Florida’s FFAI Response to Senate Bill 7084
Posted by Jim on May 28, 2015
As you already know, I received a call from the Governor’s office on May 21 informing me that Governor Scott regrettably signed Senate Bill 7084 into law, which removed the protection of the Mac Bride Principles from Florida investments in Northern Ireland. Senate Bill 7024 will now permit Florida businesses to invest in the 6 Counties without the statutory restrictions first enacted by the Florida Legislature in 1988.
The FSBA’s (Florida State Board of Administration) three trustees were behind the introduction of this bill to eliminate the investment restrictions imposed by the Mac Bride Principles. According to a report by Barry B. Burr and comments made by John Kuczwanski (communications manager of the FSBA) in a follow-up e-mail, the FSBA sought a review of the restrictions after they prevented FSBA from investing last year “in an attractive real estate credit portfolio consisting of distressed mortgage loans by several banks operating in Northern Ireland”.
In addition, the end of violence and unrest related to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, helped to alleviated FSBA concerns about seeking an end to the Mac Bride investment restrictions.
Unfortunately, the FSBA’s trustees kept this bill buried in committee until it was released for Senate and House approval at the end of Florida’s legislative session. By doing so, they kept it out of the public eye, preventing an organized Irish-American response from taking place. The members of the Florida legislature had literally no time to review this bill and was forced to accept committee recommendations that given the current climate in Northern Ireland, these restrictions were no longer needed. By the time this bill made it to the Governor’s office and became available to the public, our response time to convince the Governor not to sign this Bill was greatly limited.
Despite these limitations, the Governor’s office was inundated with phone calls objecting to this Bill. Because of the efforts put forth by our Brothers, Sisters and friends, the Governor came very close to vetoing Senate Bill 7024. However, due to the fact that this Bill was tied into the State Budget and Florida Laws mandates that a Budget be passed and signed into law by the end of the legislative session, the Governor felt that he had no other choice but to do so.
To address the injustice that has occurred with the signing of Senate Bill 7024, Florida’s FFAI Committee is in the process of undertaking steps that are necessary in an attempt to reinstate the Mac Bride Principles in Florida during our next legislative session which begins in December.