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If your office collects money owed to a local government in Florida, a new state law just set a deadline for you.
In June 2026, Governor DeSantis signed CS/HB 967, amending section 215.322 of the Florida Statutes. Until now, Florida law authorized local governments to accept electronic payments. As of January 1, 2027, it requires it. The bill passed the House 110-0 and the Senate 33-0, so this is not a mandate that might get walked back. It is settled law with a date attached.
Here is what it requires, who it covers, and how to think about the next five months.
Does the mandate apply to your office?
What the law actually requires
Two things, by January 1, 2027:
1. Accept electronic payments. Credit cards, charge cards, bank debit cards, and electronic funds transfers, for financial obligations owed to the local government, except where another form of payment is required by law.
2. Offer an online way to pay. A card reader at the counter is not enough. Constituents must be able to pay online.
The word doing the most work in the statute is obligations, plural. Many offices already take online payments for one thing, utilities or taxes, and still require checks or counter visits for everything else. Under the new law, partial coverage is still a compliance gap. The right first step is a simple audit: list every payment type your office collects, mark which can be paid online today, and look hard at whatever is left unmarked.
The part most coverage has missed: who pays for it
The reflexive objection to any new mandate is the budget. Nobody planned a new technology line item for this fiscal year.
The Legislature anticipated that. For taxes, license fees, fines, civil penalties, court-ordered payments, court costs, and other statutorily prescribed revenues, the statute permits your office to add a surcharge sufficient to cover the service fee charged for processing the payment.
In plain language: the same law that requires online payments also allows the cost to be covered by a small convenience fee paid by the constituents who choose to pay online. Compliance does not require an appropriation, a budget amendment, or a technology fund. For most offices, the honest answer to “what will this cost us?” is nothing, if you structure it the way the statute allows.
The timeline, working backward
What to do this month
- Run the coverage audit. Every payment type, marked online or not.
- Ask your attorney two questions. Which of our obligation types fall under the mandate, and are there any where another form of payment is required by law (those are exempt)?
- Decide the funding model. Agency-funded or the constituent service fee the statute permits.
- Map your approval process. Know today whether a provider decision requires procurement or a board vote, and what that adds to the calendar.
- Talk to providers now, not in Q4. Even if you are not ready to decide, knowing your realistic go-live options turns January 1 from a risk into a scheduling exercise.
Where AllPaid fits
AllPaid processes payments for more than 3,000 government agencies across the United States: courts, clerks, sheriffs, tax offices, cities, and special districts. Our model matches the statute. Constituents who choose to pay online cover a small service fee, and the agency pays nothing. No invoices, no budget impact, no cost to comply.
If you want a second set of eyes on your coverage audit, we will walk through it with you in 20 minutes and give you a realistic go-live date for your office. If it turns out you are already covered, you will leave with that confirmed, which is worth having in writing before January.
Want the printable version?
Get the one-page HB 967 readiness checklist to put in front of your team or your board.
