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For years, it was trendy to kick around one of Hillsborough County's better government programs, the indigent health care plan. Many conservatives tried to characterize the plan as tax-and-spend liberalism gone amok, but in reality this program giving the poor access to preventive medicine saves tax money in the long run.
The Legislature put the program on a sounder footing this year by removing the tax's expiration date. Monday, the governor signed the bill into law. Program managers can now plan strategically from year to year, providers won't have to worry whether payments are coming and patients who otherwise couldn't afford medical care can count on receiving services.
The audits required under the new budget plan should help ensure that the half-penny sales tax is responsibly spent. Those behind this effort deserve credit for stabilizing the program, and for removing it from a political arena that did no one any good.