Local governments in Florida have a new deadline to consider as they plan payment, revenue, and constituent-service initiatives. Florida CS/HB 967, now Chapter 2026-169, requires units of local government to accept specified electronic payments and provide an online payment method beginning January 1, 2027 [source].
For finance leaders, the legislation is more than a technology requirement. It is an opportunity to evaluate the complete payment journey—from how constituents find and complete a payment to how staff post, reconcile, report on, and manage those transactions.
CORE helps local governments modernize payments with secure, connected tools that improve self-service for constituents and reduce operational friction for staff.
What Florida HB 967 requires
Florida HB 967 amends Section 215.322 of the Florida Statutes. The law requires units of local government—including municipalities, counties, special districts, and county constitutional officers—to accept payments for financial obligations using credit cards, charge cards, bank debit cards, and electronic funds transfers, except where another payment form is required by law. It also requires local governments to provide an online method for accepting payments [flsenate].
The effective date is January 1, 2027.
The law may permit local governments to apply a surcharge to users of electronic payment methods to cover applicable service fees, subject to the agency’s legal, policy, and operational requirements. Agencies should work with legal counsel and finance leadership to determine how the statute applies to their circumstances.
Compliance is only the beginning
Offering online payment acceptance is an important first step. But a payment experience that is difficult to find, hard to complete on a mobile device, or disconnected from finance workflows can still lead to avoidable calls, walk-ins, mailed checks, delayed payments, and manual exceptions.
As Florida agencies prepare, finance and operational leaders should consider questions such as:
- Can constituents find and complete applicable payments online without assistance?
- Are credit, debit, and electronic funds transfer options available where required?
- Are payment amounts, fees, and confirmations clearly communicated?
- Do payments post accurately to the correct bill, account, parcel, utility account, permit, or receivable?
- Can finance staff reconcile payment activity without relying on spreadsheets, rekeying, or disconnected systems?
- Are payment, refund, exception, and service-fee workflows documented and visible to the appropriate teams?
The best readiness plans treat HB 967 as both a compliance initiative and a constituent-service initiative.
How CORE helps local governments prepare
CORE is a modern digital payments and revenue-management platform built for local governmen & utilties. We help agencies centralize payment activity, deliver a more convenient constituent experience, and streamline the operational work that follows a payment.
Provide convenient online payment options
CORE enables secure, 24/7 online payments directly from an agency’s website. The platform supports credit and debit card payments, mobile payments, self-service options, recurring payments, eBill and presentment, text-to-pay, and wire transfers.
These options give agencies a practical foundation for meeting digital-payment expectations while providing constituents more flexibility in how and when they pay.
Improve the constituent experience
Residents increasingly expect public services to be as convenient and intuitive as the digital experiences they use in banking and retail. A clear, mobile-friendly payment journey can make it easier for constituents to take action on taxes, utility bills, permits, licenses, fees, and other financial obligations.
CORE helps agencies provide a secure, accessible payment experience that supports self-service and can reduce reliance on in-person and phone-based payment activity. Its government-focused platform is designed to create a frictionless payment experience for both residents and staff.cor
Streamline finance and reconciliation workflows
Online payment availability should not introduce new reconciliation challenges. CORE centralizes payment activity to give staff greater visibility into the revenue cycle and help reduce manual work and errors associated with fragmented payment processing.
For finance teams, that can mean a more connected path from payment acceptance to reporting, reconciliation, and operational follow-up.
Support secure, scalable payment operations
Payment modernization requires coordination across finance, IT, customer service, procurement, and legal. CORE’s hosted platform is designed with enterprise-grade security and PCI compliance to help reduce the burden associated with payment-data protection and ongoing technology management.
The result is a payment environment built to help agencies deliver convenient digital service without adding unnecessary complexity for internal teams.
Turn the deadline into an opportunity
January 1, 2027 will arrive quickly, particularly for agencies that need to coordinate stakeholders, assess existing payment channels, evaluate systems, configure workflows, test integrations, train staff, and communicate changes to constituents.
Local governments that begin their readiness planning now can do more than meet a new requirement. They can use the transition to improve payment adoption, reduce manual effort, create a better constituent experience, and strengthen visibility across the revenue cycle.
CORE has helped government agencies achieve measurable improvements in digital-payment usage and efficiency. CORE reports a 10x increase in online payments for Grand County, Utah; a 45% increase in online payments for Washington County, Utah; and a 15–20% reduction in associated costs for the City of Davenport, Iowa.cor
Download the readiness checklist
Is your agency prepared for Florida House Bill 967?
Download the Florida HB 967 Digital Payment Readiness Checklist to evaluate your agency’s priorities across payment access, constituent experience, fee workflows, reconciliation, security, and implementation planning.
[Download the Florida HB 967 Digital Payment Readiness Checklist]
Or, if you would like a more tailored discussion, request a CORE HB 967 Payment Readiness Review. Together, we can assess your current environment, identify key priorities, and explore a practical path to a modern payment experience.
