Legislative Update
Governor’s 2008-09 Budget Recommendations
You can’t turn on the news today without hearing the “R” word: Recession. Experts on the economy spend their evenings debating on the national news-talk shows whether the economy is taking a downward turn and how long this period will last. No one truly knows the answers, but the mood around the country is one of caution.
In Florida, the state’s economists are predicting an economic downturn and will meet in March to forecast how much the state will collect in taxes and other revenues this year. The budget created by the Legislature will rely on these estimates. Legislators are already predicting the worst, and using these predictions to prepare Floridians for program cuts.
Programs serving children, a non-voting population, will have a high chance of ending up on the chopping block without strong, vocal support from every Floridian whether they be provider, expert, community leader, grasstops, grassroots, or rank and file. It is time to mobilize every board member, advisory committee member, employee, volunteer, spouse, and youth themselves.
Governor Crist’s budget recommendations contain both promise and peril. Some budget lines are visionary and would move Florida in the absolute right direction and, for this, the Governor is to be strongly commended. Others are the same old and failed refrain: consumption spending rather than investment spending, where preventable problems are ignored but paid for later after becoming more complex and requiring incredibly large expenditures. There, the Governor needs counsel that appears to be lacking in perspective from his own Budget Office.
But even the good ideas in the Governor’s budget face a perilous climb from concept to summit. According to an article in the Palm Beach Post by capitol reporter Dara Kam, House members believe that the proposed budget is too risky due to the use of one-time money extracted from trust funds and rainy day accounts for programs that are recurring. The gauntlet appears to have been thrown by Representative Bean (R-Fernandina Beach), Chair of the House Healthcare Council, who was quoted in the article saying, “We never know what cards will be dealt next year. It could get worse. Things could happen. We just want to be prepared and live within our means.”
That sounds to us like a whole lot of hurt coming around the bend. Be vocal. Be strong. Get active.
Highlights of the Governor’s budget is detailed below by Promise. To learn more about the full budget recommendations, click here.
You can also visit the Governor’s website dedicated to the 2008-09 Budget by clicking here.
Promise 1:
The major focus for children’s health under the Governor’s Budget Recommendations was an eagerly awaited and much needed increase for KidCare. Letters to the Governor to be copied to legislative leaders should commend his proposed $60.6-million to allow more than 46,000 additional children to be enrolled. Currently there are more than 600,000 uninsured children in Florida. KidCare currently serves 230,000 children. The additional state funds recommended by the Governor would allow Florida to draw down approximately $149.1-million in Federal dollars, money that would be diverted to other states.
Governor Crist also recommended a new $63.9-million to support a three year pilot program that provides preventive and primary health care services to the uninsured and underinsured through partnerships with hospitals and county health departments in 14 counties.
Promise 2:
There were two major focuses of the Governor’s budget recommendations for children under the care of the child welfare system: independent living, and adoption.
$15.8-million new dollars were recommended to provide life skills training for children in foster care between the ages of 13 and 17, and to provide access to independent living services for foster youth who have “aged out” of foster care. Last year the governor requested $9.3-million while advocates requested $18-million to help the state serve the youth “aging out” of foster care. The services only received $1-million last year.
Governor Crist also recommended $2-million to provide transitional housing for youth “aging out” of foster care. The money would provide 52 housing units.
The budget recommendations included $14.9-million for additional adoption subsidies to allow more special needs children to have a permanent adoptive family rather than remain in foster care.
Additional staff for Guardian ad Litem (GAL) were included in the Governor’s budget recommendation. The GAL program is required by law to cover all children involved in dependency court cases, although the funding is not available to allow them to cover all children. The recommended increase would provide service for an additional 425 children.
Promise 3:
As reported last week, Governor Crist recently held a Summit to discuss the economic benefits of pre-k, and the role of pre-k in creating a competitive workforce, and his budget recognized the benefits to be gained by making this early investment.
Specifically, Governor Crist proposed an additional $34-million in VPK funding over Fiscal Year 2007-08, totaling $384.4-million, and raising the annual spending per student from $2,677 to $2,720. While still too low to support high quality, this budget path would begin to correct a course that had put Florida in the dubious position of being the only state in the country last year that did not increase its pre-k budget. This fact was brought into the spotlight through the combined advocacy of Pre-K Now and Children’s Campaign, Inc. through the 2007 Votes Count report. Children’s Campaign, Inc. was active in bringing that report directly to the Governor’s legislative director, his policy staff, and to the Florida media. Letters to Governor Crist and to legislative leaders should applaud this promising change in direction.
The $384.4-million in total funding enables the program to serve 134,543 four-year-olds. There are currently 220,000 four-year-olds in the state. Current enrollment statewide tops 110,000.
The Governor also included subsidized childcare in his budget recommendations and maintained service levels for the School Readiness program. Services available under this program include extended day, extended year, and care for school age children to support parents in becoming financially self-sufficient. The total budget of $657.2-million allows the program to serve over 262,000 children.
Promise 5:
Governor Crist’s public safety budget is disturbingly and startlingly off course. It adds $404-million to the Department of Corrections to build and maintain more prison beds while chopping close to $20-million from the already beleaguered and under-resourced Department of Juvenile Justice.
Letters to the Governor should point out that it does not serve public safety to stand on the sidelines and wait for troubled children to become older so that the corrections system can deal with them. This appropriations policy does not prevent crime and does not prevent crime victims.
The budget does begin to address the recommendations of the Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission, but with a catch. These “new” dollars, as they are being touted, come at the expense of cuts to other proven juvenile justice programs.
The Blueprint Commission was created by Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice in order to examine key concerns in the juvenile justice system and provide direction to improve services and outcomes for Florida’s troubled youth.
Key recommendations from the Commission include making services to girls a top priority and implementing gender-specific models throughout the system, strengthening prevention programs, expanding diversion options for first time offenders, enhancing medical resources, establishing alternatives to secure detention, and reducing school based referral to detention.
The Governor chose two of these recommendations to feature in his budget, including; $2.6-million in funding for gender-specific programs designed for girls. These funds are earmarked to provide an increase in the number of community-based interventions and options available to parents and the courts. $2-million was earmarked to ensure all juvenile detention centers are staffed with a full-time registered nurse, a small part of a large number of recommendations regarding health issues.
Cuts proposed in juvenile justice public safety include, among others:
- Non-Residential Delinquency Rehabilitation - $2-million decrease
- Non-Secure Residential Commitment - $9-million decrease
- Delinquency Prevention and Diversion - $2-million decrease
Concerns are surfacing again about funding of the Girls Alternative Project whose expansion sites were saved last year at the last minute by supporters in the Florida legislature who responded to a large outcry from advocates. Apparently, departmental budget writers at DJJ itself did not include the “special member” allocation for those three sites – Ft. Myers, Orlando, and Palm Beach - into their LBR request to the Governor even after that oversight was brought to DJJ’s attention. Instead, DJJ requested only continuation of the original Miami-Dade site as it did the previous year. Dollars for girls in detention that do show up in the Governor's proposed budget, if they survive, would be allocated on a competitive basis and would most likely result in GAP having to shut down services while going through the bidding process.
Our next Legislative Update will include a Federal update on the Promises.
To read bills for each of the Promise areas simply click on the Promise of interest:
1. Promise 1 - Pre-natal, Infant, and Child Health Care
2. Promise 2 - Safety, Permanence, and Services to Children in Out-of-Home Settings
3. Promise 3 - High Quality Pre-K, Child Care, and Early Learning Opportunities
4. Promise 4 - Safe and Enriching Before and After-School Experience
5. Promise 5 - Delinquency Prevention Programs and Services to Treat Children with Problem
Legislative Update was brought to you by:
Amanda Ostrander, Editor, Legislative Update
Christen Smiley, Communications Coordinator
Roy Miller, President
We acknowledge the entire Legislative Team of Children’s Campaign, Inc. who work tirelessly during legislative session on behalf of Florida’s children.