(WINK) \u2014 Nearly a dozen new laws are officially on the books in Florida as of Oct. 1 as part of the 2026 legislative session, and they range from cars to gangs to drugs.<\/p>\n
The majority of the laws from this past session took effect back on July 1, but a handful remained until now.<\/p>\n
The first notable change, which actually started on Wed. Sept. 30, concerns the final increase of the state’s minimum wage, which is now at $15 an hour. This year marks the final wage increase in a measure approved by voters back in 2020, where each following year the minimum wage would increase by one dollar. Currently, the federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 and has remained untouched since 2009.<\/p>\n
Tipped employees will also see more money on their paychecks going forward, as their base wage rises from $10.98 to $11.98 an hour.<\/p>\n
There are new legal changes for drivers, with one new law raising the threshold for when authorities should be notified following a vehicle crash. Instead of the previous threshold of $500 in apparent property damage, there now must be at least $2,000 observed following a crash before law enforcement is involved.<\/p>\n
Another law surrounds vehicle registration, as Floridians now need to provide a state home address and a state identification card to register.<\/p>\n
Other legal measures increase the severity of punishments for animal crimes, gang activity and drug trafficking convictions.<\/p>\n
Anyone convicted of animal cruelty, animal fighting, baiting or sexual offenses involving minors will now receive a third-degree felony. The law, which stems from House Bill 559, also includes a measure where children charged in said crimes will have to undergo psychological evaluations and possible treatment.<\/p>\n
The state is cracking down on other criminals as well. Florida will create a felony registry called a career offender registration, which is similar to a sex offender registry. Habitual, violent felony offenders, violent career criminals, and 3x violent felony offenders must provide a home address, phone number, employment update, vehicle, professional licenses and immigration status to the local sheriff’s department every year.<\/p>\n
That, on top of reporting any changes of address, phone numbers and employment statuses within 48 hours, plus having a marking of “775.261,” which signifies a “career offender” on their driver’s license or state identification card, under Senate Bill 1332.<\/p>\n
Florida is also taking no-contact orders more seriously, as law enforcement can now make an arrest without a warrant if there is reason to believe an order is being violated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WINK) \u2014 Nearly a dozen new laws are officially on the books in Florida as of Oct. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88,2808,4381,141129],"class_list":["post-867195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-law-enforcement","tag-local-sheriff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}