Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 288 - Commercial Development and Capital Improvements

• Ad valorem tax roll: means the roll prepared by the property appraiser and certified to the tax collector for collection. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agency: means the Agency for Health Care Administration. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Applicant: means an entrepreneur or small business that applies to a loan administrator for a microloan. See Florida Statutes 288.9932
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Awarded: means the time when the tax collector or a designee determines and announces verbally or through the closing of the bid process in a live or an electronic auction that a buyer has placed the winning bid on a tax certificate at a tax certificate sale. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Campaign treasurer: means an individual appointed by a candidate or political committee as provided in this chapter. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Candidate: means a person to whom any of the following applies:
  (a) A person who seeks to qualify for nomination or election by means of the petitioning process. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• contiguous: means touching, meeting, or joining at the surface or border, other than at a corner or a single point, and not separated by submerged lands. See Florida Statutes 197.502
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contribution: means :
  (a) A gift, subscription, conveyance, deposit, loan, payment, or distribution of money or anything of value, including contributions in kind having an attributable monetary value in any form, made for the purpose of influencing the results of an election or making an electioneering communication. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Decedent: shall include the testator, intestate, grantor, bargainor, vendor, or donor. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Revenue. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Department: means the Department of Commerce. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Department: means the Department of Health. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Direct: means the index in straight and continuous alphabetic order by grantor, and "inverse" means the index in straight and continuous alphabetic order by grantee. See Florida Statutes 197.502
• Division: means the Division of Elections of the Department of State. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Economic benefits: means the direct, indirect, and induced gains in state revenues as a percentage of the state's investment. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Election: means a primary election, special primary election, general election, special election, or municipal election held in this state for the purpose of nominating or electing candidates to public office, choosing delegates to the national nominating conventions of political parties, selecting a member of a political party executive committee, or submitting an issue to the electors for their approval or rejection. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Entrepreneur: means an individual residing in this state who desires to assume the risk of organizing, managing, and operating a small business in this state. See Florida Statutes 288.9932
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Expenditure: means a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, transfer of funds by a campaign treasurer or deputy campaign treasurer between a primary depository and a separate interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit, or gift of money or anything of value made for the purpose of influencing the results of an election or making an electioneering communication. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Federal generation-skipping transfer tax: means the tax imposed by chapter 13 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• General hospital: means any facility which meets the provisions of subsection (12) and which regularly makes its facilities and services available to the general population. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Generation-skipping transfer: means every transfer subject to the federal generation-skipping transfer tax in which transfer the original transferor is a resident of this state at the date of original transfer or the property transferred is real or personal property in this state. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• Gross estate: means the gross estate as determined under the provisions of the applicable federal revenue act. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• hospital: includes a medical office building located on the same premises as a hospital facility, provided the land on which the medical office building is constructed is zoned for use as a hospital; provided the premises were zoned for hospital purposes on January 1, 1992. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Intangible personal property: means incorporeal personal property including deposits in banks, negotiable instruments, mortgages, debts, receivables, shares of stock, bonds, notes, credits, evidences of an interest in property, evidences of debt and choses in action generally. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Issue: means a proposition that is required by the State Constitution, by law or resolution of the Legislature, or by the charter, ordinance, or resolution of a political subdivision of this state to be submitted to the electors for their approval or rejection at an election, or a proposition for which a petition is circulated in order to have such proposition placed on the ballot at an election. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Jobs: means full-time equivalent positions, including, but not limited to, positions obtained from a temporary employment agency or employee leasing company or through a union agreement or coemployment under a professional employer organization agreement, which result directly from a project in this state. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensed facility: means a hospital or ambulatory surgical center licensed in accordance with this chapter. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loan administrator: means an entity statutorily eligible to receive state funds and authorized by the department to make loans under a loan program. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Loan program: means a program established in this chapter to provide appropriated funds to an eligible entity to further a specific state purpose for a limited period of time and with a requirement that such appropriated funds be repaid to the state. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Net estate: means the net estate as determined under the provisions of the applicable federal revenue act. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Network: means the Florida Small Business Development Center Network. See Florida Statutes 288.9932
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Non-ad valorem assessment roll: means a roll prepared by a local government and certified to the tax collector for collection. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Nonresident: means a natural person domiciled without the state. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: includes affirmations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Office of Economic and Demographic Research: means an entity designated by joint rule of the Legislature or by agreement between the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability: means an entity designated by joint rule of the Legislature or by agreement between the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Omitted taxes: means those taxes which have not been extended on the tax roll against a parcel of property after the property has been placed upon the list of lands available for taxes pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Original transferor: means any grantor, donor, trustor, or testator who by grant, gift, trust, or will makes a transfer of real or personal property that results in a federal generation-skipping transfer tax. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual or a corporation, association, firm, partnership, joint venture, joint stock company, club, organization, estate, trust, business trust, syndicate, or other combination of individuals having collective capacity. See Florida Statutes 106.011
• Person: means persons, corporations, associations, joint stock companies, and business trusts. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or governmental unit. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means the executor, administrator, or curator of the decedent, or, if there is no executor, administrator, or curator appointed, qualified, and acting, then any person who is in the actual or constructive possession of any property included in the gross estate of the decedent or any other person who is required to file a return or pay the taxes due under any provision of this chapter. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premises: means those buildings, beds, and equipment located at the address of the licensed facility and all other buildings, beds, and equipment for the provision of hospital or ambulatory surgical care located in such reasonable proximity to the address of the licensed facility as to appear to the public to be under the dominion and control of the licensee. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Proxy bidding: means a method of bidding by which a bidder authorizes an agent, whether an individual or an electronic agent, to place bids on his or her behalf. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• registered mail: includes certified mail with return receipt requested. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Resident: means a natural person domiciled in the state. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Small business: means a business, regardless of corporate structure, domiciled in this state which employs 25 or fewer people and generated average annual gross revenues of $1. See Florida Statutes 288.9932
• Specialty hospital: means any facility which meets the provisions of subsection (12), and which regularly makes available either:
  (a) The range of medical services offered by general hospitals but restricted to a defined age or gender group of the population;
  (b) A restricted range of services appropriate to the diagnosis, care, and treatment of patients with specific categories of medical or psychiatric illnesses or disorders; or
  (c) Intensive residential treatment programs for children and adolescents as defined in subsection (16). See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Tangible personal property: means corporeal personal property, including money. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Target industry business: means a corporate headquarters business or any business that is engaged in one of the target industries identified pursuant to the following criteria developed by the Department of Commerce:
  (a) Future growth. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Tax certificate: means a paper or electronic legal document, representing unpaid delinquent real property taxes, non-ad valorem assessments, including special assessments, interest, and related costs and charges, issued in accordance with this chapter against a specific parcel of real property and becoming a first lien thereon, superior to all other liens, except as provided by…. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• Tax notice: means the paper or electronic tax bill sent to taxpayers for payment of any taxes or special assessments collected pursuant to this chapter, or the bill sent to taxpayers for payment of the total of ad valorem taxes and non-ad valorem assessments collected pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 197.102
• taxpayer: includes the taxpayer's family or any entity in which the taxpayer or taxpayer's family has any interest. See Florida Statutes 197.502
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tourism marketing: means any effort exercised to attract domestic and international visitors from outside the state to destinations in this state and to stimulate Florida resident tourism to areas within the state. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Tourist: means any person who participates in trade or recreation activities outside the county of his or her permanent residence or who rents or leases transient living quarters or accommodations as described in…. See Florida Statutes 288.005
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustor: The person who makes or creates a trust. Also known as the grantor or settlor.
• United States: when used in a geographical sense includes only the 50 states and the District of Columbia. See Florida Statutes 198.01
• Urgent care center: means a facility or clinic that provides immediate but not emergent ambulatory medical care to patients. See Florida Statutes 395.002
• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• veteran: means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under honorable conditions only or who later received an upgraded discharge under honorable conditions, notwithstanding any action by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on individuals discharged or released with other than honorable discharges. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01