Legislative Update
Week Six
April 7 - April 11 2008
EMERGENCY ALERT
Budget Storm Makes Landfall in Tallahassee
If the size and breadth of the impending budget cuts passed this week by the Florida Senate and Florida House were a hurricane, it would be a Class Five Storm. It’s mammoth enough and powerful enough to sheer off long-standing and world class programs and unearth the support structures for an incredible number of hopeful, needy and, yes, frail children and families trapped in its surge. The budgets now go to conference committee for final resolution. There is still time to rescue our children.
But it’s not only about the children. It’s about all of Florida. And not one word in this edition of Legislative Update should be bent or construed in a way to suggest that we don’t get the big picture. Our hearts ache for all who will feel the pain of what DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth aptly labeled as “unconscionable” budget reductions (Miami Herald) in so many areas: the elderly, healthcare, the environment, schools, parks, libraries, the arts, everyone.
We are all in this together. Parents want the best for their kids. Teachers want to educate – not “deal with issues.” Florida’s colleges want qualified applicants. Business wants a qualified and viable labor force. All Florida citizens want to see our kids as the hope of the future, our future, not problems to be managed.
Florida’s journalists are weighing in through their editorials, columns and news stories. A Daytona News Journal editorial expressed it succinctly this week, “… cuts go on, as Florida lawmakers wring their hands and talk about the agony of making “tough decisions”. Yet few in legislative leadership have the courage to address the truly tough decisions: Facing up to and rectifying the mistakes of the past.”
It isn’t fair. While the most frail in Florida are being forced to make sacrifices, many of the strongest will go unscathed. Healthy Start is slated to be cut at least $3-million – exactly the amount of state subsidies for the Golf Hall of Fame and sport-fishing museum. Is the $63-million dollar subsidy of the charter fishing industry the best use of our money when foster care and childcare programs are being cut by $50-million? Levying a sales tax on those charter excursions would help our children and fund the charter fishing museum too, if that shrine is core to our state’s interest after all.
As the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy makes clear, money can be found to lessen the agony. The priorities of the leadership of the legislature are simply not the priorities of children’s advocates.
Do Floridians agree with the choices being made? Past polls by the Children’s Campaign say not. Our pollsters have queried Floridians again and again. What would you support – tax cuts or programs for children? In every poll, in every demographic group, in every cross-section by political affiliation, the answers are always the same: take care of the kids.
Of course, one can ask logically, “If that’s the case, then why did a majority of Floridians vote for property tax relief? Good and fair question.
The answer: because they were told that tax relief can be accomplished without cutting back on education or vital services.
Is that the debate inside the debate? What is vital? In our world, birthing healthy babies is vital. For children literally facing life on the street when they age out of Florida’s problematic foster care system, a helping hand is vital. Stopping educational failure dead in its track with high quality pre-k is vital. Keeping kids safe before and after school while their parents work is vital. Providing the right help at the right time for troubled children is vital. Lest we fail to make the point, this state budget shows deep, deep cuts to public education too.
Is the word getting out? Do the citizens of Florida realize what is taking place and are they concerned about it? Look at the poll of Florida voters released by Quinnipiac University. Florida citizens are changing course and now believe the state is heading in the wrong direction. We expect those numbers to move again as the impact of the budget decisions are felt. While the state is evenly split on raising taxes to save important programs from budget cuts, even a tie represents a shift in thinking. 68% of Floridians support a $1.00 per pack cigarette tax increase to pay for health care.
So propose it! Pass it! Salvage something from the knife. Some legislators are standing as strong as they can in the face of this storm. We say thank you.
$5-billion in cuts, the number that may be reached, is not “fat”, “pork”, “belt tightening”, or any of the metaphors used to denote government waste. Our at-risk children will suffer and they will suffer greatly.
The programs to be cut are working and they are effective. They save the state money. Should we fund Healthy Start now or spend millions more on Medicaid later? What about Juvenile Assessment Centers? Eliminating programs that have achieved national acclaim – like the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center - as the House has proposed, leaves “incarcerate everybody” as the dominant, and expensive, theme of juvenile justice.This approach is wrong. It is not good for kids and it is more expensive. It runs in the opposite direction of the known benefits of investment spending.
The state-sponsored services at the precipice of being swept away literally rescue children at critical moments in time: when they are born, when their brains are developing, when they are susceptible to negative peer pressure, when they are being physically and sexually abused.
Our state must ask itself, “How is Florida treating our children?”
Roy Miller, President
Many bills have seen committee action over the past five days. A substantive legislative update will come early next week. This is an
Promise 1 - Children's Health:
Promise 2 - Child Protection:
The least fortunate of Florida’s children are victims of neglect, abuse and worse and are placed in foster care where in too many instances they are victimized again. As the economy weakens, more vulnerable kids will bear the brunt of adult frustrations, addictions and poverty.
Foster care services are scheduled to come under the knife for between $25-million (Senate) and $32-million (House). Independent living programs will not be able to serve countless youth as they transition from foster care to adulthood. The state of Florida is as close to a “parent” as these kids have. The cuts will literally abandon many of them.
70 child abuse investigator positions are to be eliminated along with reductions to Healthy Families, which is designed to prevent abuse on the front end.
Promise 3 - Early Learning:
Scientific research proves that quality early care is the key to long-term success for youth. In the critical years of brain development social and educational aptitudes are established. It is key to breaking through the achievement gap.
Over the past few years alone a staggering amount of pre-k money has been returned to the general fund. Following the expected rerouting of more funds this year, the total will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars.
TEACH Scholarships for early care providers are going unfunded. Pay for professionals in the industry hovers around $13 per hour. Most employees working with the children are in the $15,000 per year range. Turnover at day care centers is rampant. Centers that struggle to provide the best for children in their most critical years are forced to reduce quality to make ends meet.
Without a major reversal, Florida’s School Readiness program will be slashed between $17-million (Senate) and $12.4-million (House).
See yesterday’s Children’s Campaign Front Burner for more details on action you can take to help ensure a quality early learning environment for Florida’s children.
Promise 4 - After School:
Before and after school programs reach youth at a vital point in their lives. These programs are known to prevent crime and to improve educational outcomes in addition to rounding out a child’s life with safe, supervised play and exercise.
They share a funding source with early care and education and are therefore not the top priority when funds are reduced. The results are waiting lists, fewer services, and more bad outcomes for kids on street corners.
Promise 5 - Juvenile Justice:
The goal of the juvenile justice system is to protect society while steering kids to the right path. But in this area especially, cuts threaten to undermine the last best hope of kids in trouble.
Girls are especially susceptible to abuse and victimization. The Girls Advocacy Project (GAP) gives girls special attention and uncovers sexual abuse and problems that can be treated outside the justice system. GAP works with DJJ to take girls who simply need help out of the corrections pipeline to detention and jail. But this inexpensive conduit to a sustainable life is slated to be jettisoned in 3 of 4 locations.
One of the most effective and innovative tools at Florida’s disposal is the network of Juvenile Assessment Centers (JACs). When a child is arrested, the JACs step in to assess the situation and see if the child simply needs more support. Violations of probation routinely result from an attempt to escape an abusive situation. By serving children and diverting a number of cases from the criminal justice system, JACs save the state money and help kids find their way.
While the House eliminates them, the Senate spares a few in urban areas but not in mid-sized communities, like Tallahassee/Leon County. Here are the proven results from the Tallahassee/Leon County Juvenile Assessment Center:
- 32% decrease in juvenile arrests over the last eleven years;
- Accountability and timely consequences for juvenile offenders;
- Savings of over 10,000 officer-hours annually for area law enforcement agencies by having a centralized, streamlined booking process; and,
- Civil Citation program recognized by the Blueprint Commission as a model program for reducing the number of juveniles in the criminal justice system.
Many other juvenile justice programs are on the edge, such as day treatment for girls and for boys and cutbacks in low security residential programs. CINS/FINS, a nationally recognized model, will have to eliminate much of their non-residential services, undoing a service structure decades in the making.
The Road Ahead
The week ahead of us is critical. There will be compromises and backroom deals to finalize the budget and the cuts we are fighting. A handful of legislators will exercise tremendous influence through this process. Sen. Lisa Carlton, Rep. Ray Sansom, House Speaker Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt will make many of the final decisions.
It is vital that citizens take action now. Contact local community leaders.
Your action is necessary right now. Forward this Update to your friends and coworkers. This is the reality of what we are facing. The tide is rising and Florida’s children are threatened like never before.
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:
Roy Miller, President
Christen Smiley, Communications Coordinator
Amanda Ostrander, Editor, Legislative Update
We acknowledge the entire Legislative Team of Children’s Campaign, Inc. who work tirelessly during legislative session on behalf of Florida’s children.