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A Times Editorial
While Gov. Jeb Bush's budget does help the needy to some extent, some needs remain, and those needs will grow.
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 26, 2002
Listening to all the soundbites, it would be easy to conclude that Gov. Jeb Bush and his Democratic critics are on different planets. The governor has spent much time lately boasting of how his new budget builds on the significant investments his administration has made in programs for the needy, while House Democratic Leader Lois Frankel and others have condemned Bush's plan as woefully deficient in meeting even the most basic needs of vulnerable citizens. Which side is right?
They both are.
Florida has indeed made much progress in health and human services, for which Bush deserves much of the credit. Assuming the governor's new budget is adopted, the number of Florida children receiving health care coverage will have nearly doubled by next year; child-welfare funding will have gained its largest increase in state history; and four times as many individuals with developmental disabilities will have received needed services. But that record should not blind us to the needs that remain. Those needs will only grow -- across a number of social-welfare areas -- should Bush's plan, as is, become law.
Advocates are quick to applaud Bush for proposing to expand several health care initiatives, including the "Closing the Gap" project that seeks to address racial disparities in health outcomes such as infant mortality. But the Bush plan weakens more than it strengthens the safety net for poor and sick Floridians.
While his budget would extend for another year the Medically Needy program that helps keep low-income families with large medical bills from falling into poverty, Bush would drastically reduce the availability and benefits of that program -- as well as eliminate almost entirely the program poor seniors rely upon for hearing aids, eyeglasses and dentures.
For child protection, Bush would give Florida's child-welfare agency an extra $12-million with one hand, while abolishing almost 250 positions with the other. Even with the new dollars, the Department of Children and Families would receive less money than it got last spring, despite the increase in reported cases of abuse. Healthy Families Florida -- the state's major child-abuse prevention program that Bush helped launch -- would get no new money, even though it is able to meet less than one-third of the need and faces the real prospect of having to cut off 2,000 families now being served by early, and since exhausted, lapse funds.
Bush's budget would put little more than 1-million extra dollars into the services that can keep Florida's elders out of nursing homes. Several recent studies have castigated Florida for not doing more to expand and fund these less expensive, and preferable, home and community-based options.
When it comes to juvenile-delinquency prevention, Bush's proposals generally add to the damage done to programs during the recent emergency special session. CINS/FINS -- the program that houses and counsels chronic truants and runaways -- would suffer another $1.3-million cut, on top of the $4-million reduction assessed in December.
Bush conceded last week that his plan could be described as a "continuation budget." On that, both sides can agree. The plan continues Florida's failures as well as its successes.