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State budget sends a welcome message

Dozens of physically and emotionally disabled Pasco children received an early Valentine from the state of Florida.

The much-appreciated message inside? We care.

Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed $70.8-billion budget includes $50,000 for the Pasco Association for Challenged Kids' summer camp. It is the same amount Bush vetoed last year, then correctly restored after a blizzard of e-mails from parents who noted the state had funded the program in the past.

The camp is a respite for students with autism, Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy who have no place to go when the school year ends. Without the camp, those children could end up sitting home for the summer, losing social and other skills from the prolonged inactivity.

Bush released his budget Feb. 1 and the office of state Sen. Mike Fasano, one of the camp's biggest boosters, spread the word shortly afterward that the PACK money was included.

The camp, usually four weeks long at the CARES Claude Pepper Senior Center in New Port Richey, uses the state money to pay the overhead and hire 19 staff members to serve 35 kids. Barry and Paula Cohen started PACK nine years ago out of necessity. Their son, Gregory, then 8, had little success in traditional summer camps. With no alternatives, they pitched their idea for a summer camp for severely disabled kids to Fasano. He helped secure state money for the effort each year except 2003, when it fell victim to a budget crunch in Tallahassee. That year businesses and individuals stepped in to keep the camp afloat.

That should no longer be the case. Inclusion of the money in the governor's budget means it will not be scrutinized as pork-barrel spending or as an unreviewed member's pet project.

Bush vetoed the money last year when it showed up for the first time as part of the Department of Juvenile Justice budget. In prior years, the program money was part of the Department of Children and Families spending. Florida TaxWatch fingered the spending as a budget turkey, and Bush concurred, because the appropriation was not included in proposed budgets from an agency or the governor.

After the veto, camp director Barbara Konrad, mother of a 17-year-old autistic son, exchanged e-mails with the governor, asking him to reconsider. Among her sentiments:

"The more I sat down and thought about your response to my letter I thought, I can't believe how insensitive, cold and factual you were with your response. And, I can't believe that you would tell me that you could (not) support programs such as ours when you have supported us many years in the past (this is our 8th year). This is the first year you have not supported us."

Legislators will begin reviewing the governor's budget proposal and craft their own spending plan when the annual legislative session begins next month in Tallahassee. But, for Barb Konrad, Barry and Paula Cohen and about three dozen disabled children, the budget debate is over already and they are the winners.

[Last modified February 14, 2006, 02:45:31]