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Tax ax would rip child safety net

Pinellas' Juvenile Welfare Board fears it will lose $19-million and need to cut more than 50 nonprofits.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published June 10, 2007

Ten-year-old Sir Richard Evans of St. Petersburg plays his best hand Wednesday while attending a summer camp for children with visual disabilities at the Lighthouse of Pinellas in Pinellas Park. At The Juvenile Welfare Board one of Floridas 11 special districts received 64 million last year which it used to fund programs for children.
	[Douglas R. Clifford Times]

If the Legislature opts for the biggest property tax rollback proposed so far, cities and counties wouldn't be the only ones hit, child welfare advocates say.

In Pinellas County, officials say programs for about 19, 000 needy children would face deep cuts.

Neighborhood family centers in poor areas would be threatened. Mental health services for children would be jeopardized.

That's because the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County could lose a third of its current budget of $62-million if property values were rolled back to 2001 levels, as some lawmakers propose.

The board was created by Pinellas voters in 1946 to support programs that benefit needy children. More than 93 percent of its budget comes from property taxes.

In response to a tax rollback, officials say, the board would have to cut funding to more than 50 nonprofit organizations in a worst-case scenario.

"It's going to take away the safety net for a lot of people, " said Dianne Clarke, chief operating officer at Operation PAR. "It puts families a lot closer to not being able to make it."

Operation PAR could lose 65 employees who help provide drug counseling and other programs to 30, 000 people, including children.

In setting priorities if cuts are made, Juvenile Welfare Board executive director Gay Lancaster said her agency chose to continue supporting child care, programs for middle-schoolers, programs that target child maltreatment and a few other "safety net programs" such as services to homeless children.

Of lesser priority are programs that are not as necessary to keep children safe or to help at-risk students.

Programs that could be cut include "neighborhood family centers" in poor neighborhoods such as Lealman and Campbell Park.

Mental health services would be gone, Lancaster said. Behavioral evaluations of juveniles charged with crimes at the courthouse would not be done.

The Juvenile Welfare Board staff consists of 60 positions, five of which are vacant and have been frozen. The board has added just one staff member in the past decade.

"The majority of our money ... is our services to children and families, " said Lisa Sahulka, the Juvenile Welfare Board's director of programs and finance. "That is the only place that we can cut."

Eye on special session

For now, board staffers don't know yet how much of a cut to expect. Nobody does.

With this week's special session on tax reform in Tallahassee looming, legislators have cities, counties and special taxing districts in the dark on the specifics of plans.

In recent days, the Senate president and House speaker have generally agreed to a broad framework for tax relief. It would include a rollback of local tax rates benefiting all property owners and a longer-term plan to ask voters in 2008 to create a super homestead exemption in lieu of the Save Our Homes 3 percent cap on assessments for homesteaded properties.

But child welfare officials worry that their programs could be newly vulnerable during this week's special session.

That's because city and county governments were the primary targets for property tax revenue reductions during this spring's regular legislative session. Special taxing districts such as hospital and fire districts also faced cuts on and off during the regular session.

But the Juvenile Welfare Board and 12 other "children's service councils" statewide had been exempt - at least in the proposal by the House. Collectively, the special taxing districts that support the councils raised about $500-million in property taxes last year.

But in the special session, the children's service councils are also subject to cuts.

To prepare, the Juvenile Welfare Board has calculated its potential cutbacks based on the harshest proposal so far mentioned - a rollback of property values to 2001 levels, which was promoted by the House in the regular session.

Under that scenario, the board would take in $19-million less in property tax revenues. That would force it to cut a third of the nonprofits from its portfolio.

"This is a very difficult thing that the Juvenile Welfare Board is having to go through, " said Dan Mann, president and chief executive officer of Lighthouse of Pinellas in Largo, whose funding for programs for blind children would be cut. "They know they are affecting lives."

Rolling back property tax assessments to 2003 or 2005 levels, both of which have been discussed, would leave local officials more money.

Also, a letter circulated by Senate president Ken Pruitt says reductions for special districts are still under discussion.

"They did say on Monday there would be special treatment for special districts, " said Kriss Vallesse, communications director for the Florida Children Services Council. The cuts "may not be as severe or as deep."

Just 3 percent

Of all the property taxes levied by various taxing entities in Pinellas, the Juvenile Welfare Board's budget accounts for only 3 percent of the total raised, Lancaster said.

"Our contention has always been that voters in 1946 saw the wisdom of instituting the Juvenile Welfare Board, " Lancaster said. "We're not quite sure why that should be tinkered with."

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or 445-4224.

[Last modified June 9, 2007, 20:56:28]