Justification
Governor's Recommendations 2023-24

The Governor's Budget Recommendation for Fiscal Year 2023-24 includes $3,535,000 in nonrecurring Administrative Trust
Fund authority to procure a 3rd party identity verification product that will integrate with the current licensing system
to verify applicant identifications in real-time with data provided by customers to reduce the risk of application fraud.

One of DBPR's primary responsibilities is to license and regulate over 200 different types of professions and businesses
throughout the state. Currently, an average of 175,000 new accounts are created each year. Investigations have uncovered
licensees that obtained their license through fraudulent means, which includes submitting false personal identifying
information. The cost of verification is per transaction and based on the number of licensees. The cost will be higher in
years 1 and 2 in order to verify all licensees once, then going forward only new licensees will be verified. This
identity verification product will reduce the risk of application fraud, thereby preventing bad actors from obtaining a
license to conduct business in this state.

This issue was modified from the department's Legislative Budget Request.