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Two Florida housing bills to watch this legislative session. 

State lawmakers will discuss several housing-related bills in the upcoming legislative session, slated for Jan. 9. Two of them, if passed, could mean big changes for some Florida renters and homeowners amid record-high living costs.

They are House Bill 31 and House Bill 41. Sponsored by Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-Palm Beach, of South Florida, each bill proposes some forms of tenant and homeowner protections. The representative has proposed housing legislation each year, two of which passed last year. “I took on Florida’s biggest crisis. Affordable Housing,” he said on a Facebook post.

HB 31, among other things, would require certain landlords to provide air-conditioning, as long as the dwelling is not a single family home or a duplex. Under current Florida law, landlords do not have to provide or maintain air conditioning for tenants.

The bill also defines lawful termination of a rental agreement and proposes rent increase limits — once a year, capped at 30%. A landlord would be able to charge more if repairs, fees, property insurance, and property taxes add up to more than 30%

Here's a look at the most interesting bills proposed for Florida's 2024 legislative session.

The Florida 2023 legislative session was one for the books, with what seemed like a nonstop drip of controversial bill after controversial bill making national headlines.

With nearly 1,100 bills already filed, here's a look at some of the more interesting bills that have already been filed for Florida's 2024 session:

SB 972 is a new bill that would create a statewide council to oversee the use of AI by state agencies. The council would be called the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, which would be housed within the state Department of Management Services.

SJR 1042 and HB 805 are similar bills preventing state and local governments from using red-light cameras. Both proposals propose creating Section 33 of Article X in the State Constitution that would prohibit “traffic infraction detectors” from being used by the state or a political subdivision of the state. The bill wouldn’t apply to school speed zones.

Floridians see promise — and potential perils — in artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence has generated an avalanche of interest, ranging from dramatic and dire warnings to exuberant optimism in the 13 months since ChatGPT was launched, sparking conversations and uncertainty from dining room tables to corporate boardrooms to the corridors of government. Everyone, it seems, has a theory about what AI can do, should do, might do or shouldn’t do.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has warned about the potential for “grave threats” to children from unfettered access to AI. The University of Florida started exploring how AI could enhance agriculture. U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Parkland, has sounded the alarm of the prospect of wrongdoers using AI to mass produce guns.

AI is creeping into the political world, with more to come. Never Back Down, the super political action committee supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, used AI to generate a voice that sounded like former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner — and used it in an ad.

Never Back Down had reportedly earlier used AI to superimpose video of fighter jets to make it appear as if they’d flown overhead during a DeSantis speech.

Sports betting opponents’ final plea to Florida Supreme Court: Don’t let DeSantis usurp voters’ power.

The Florida Supreme Court could rule on sports betting any day now, experts say, though it’s also possible the case will stretch on for years.

West Flagler Associates, the group of betting companies that brought the lawsuit, filed its final brief Tuesday, replying to arguments made by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office and making its last plea for the court to take up the case.

At stake, West Flagler argues, are the rights of Florida’s voters, over 70% of whom approved a constitutional amendment in 2018, known as Amendment 3, that gives voters the sole power to “authorize casino gambling” in the state, through another constitutional amendment. Critics often have accused DeSantis and the state of circumventing constitutional amendments and have cited the agreement between the Seminole tribe and the state as an example.

West Flagler asserts that it seeks to preserve voters’ power, and that DeSantis and the state violated that power through a gaming compact that legalizes online sports betting, now widely available in Florida, as long as the servers are on Seminole Tribe lands.