Broward's News Beat- Fighting Fake News One Story At A Time: message From Commissioner Jacobs: Passing the buck

"Jacobs, Kristin" <KJACOBS@broward.org> wrote:

From: "Jacobs, Kristin" <KJACOBS@broward.org>
To: "Jacobs, Kristin" <KJACOBS@broward.org>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:26:03 -0400
Subject: Passing the buck

I am forwarding two articles which describe what's going on in Tallahassee and the Legislature's efforts to deal with the State's budget. Today's Miami Herald article clearly explains how local municipal and county governments are being squeezed. The second article, from yesterday's Jacksonville Times-Union may seem humorous - unless you consider education key to the future of our economy and state. Tell me what you think. Kristin

Posted on Wed, Apr. 30, 2008

Counties bear the costs of Legislature's 'mandates'

BY LAURA FIGUEROA

In the waning days of the session, legislators are poised to pass a budget teeming with billions of dollars in cuts -- but also mandates that county and municipal officials say will shift the burden to local taxpayers.

While the budget cuts spending on social service programs, education, and healthcare, a series of other measures likely will cost counties throughout Florida up to $1 billion.

From funding local court programs, to figuring out how to finance recycling initiatives, local leaders say enacting these ''mandates'' will cause a strain on local governments that were already forced to slash their budgets last year by the Legislature.

''If people aren't receiving services, they're not going to ask their state legislator about it,'' said Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina. ``They're going to come to the mayor's office, or their city council, and say that the city is not taking care of their needs.''

Gretchen Harkins, a Broward County lobbyist, said the budget cuts will have a multiplier effect on the county's social services programs because Broward goes further than most other counties to supplement state programs.

For example, a $1.6 million cut from elderly services and $3.18 million less for low-income pregnant women will severely hinder county programs' ability to meet current needs.

''It's going to have a direct impact on the most frail and vulnerable elders,'' Harkins said.

She said that the cuts will allow the county to cover fewer poor, pregnant women who are not eligible for Medicaid, force it to reduce drug-abuse treatment to hundreds of parents before a court will allow them to regain custody of their children and scale back primary-care health coverage to hundreds of poor working families.

''More people will lose their children and more children will go into the [foster care] system,'' she said. ``These cuts will mean that people will die, or end up in the street.''

Also potentially burdening Miami-Dade and Broward counties is a looming $3 billion upgrade to the counties' waste-water management systems. Miami-Dade and Broward leaders have been fighting a proposal, that is poised to pass this session, that would require the South Florida counties to stop pumping treated sewage into the ocean. The two counties would have until 2025 to upgrade their six water treatment facilities.

''It's good in concept, but who's going to pay for it?'' said Jess McCarty, a Miami-Dade assistant county attorney who monitors legislative issues.

Residents in both counties may actually end up soaking up some of the costs, with an extra $20 tacked on to their water bills, according to a University of Florida study.

For the past seven years the state has passed 471 ''unfunded mandates'' -- bills that require local governments to enact programs, but fail to provide state funds to finance them.

The trend of shifting costs and programs to counties and cites has escalated over the past decade, said Dr. Lance deHaven Smith, a public administration professor at Florida State University. He is conducting a study on the impact of the mandates to local governments.

''To put it in simple terms, you have to keep up with [state mandated road-building programs to keep up with growth], but you don't have to have new playgrounds or libraries,'' deHaven Smith said.

``It's these other programs that start getting squeezed out.''

The Florida Times-Union

April 29, 2008

Crist's extreme parsimony will take a big toll on state

By RON LITTLEPAGE
The Times-Union

A friend suggested a new state slogan: Florida - Welcome to the new Mississippi.
That would be an insult to Mississippi.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature, following a path blazed by Jeb Bush, are positioning Florida in the bottom tier of states when it comes to providing services to the poor, the elderly and children.

Not satisfied that Florida is already a low-tax state, they want taxes to be even lower.

The net result is there isn't enough money to go around.

A shining example of that is the budget deal House and Senate leaders agreed to on Sunday that the Legislature will vote on at the end of this week.

The proposed budget, which will be rubber- stamped, cuts spending for public education by 1.8 percent.

That means the amount of money the state provides for each student will be less than this school year's funding at the same time fixed costs such as health insurance and fuel are rising dramatically.

And that means school districts will have little choice but to lay off teachers and cut programs. Usually the first to go are math, art and physical education.

Here's another state slogan: Florida - Beethoven who?

Another: Florida - Where obesity is the norm.

Sure, the Legislature was dealt a bad budget hand this year. Because of the recession, House Speaker Marco Rubio's assessment of the lousy economy, state revenues are down $5 billion from what legislators thought they would have when they put together last year's budget.

But legislators could have dipped further into the state's rainy day fund to protect education because, folks, it's raining.

Crist and Rubio are pushing a constitutional amendment that will make things even worse.

The amendment is being called a tax swap. If it passes, the property taxes the state requires counties to collect to help pay for schools will be eliminated. To make up for the revenue, a 1 percent increase would be added to the sales tax.

The revenues lost from the property taxes will be about $9 billion. The sales tax increase would bring in about $4 billion.

I'm guessing that even Mississippi students can see that's a problem.

But rest easy, the amendment's supporters say, money to make up the difference will be found.

Where?

Services have already been cut, and Crist and Republican legislators choke at any idea of new taxes.

Those are the same people who promised that public education would be "held harmless" with an earlier round of tax cuts.

Didn't happen. Florida - Home of the gullible.

ron.littlepage@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4284