State: Governor pares youth groups from budget

Pope's group lost $200,000 last week when Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed the money state lawmakers earmarked for the club's operations. And Boys and Girls clubs in Hernando and Pasco counties won't get the $95,000 and $100,000, respectively, that legislators set aside for them.

Bush vetoed about $35-million in community social service and juvenile justice programs such as group homes, help for the homeless, and prenatal care clinics that the Republican-led Legislature voted to fund.

In all, the Republican governor vetoed $290-million in lawmakers' projects.

A Bush spokeswoman said Bush would not comment beyond the explanations he gave in his lengthy veto message last week. That's where Bush noted how much spending in some of those areas has increased since he moved into the governor's mansion three years ago -- including a 36-percent increase in health and human services spending.

Bush said he vetoed social service projects if the requested money was for buildings the state didn't own, if the project should be funded by someone else or if the program's mission was not a core function of a state agency.

For juvenile intervention programs, Bush wrote out a separate list of criteria for funding, including evidence that the programs served kids with significant problems at home or school.

Pope said Bush's criteria essentially excluded those groups that try to reach kids before they get into serious trouble.

"Rather than prevent, he wants to fix it," Pope said.

Jack Levine, president of the children's advocacy group Center for Florida's Children, agreed that vetoing funds for kids' clubs is a mistake.

"When you take out a Boys and Girls Club, when you take out a child advocacy center, you are making believe that we don't need these services; and that is blatantly untrue," Levine said.

Levine called kids' clubs and advocacy centers the weakest link in the political chain, often without the clout to get their money included in the budget.

"Local service programs are at the bottom of the power food chain," Levine said.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Rossin, D-Royal Palm Beach, criticized Bush for vetoing money for youth programs while pushing through a tax cut. A number of those cuts were in Rossin's home county of Palm Beach.

"These social service cuts have to concern people," Rossin said.

"It's not leadership in any sense of the word," he added.

Pasco Boys and Girls Club executive director Susan Stackpole-Kelley said the loss was disappointing but not unexpected and is not devastating.

The $100,000 the club received last year was considered at the time to be a one-shot deal, she said. Now it's up to the community to step up and support the program, she said.

The east Pasco club serves about 100 disadvantaged youths in Lacoochee, even offering free breakfasts and lunches for children, she said.

Stackpole-Kelley said she is seeking grants from national and state foundations, grants and individual donors.

"I looked at it like a door closed, but a window will open," she said.

-- Staff writer Chase Squires and researcher Deirdre Morrow contributed to this report.

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk