Juvenile Assessment Center Funding

• Effective July 1, 2008, the Department of Juvenile Justice reduced its funding of Sarasota County’s Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) by 44 percent. As a result, the JAC operated by Coastal Behavioral Healthcare reduced its hours of operation by 48 hours each week.

• During the 2008 session, the Legislature moved all JAC funding from recurring to non-recurring funds. Therefore, it is a grave concern that the State may remove all funding for the JAC's in the next budget year.

• Without the Sarasota JAC, juveniles will have to be transported to the Manatee Regional Detention Center in Bradenton which can easily take law enforcement officers off the street for hours.

• Without a local JAC, there will be no psychosocial assessments and referrals to treatment, thus no opportunity to divert youth from the juvenile justice system.

• FAC has adopted a policy statement for 2009 that supports “uniform state funding of JAC Centers throughout Florida to strive to achieve equal treatment of youth offenders.

Increase or Maintain Funding for Key Services Targeting Older Adults, Particularly Frail Older Adults

• Support increasing or maintaining key State-funded targeted services for older adults, including Community Care for the Elderly (CCE) and Home Care for the Elderly (HCE).

• During the last legislative session, CCE funding was reduced 5 percent despite the increasing needs of a growing aging population.

• Preventing institutionalization of frail older adults is more cost-effective than allowing for institutionalization.

• FAC has adopted a policy statement for 2009 that supports restoration and expansion of state funding for the CCE program.

Protect Existing and Increase Older Adult Transportation Funding, Particularly for Low-Income Older Adults

• Support safeguarding and increasing the Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) Trust Fund, particularly TD funding serving the aging population, while not permitting funding diversions from the TD Trust Fund for non-TD purposes.

• Support limiting the use of TD Trust Fund dollars to trips for the transportation disadvantaged and related necessary costs.

• Support increasing TD Trust Fund funding specifically for older adults, possibly from revenues outside the traditional source pursuant to Sec. 320.03 (9), FS;

• Support extending the Charter County Transit System 1 cent Surtax for use by all counties by a super majority vote of the County Commission and broadening the purposes for which it can be spent.

• An increase in funding for older adult transportation needs will permit many older adults to remain independent for a longer time. This would decrease the institutionalization rate within Sarasota County. This is a State Appropriation request for the Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged.

• FAC adopted a policy statement for 2009 which supports “appropriate and dedicated state funding to counties for the TD program based upon data from actual ridership without shifting the responsibilities of these funding services to local governments”.

Revise F.S. Section 617.0802, “Qualifications of Directors” for Non-Profit Agencies

• Amend Section 617.0802, Florida Statutes “Qualifications of Directors”, to allow youth ages 15-18 to legally serve as members of governing boards for non-profit organizations that are exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

• Currently, youth who have completed the STAR Leadership Training are able to serve in an ex-officio capacity on local non-profit boards. This legislation would encourage additional organizations to add positions for youth, furthering the opportunities for youth to develop connections to their community and advance their civic knowledge and skills.

• Sarasota County has invested 13 years and millions of dollars in supporting the idea of civically engaging youth in our community. Amending the statute to broaden these opportunities seems to be a natural step.

Additional Housing for Low-income Retirees

• Support additional funding for housing for low-income older adult retirees, possibly from revenue sources outside the traditional sources, which include:

1. funding pursuant to Sec. 201.15 (9), FS.

2. funding pursuant to Section 202, HUD;

3. funding pursuant to Section 515, HUD; and

4. support removing the cap on the Sadowski Trust Fund and allocating the full amount of dedicated documentary tax revenues for state and local affordable housing programs.

• Additional low-income older adults would be able to age in place and not be forced into institutions prematurely. Ultimately, this would likely decrease the institutionalization rate within Sarasota County and lower the County’s Medicaid expenditures for nursing homes.

Promote the Ability of the Physically Challenged to Socialize and to “Age in Place”

• Support funding a study to determine a method to enhance the State of Florida Building Code with visitability and universal design attributes, that would:

1. be cost effective;

2. permit additional socialization of physically challenged individuals; and,

3. allow for household members to “age in place.”

• Ultimately, if certain changes to the State building code are made, this would be likely to decrease the institutionalization rate within Sarasota County and all other counties.

• Preventing institutionalization of frail older adults is more cost-effective than allowing for institutionalization. Both the State and the County portion of the Medicaid costs may be reduced significantly.

Proposal to Add $1 Per Pack Tax to Cigarettes

• Support the addition of a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes to generate funding to combat tobacco-related medical issues. An amendment to Sec. 210.02, FS, would be necessary.

• The legislation is estimated to reduce smoking 11 percent in its first year.

• The legislation would generate over $1 billion dollars in new funding for public health or other, as-yet-undefined, purposes.

• FAC has adopted a policy statement for 2009 that “supports legislation that will increase the state’s cigarette tax per pack, bringing Florida to the national average” and “support earmarking the resulting revenue specifically for health care services”.

Potential of Cuts to Human Services

• Look at revenues from internet sales tax and out of state loop holes for large corporations to increase sales tax revenue instead of additional cuts in state-funded human services at a time when service needs are rising.

• The YMCA recently received another 3 percent hold back for remainder of this fiscal year for child welfare. This brings the total to over $1 million for this current year. Any additional funding reductions will have to be in direct service delivery

• Affects all local non-profit agencies which receive state contracts for human services.

Nonrecurring Funding for Mothers and Infants Program

• Restore the 2008 budget cut and fund the Mothers and Infants Program with recurring funds.

• Ninety percent of the women are referred to the program by the Courts as an alternative to jail for crimes related to their addictions. Since 1995, more than 215 babies have been delivered substance free, saving an estimated $6 million in tax-payer dollars for uninsured neo-natal care.

• The Mothers and Infants program is the only program of its kind in Sarasota County. The program positively impacts infant mortality, low birth weight, pre-natal care and the child welfare system. It ensures the mothers begin living a life of recovery, finish their education, locate adequate child care and housing, find jobs and, eventually, complete a smooth transition back to the community. The benefits of a strong, well-funded Mothers and Infants program ripple across Sarasota County. It lessens the burden on other public and private agencies that provide human services, healthcare and education. While all of these are critical, the real measure of its importance to the community can be found in the healthy lives of the babies served.

Nonrecurring Funding for FETC and Compass Center

• Secure funding for Sarasota County member projects that was moved into nonrecurring status this year. Move funding into recurring status in DCF base budget.

• $1.5 million in mental health and substance abuse services funded by the Florida Legislature for more than six years are at risk of not being funded at all next year due to their budget status as "nonrecurring dollars". These services touch more than 1,100 families a year served through Coastal Behavioral Healthcare.

• The cuts disproportionately affect Sarasota County, representing a 60 percent cut in children's substance abuse and a 55 percent overall.

   Programs which will be eliminated:

• Compass Center: $1,062,000 annually

– Residential Treatment for adolescents with mental health and substance abuse issues
– 45 clients annually / six month program
– This program provides life saving treatment to adolescents; if this program is eliminated, it would lead to increased truancy and arrests of juveniles for increasingly serious  offenses.

• Family Emergency Treatment Center: $500,000 annually

– Walk-in clinic provides immediate counseling and referral services to individuals who are experiencing a mental health or substance abuse emergency
– 1,021 clients annually
– If this program is eliminated there will be an increased demand on an already overstressed and overburdened emergency room system, criminal justice system and unnecessary hospitalizations will increase at a higher cost to the community.

Expansion of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Program

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the leading cause of mental retardation in the western world and is 100% preventable. The comprehensive lifetime cost of just one baby with FAS could be as much as $4 million. The cost to American taxpayers for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is estimated to be $5 million a day.

• Sarasota County is second only to Pinellas County in Florida in the number of substance exposed newborns in the Suncoast Region. This places a high number of young children in Sarasota County at high risk for developmental and behavioral disorders.

• Funding ($750,000) is requested in FY 09/10 to build upon the FASD initiative started in FY 05-06. Additional funds will be used to support development of a FASD clinic in Miami and one additional clinic site in Tallahassee. In addition, these funds would expand intervention services for children in Sarasota County and the Florida Center for Child and Family Development’s Diagnostic/Intervention Center in Sarasota will serve as a training site for the other core teams at the new centers.

• A portion of this funding ($225,000) would expand outreach services to pregnant women through First Step of Sarasota, support residential treatment for pregnant women who are abusing substances in the Mothers and Infants Program, and provide after-care services for women discharged from the Mothers and Infants or Transitional Living Programs. These are high risk infants and mothers that require immediate and continuous comprehensive, coordinated services.