach waterway in July.

"It happens more often than people know," Gossett-Seidman said. "It can be contained quickly. People can work together, the agencies can work together to identify and report it."

The Boca Raton representative also said she will advocate for legislation filed by other lawmakers, such as Miami Republican state Rep. Juan Carlos Porras's HB 1243, regarding homeowners association complaints. The bill would ensure that there is a statute that could make it a criminal offense if HOA board members abuse the budget for personal gain.

Another bill Gossett-Seidman is sponsoring would aim to correct a "glitch" she believed inaccurately changed party affiliation of voters who were renewing or replacing their drivers' licenses. HB 135 would make it so any changes to a voter's party affiliation can only be made if the citizen requests and consents to it in writing.

Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach

Caruso said he's confident that his bill, HB 253, to establish Medicaid coverage for purchase and deliveries of prescribed health-promoting food will get passed. Health-promoting food includes groceries reviewed and approved by a registered dietician as part of a six-month intervention treatment program. These products would be able to be picked up at a community clinic, like FoundCare, or in a grocery store under contract with the program, per the bill's text.

"I'm certain that [Senate] President [Kathleen] Passidomo's priority for healthcare is going to make it through which is major changes to mental health care and expansion of Medicaid by some degree," Caruso said.

Caruso's HB 1065 is a bill related to sober homes. Some counties and cities charge sober homes the same way they tax hotels, through a "bed tax." Under this bill, if a sober home shows proof that they are housing patients who are under a treatment plan, then those patients would not be counted toward that "bed tax."

Another portion of the bill would define the levels of care, including treatments patients need. The bill also allows sober homes to increase the number of people they care for as long as they can explain and prove to the Department of Children and Families that the sober home can handle more housing.

Caruso's HB 1105 relates to regulating homestead exemption to prevent skyrocketed property tax when applying for homestead. A homestead exemption in Florida is granted to an owner who makes their home their permanent residence. It does not apply to people who buy second homes or vacation properties.

The issue, Caruso said, occurs when a property owner applies for a homestead exemption on a home purchased in the past that does not have an exemption. That application then assesses the home's tax on the current value, not at the time of the purchase.

This has led to people who bought homes in the past having their property assessed at a higher value when applying for a homestead. The legislation would then allow the property to be taxed at the value at the time of the purchase.

Rep. Rick Roth, R-Belle Glade

Roth's priorities for the legislative session largely focus on agricultural issues.

Roth is pushing his food recovery bill, HB 1159, for the fourth year in a row. That measure would incentivize farmers to sell or donate fresh foods to food banks and allow the food banks to negotiate prices better on those products.

He's also promoting a joint resolution, HJR 335, to be put on the 2024 ballot for voters to decide whether to increase the required percentage of votes that amend the state Constitution. Currently, a ballot amendment can pass if 60% of those who voted on the amendment approve the measure; the bill would change the threshold to 66.67%.

"We need to make sure that anything we put in the Constitution has broad public support," Roth said.

Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach

Berman said the No. 1 priority is to pass her collaborative bill with Gossett-Seidman on informing the public of unsafe waterways. She's also promoting SB 1172, which would create more stringent penalties on impaired driving, including expanding its definition to include the use of medications, including over-the-counter, that could impair drivers. Berman said she could include Benadryl since the medication warns of drowsiness and to avoid driving.

Berman said she's also promoting bills in response to rises in antisemitism, including SB 148, which would define antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance that states a "certain perception of Jewish individuals which may be expressed as hatred toward such individuals." In addition, SB 396 would require schools to set a day in November for one hour of education on antisemitism.

"It's tough being in the super minority, but I think if you work hard and work with your colleagues and you have common sense legislation, like I have, you should be successful," Berman said.

Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach

Powell has introduced SB 786, which would create a pilot program meant to help students learn conflict resolution. Proposed for the 2025-2026 school year, it would include middle and high schools with high juvenile delinquency.

Powell's SB 732 bill would make it a felony for a person to knowingly commit theft from a nonprofit organization.

Rep. Katherine Waldron, D-West Palm Beach

Waldron's HB 259 bill is meant to require target shooters to keep bullets within the confines of their property. Current state law allows people to fire their guns in low-density areas. If a person violates the provision, they could face a first-degree misdemeanor.

"We're not changing any gun laws, we're saying keep your bullets on your property," Waldron said.

Another bill Waldron is promoting, HB 439, aims to address what she said is a disproportionate use of corporal punishment on students with disabilities. It requires charter schools to comply with corporal punishment regulations set forth by its local school district's code of conduct, and makes it so a school can only inflict corporal punishment if the parent opts in.

Rep. Joe Casello, D-Boynton Beach

Casello said his bills focus largely on public safety and protecting election workers and promoting proper firearm storage. HB 1011 would revise the prohibition of making threats for mass shootings to include audio and video calls and electronic records.

"I will be pushing my colleagues to take meaningful actions on these issues instead of wasting another session focused on culture wars," Casello said.

Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Delray Beach

Skidmore will be filing HB 1311 — for the third year in a row — to create the Office of the Blue Economy, which relates to the tourism and fisheries industries. The office would connect ocean and coastal resources to economic development strategies for the state, encourage collaboration between state universities for research on economic development, and educate state and local agencies on how to address environmental issues while also considering economic impact.

Skidmore's HB 343 would regulate crisis pregnancy centers to make sure they're audited. The bill would require the centers to cite the information they provide to patients while also disclosing where they are spending their money.

"It's actually not super onerous. It's all sort of common sense, that you would think that this is what we would be doing anyway since it's state money, that we will be accountable for it or require the organizations who received the money to be accountable for it," Skidmore said.

Rep. David Silvers, D-West Palm Beach

Silvers said his focus is to address mental health issues and to help children. HB 43 is meant to make sure providers give all available resources to children who are hospitalized under the Baker Act multiple times. The bill also would require the state to create a report detailing the treatments from healthcare providers to the children. Another bill, HB 951, would require separate waiting rooms in crisis stabilization units for children and adults.

"Who can't get behind mental health?" Silvers said.

Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-West Palm Beach

Edmonds said his priority is to ease the cost of living.

One of his bills, HB 1017, creates a property insurance commission. Edmonds said the bill got bipartisan support from state Senate members. The commission would include three Florida senators and three state representatives who would review and evaluate the insurance marketplace and market data produced by the Office of Insurance Regulation and reserve requirements for insurers.

Edmonds' HB 13 includes raising the minimum teacher pay from $47,500 to $65,000. Another measure, HB 329, would help homeowners with financial hardship avoid losing their homes and to help pay for their electrical and water bills. The bill would create a fund within the Florida Department of Commerce.

Despite the Democrat being in the super minority, Edmonds is confident.

"Tallahassee is more so about relationships than party. So I am hopeful that we will get quite a few bills passed," Edmonds said.

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County priorities in Florida Legislature in election year