Issue # 1 March 5, 2010

Welcome to your 2010 Legislative Link

The Legislative Link will land in your in-box every Friday afternoon of the eight week Florida Legislative session. Highlighting legislative activities that took place during the week, the LL will focus on the spectrum of health and human service and non-profit issues. If you have a question or comment about any issue addressed in the LL, please don’t hesitate to contact the United Way of Florida. Have a great session!

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Another Painful Session

Until 3 years ago, Florida had never experienced 2 consecutive years of decreasing revenues. We’ve now been through 3 such years and we’ll know next week if it will be 4 in a row. Preliminary estimates are that revenues will be slightly up.

The 85th Florida Legislature is faced with having to fill a $1-$3 billion hole in next year’s budget. With 20 of the 40 Senators and all 120 Representatives up for election in November, most – particularly Republican leadership - are loathe to raise taxes and fees. That leaves 2 ways to balance the budget: cut services and/or raid trust funds.

Education and health and human services advocates know that their programs have been cut to the bone over the last three years.  But education makes up 54% of this year’s general revenue state budget and health and human services make up 26%, for a whopping 80% of the entire GR budget. Add in criminal justice and corrections (17%) and you have about 97% of the entire state budget. Which means you could eliminate every other part of state government and it wouldn't fill the budget hole.  To get real money, the Legislature is going to have to go where the real money is: education, health and human services, and corrections.  All are at risk this year. To read more about this year's budget, budget history, stimulus funds, etc,  click here

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Governor Crist Proposes 2010-2011 State Budget

In late January, Governor Crist unveiled his proposed $69.2 billion 2010-2011 state budget. Legislators from both sides of the aisle have largely pooh-poohed the proposal as unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky because, among others, it includes more than $400 million generated by a Seminole Tribe compact that remains unsettled after more than a year, and more than $1 billion in extra federal Medicaid funding currently languishing in Congress. To read the governor's budget summary and review the proposal click here

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Trickle Down from Congress?

During the last year, many across our country have lamented the partisan gulf that has resulted in Congressional gridlock on important issues. With Republicans firmly in control of the Florida House (75-44) and Senate (26-14), gridlock may not rule in Florida during the 2010 session, but election year jockeying is already in full gear, as evidenced during Governor Crist’s State of the State address on Tuesday. Crist, who accepted stimulus funds from a Democratic President and Congress, was loudly applauded by Democrats and greeted only tepidly by Republicans. Bills filed that would outlaw most abortions, require Congress to have a balanced budget, and require more transparency in state budgeting, among many others, will be used by legislators – whether they pass or not – to define their ideologies during the upcoming campaign season.

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Speaking of Prepping for Campaign…

Affordable housing trust funds may be the only trust funds held harmless this year because their use for affordable housing will stimulate Florida’s economy (see Affordable Housing, below ). But wait. There will probably be another one held harmless, too. On Tuesday, the Senate passed SB 1158 , which would ensure that the trust fund into which concealed weapons licensing fees flow will not be raided.  The House companion (HB 651) also appears to be on the fast track to passage. The legislation is a very high priority for the powerful NRA, that counts thousands of Florida voters as members. Read SB 1158

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United Way of Florida 2010 Session Priorities

The Florida State Employees Campaign, Medicaid reform, Healthy Families Floirda, and affordable housing trust funds are just a few of the important issues the United Way of Florida will work on this session. View our position papers on these and other issues. View our position papers on these issues here. 

Other top priorities include maintaining voters’ rights to create independant Children’s Services Councils, protecting Florida’s Early Steps program, ensuring children with disabilities will continue to have access to Florida’s VPK program, and protecting consumers receiving debt settlement services.  Your Legislative Link will keep you up-to-date on these and many more issues during the next 7 weeks.

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House Releases Budget Allocations

On Thursday, House Speaker Larry Cretul released budget allocations; identifying the amount of money each policy area will have to use in developing the proposed House 2010-2011 state budget. The House plans to complete its budget by April 1, go into budget negotiations with the Senate, and vote the final budget out by session’s end. Allocations include:

Health & Human Services: 19 percent increase in state dollars over last year - $6.7 billion in GR plus $5 billion from state trust funds.

K-12 Education - 9 percent increase in state dollars over last year - $9 billion in GR

Unfortunately, because of plummeting property tax revenues used for schools, anticipated loss of more than $1 billion in stimulus funding, and a huge increase in Medicaid caseloads, the increased state expenditures won’t make a dent in the projected $3 billion budget deficit.
 

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House Session Schedule

On Monday, House Speaker Larry Cretul announced the following House session schedule: 

Weeks 1-4 (March 1-26) - House Committees will complete their work.
Week 5 (March 29 - April 2) – Pass proposed budget
Weeks 6 and 7 (April 5-16) - House Councils will complete their work.
Week 9 - Final vote on budget and sine die on Friday, April 30th.

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BILLS HEARD THIS WEEK

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Affordable Housing

The House Military and Local Affairs Committee unanimously passed HB 665 on Wednesday, which would repeal the $243 million cap that the 2006 Legislature put on state and local affordable housing trust funds. Legislators appear ready to pass the bill this year and target the trust funds to improvements on existing housing, resulting in the creation of nearly 15,000 Florida jobs and over $1.4 billion in economic activity. This will also draw down the inventory of over 300,000 empty houses that are on the market in Florida. Until the inventory is significantly reduced, experts predict that new construction will not rebound, and new construction has historically been one of the main drivers of Florida’s economy. As one of the 25 members of the Sadowski Coalition which has worked to remove the cap for years, the United Way of Florida supports this legislation.   Read HB 665.

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Children’s Services Councils

Voters in 11 Florida communities have voted to create Children’s Services Councils that levy and use property taxes (no more than 0.5 mills) to improve the quality of life – today and tomorrow – for the children in their communities. They know that their investment will pay long term dividends to their communities, and to our state and country. On Thursday, the Senate Children, Families and Elders Committee temporarily passed a bill that would strip the voters in those communities of the decision they made regarding operation of their CSCs. Among others, the bill (SB 1216) would politicize the CSC decision making process by vesting in county commissioners authority over CSC budgets.

Florida’s CSCs are valued community partners, are transparent in their fiscal affairs, have demonstrably improved the quality of life for children in their communities, and are able to take a long-term view to strategically address the critical needs of children in their communities. The United Way of Florida believes the Florida Legislature should support the fundamental right of voters to decide for themselves how to best use their hard earned tax dollars and should defeat this bill. Read the staff analysis .  Read SB 1216 ( before amended) .

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Senior Services Special Districts

On Thursday, the Senate, Children, and Elder Affairs Committee passed SB 146, which would authorize counties to create by ordinance an independent special district to provide senior services throughout the county. The special districts could also levy property taxes to fund those services if the majority of voters in the county approved doing so. The bill provides the membership of the governing council, powers and duties of the council, and reporting requirements. Read SB 146. 

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Alzheimer's Disease

In Florida, more than 435,000 elders currently suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. As baby boomers age, that number will swell considerably. Alzheimer’s is the 7th leading cause of death in the nation and the 5th leading cause of death for those over age 65. In 2005, Florida had the third highest number of deaths due to the disease in the country. SB 580, which was passed by the Senate, Children, and Elder Affairs Committee on Thursday, would establish a program to educate the public regarding screening for memory impairment, and would authorize the Department of Elder Affairs to support programs providing information and memory screening and memory screening services.  Read SB 580.

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Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

CS/SB 842 requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to include a $1 check-off for a voluntary contribution to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse on motor vehicle registration applications and renewals, driver’s licenses and applications for driver’s licenses, duplicate driver’s licenses, and license renewals, among others. Driver’s license applications and renewals currently include voluntary $1.00 check-off contributions for Prevent Blindness Florida, the Florida Council of the Blind, the Hearing Research Institute, Family First, and Stop Heart Disease. CS/SB 842 was passed by the Senate, Children, and Elder Affairs Committee on Thursday.  Read CS/SB 842.

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Family Daycare Homes

The House Health and Family Services Policy Council passed CH/SB 411 on Tuesday. The bill defines “household children” to mean children who are related by blood, marriage, and any other legal adoption too, over our legal wards of, the family daycare home operator, a large family childcare home operator, or an adult household member who currently or temporarily resides in the home. It requires that those children be included in the capacity calculation for licensed family daycare homes and large family childcare homes.  Read CS/HB 411.

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Family Builders Program

CS/HB 871 eliminates the Family Builders Program, which was enacted in 1990 to provide family preservation services to dependent children and their families through the Department of Children and Families. Between 1998 and 2005 as DCF privatized Florida’s child welfare services including family preservation to community based entities, the Family Builders Program was subsumed within the community based service system, and its funding was discontinued. The House Health & Family Services Policy Council passed the bill on Thursday.  Read CS/HB 871.

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