2018 State Legislative Agenda: Summary of State and Local Priorities and Outcomes
EDUCATION:
Consensus Agenda Priority: Florida’s United Ways urged the Florida Legislature to support opportunities to improve access to quality early learning and accountability measures for School Readiness, Voluntary Prekindergarten and Kindergarten readiness, and family support services such as Help Me Grow.
UWMD Priority: UWMD urged the Florida Legislature to support three Miami-Dade County Public Schools legislative priorities: increase the Base Student Allocation (BSA) by 5%: ensure that any changes to the District Cost Differential (DCD) take into account local cost-of-living differences; and authorize school districts to allocate Title I funds, in accordance with federal law.
Outcomes:
Early Learning policy: HB 1091 (Grall, R-Vero Beach) PASSED on a nearly unanimous vote, requires the Florida Office of Early Learning (OEL) to adopt program quality and accountability measures for School Readiness providers, and to identify an observation-based child outcome measure. Florida’s United Ways have sent a letter to Governor Scott urging him to sign the bill into law.
Early Learning budget: The 2018-19 Early Learning budget includes $22 million increase for the School Readiness program; $15.5 million to maintain School Readiness Performance Funding; $10 million to restore TEACH program funding to previous level; $382,000 increase for Help Me Grow; and $1.6 million increase in VPK funding to cover additional enrollment but with no increase in the VPK Base Student Allocation.
UWMD: BSA: The K-12 BSA increased by $101/student (a 1% increase, to $7,408/student) but almost all of this increase has been allocated to designated categories including safe schools and mental health services, leaving only .47 per student of that increase is available for operating costs; DCD: HB 495 (Diaz, R-Hialeah Gardens) PASSED, requires an independent study of the District Cost Differential allocation formula; and Title 1: HB 7055 (the Education “train” bill) and HB 495 both PASSED and include provisions to restore some but not all of the school districts’ authority to allocate Title 1 funds.
HEALTH:
Consensus Agenda Priority: Florida’s United Ways urged the Florida Legislature to ensure that changes to our healthcare laws improve on existing healthcare coverage for Florida’s families, support legislation to expand access to dental care for children and maximize funding for home and community-based services for older adults.
UWMD Priority: UWMD urged the Florida Legislature to ensure that Miami-Dade County receives its fair share of funds to provide access to health care for the county’s uninsured residents.
Outcomes:
Consensus Agenda: Direct Primary Care HB 37 PASSED, which could increase access for some to low-cost primary care (but does not replace health insurance coverage); KidCare enrollment and program administration bill (HB 293-Duran/SB 108-Campbell) FAILED.
Budget: Small increases ($1.3 million) to Home and Community Care for the Elderly and to the Alzheimer’s programs; Healthy Start program flat-funded (avoiding a proposed cut of $20M); Healthy Families and Early Steps programs also maintained flat funding with no cuts; Florida Healthy Kids and Healthy Kids Dental services budgets increased (and Healthy Kids agreed to pay the premiums in arrears of children whose families were impacted by Hurricane Irma).
UWMD: Medicaid payment rates to safety net hospitals were preserved, averting almost $60M in cuts to Jackson Memorial. However, the Low Income Pool (“LIP”) funds available to hospitals and clinics to care for low-income, uninsured patients will be less than half of the potential amount due to reduced “intergovernmental transfers” that are required to draw down the federal Medicaid matching funds.
FINANCIAL STABILITY:
Consensus Agenda Priority: Florida’s United Ways urged the Florida Legislature to invest $1.2 million in state funding to expand the capacity of tax preparation assistance programs statewide.
UWMD Priority: UWMD urged the Florida Legislature not to sweep the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust (keep the state & local housing trust fund monies in Florida’s housing programs).
Outcomes:
Consensus Agenda: Our Florida United Way Financial Stability $1.2 million budget request, to expand the capacity of tax preparation assistance and financial education programs statewide, was not included in the final 2018-19 budget (despite successful program outcomes, including a significant increase in Florida families filing for EITC and child tax credits in 2016).
UWMD: The Sadowski Trust Fund was swept, leaving $109M for affordable housing out of more than $300M in the Trust Fund.