GOP lawmaker draws flak over vacation rental bill that died during the 2023 session

Pinellas County Republican state Sen. Nick DiCeglie was optimistic throughout the just-concluded legislative session that his bill (SB 754), updating regulations for short-term vacation rentals would create the proper “balance” between the conflicting rights of property owners and local governments.

But after the House amended the Senate’s language to shift more regulating power to the state Department of Business and Professional Regulations, he killed the bill himself on the last day of session.

That didn’t satisfy constituents who thought his proposal still would have taken away too much control from local governments to regulate vacation rental platforms like Airbnb. They lashed out at DiCeglie Thursday night during a townhall meeting in Madeira Beach.

DiCeglie, serving his first term in the Senate after four years in the Florida House, lives in Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas, which has been labeled “ground zero” in the years-long battle between vacation rental owners and neighbors who complain that they harm their quality of life through too much noise, garbage, and parked cars.

He said he decided to sponsor this year’s version of a vacation rental bill because he had “skin in the game,” but acknowledged that he’s endured lots of criticism from both sides of the debate. DeCeglie says his goal was to give local government “more tools for their toolbox” while recognizing that many of his legislative colleagues believe that this is strictly a property-rights issue and would prefer to strip away many of the regulating powers that local governments still have.

Speaking in front of about 40 members of the Gulf Beach Republican Club at Madeira Beach City Hall, DiCeglie was just a few minutes into reviewing the legislation when an elderly gentleman sitting just a few feet away from him blurted out” “Bulls–t.”

“Excuse me, sir. I don’t appreciate your vulgar language,” a somewhat startled DiCeglie responded, adding that the epithet was “disrespectful.”

DiCeglie laid the blame for the bill going down to defeat this session with the House, saying that chamber had “completely gutted” the authority that the bill had given to local governments to regulate vacation rentals. “And so, while you’re irritated with me, you should be more irritated with the position with the Florida House.”

A few moments later another citizen rose and questioned a provision that would have limited how much a local government could charge to process registration applications. DiCeglie’s bill would have allowed charges of no more than $150 to process an individual registration and $200 for a collective registration for up to 25 individual vacation rentals.

“Eight dollars apiece to register short-term rentals? Explain!” the man demanded. “It’s your bill!”

DiCeglie responded that “we in the state Legislature don’t want local governments to charge exorbitant fees because that ultimately is going to eliminate these vacation rentals in our city.” But local officials who testified during the session said that those fees would have been far too low compared to the processing costs.

For example, John Regan, city manager for St. Augustine, told lawmakers during one committee meeting that it costs his city as much as $500 to process an individual application.

Could have been worse

DiCeglie later told the audience that he didn’t have to take on the vacation rental issue, saying that he had received threats of massive protests in front of his home, but that for everyone’s sake it was better that he attempted to craft a proposal rather than get something objectively worse from one of his colleagues.

“If I don’t find a solution that has a balance, there’s a decent chance that there’s another member of the Legislature that’s going to advance legislation that’s going to eliminate local governments’ authority to deal with it all. And I don’t think that’s good public policy.”

DiCeglie noted the influx of new people flooding the Sunshine State who are voting Republican, and said that was directly reflected in the voter registration numbers in Pinellas County. Republicans hold a 17,036-voter advantage over Democrats in Pinellas, the largest for Republicans in the county in nearly 30 years, DiCeglie said.

That advantage certainly moved Pinellas, which went for Joe Biden by less than 1 percentage point over Donald Trump in the 2000 election but went solidly red in 2022. Ron DeSantis won the county by more than 10 points, and the county commission moved from blue to red for the first time in a decade.