NEW PORT RICHEY - Florida counties do not have the authority to allow nonmandatory homeowners associations to enforce deed restrictions, nor can a county assess fees on their behalf.

The decision came this week when Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed a bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike Fasano.

The legislation was intended to help older neighborhoods struggling to maintain clubhouses and common areas without the dues or fees normally assessed in mandatory homeowners associations.

The bill would have enabled the groups to petition their county government for help. It was to take effect this month.

"Long ago, especially in Pasco and Hernando, developers created communities and then left the clubhouse, common areas and other structures on the shoulders of the homeowners," Fasano, R-New Port Richey, wrote Bush in an e-mail Wednesday.

Via Senate Bill 1632, county governments would be able to grant nonmandatory associations the proper status to enforce deed restrictions.

The county could also collect fees from all homeowners to help the associations maintain common areas in the community and prosecute deed restriction violators.

Throughout Florida and particularly in the Suncoast, older communities established without mandatory, dues-paying associations are suffering, said proponents of the bill.

"I'm disappointed, said attorney Nina Vaznelis, a resident of Spring Hills' River Country, a nonmandatory homeowners association.

For nearly two years, United Communities of Hernando, where about 19 of 23 homeowners associations are nonmandatory, worked to come up with a solution. They began lobbying Fasano for help with the proposal last year.

Thursday's veto means "another year or more before these homeowners associations can get some relief," she said.

Fasano said he was ready for the ax to fall.

"We're not overly shocked or surprised," he said, explaining the governor's office contacted him early on about the bill.

Bush said he will appoint a task force to study the issue but could not support the legislation.

"The motivation for the bill is certainly understandable," Bush wrote, noting how a homeowner's investment can be eroded by neighbors who fail to comply with community covenants.

But the governor stopped short of allowing county government to take sides in private contract disputes.

"I believe it is inappropriate and fundamentally unfair to use the government's taxation power to compensate for shortcomings in private contractual arrangements . . ." Bush wrote.

Fasano said the bill was aimed at helping communities such as Embassy Hills in Port Richey, which no longer can afford to operate its 9,930-square-foot clubhouse.

Embassy Hills once relied on voluntary civic association dues and community fundraisers such as bingo to pay for upkeep.

Now the neighborhood is growing younger and new families do not get involved in the association or fundraising events, said Wanda Stickler, civic association president.

Fasano's legislation would have required two-thirds of homeowners to sign off on "essentially taxing themselves" before they could go to the county and request that fees be assessed.

"It's not a mandate; it's just an option," he said.

Vaznelis said she is not giving up.

United Communities of Hernando might now seek to organize its efforts with similar groups throughout Florida.

Something needs to be done, Vaznelis said. As things stand, "the associations that can't collect dues are at a disadvantage. It's like they're second-class citizens," she said. "They need help."