Jerry Demings says the Legislature’s attack on home rule ‘has to change’

One thing Orange County Mayor and Democratic candidate for Governor Jerry Demings intends to change if elected next year is the Legislature’s proclivity for preempting local governments from making their own laws and regulations.

The latest such move by the Legislature is a law passed earlier this year that restricts local governments from regulating development. Two separate lawsuits have been filed to block enforcement of SB 180 . Twenty-five cities and counties call the law the “largest incursion into local home rule authority” since adoption of the Florida Constitution in 1968.

“When Tallahassee preempts local governments from being able to make decisions for themselves, you’re at that point adversely impacting the will of the people, and that is something that has