By Brent Batten  |  Naples Daily News

In 1992, the Florida Legislature, recognizing the need for dedicated funding to support the creation of affordable housing, increased the documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions and decreed that money should go into a trust fund for that purpose.

Ah, those were the days.

Since then, it has been common practice for the Legislature to hijack some of the money from the trust fund for general government use.

It’s not the only instance of the Legislature “sweeping” money from a state trust fund for purposes other than the one the trust fund is dedicated to, but under current conditions, it’s the most egregious.

Rapid growth and a market demand for high-end homes leaves those on the lower end of the economic scale — and even those in the middle — struggling to find places to live that they can afford.

According to the Sadowski Coalition, a collection of more than 30 groups involved in housing and real estate committed to seeing the trust fund used properly, more than 900,000 low-income Floridians pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. Ideally, the figure would be about 30 percent of income.

The problem is worse in Southwest Florida, where local governments are scrambling to come up with ways to encourage the development of housing within reach of people making modest to moderate incomes.

This year, for the second year in a row, Gov. Ron DeSantis is imploring legislators not to raid the trust fund to cover gaps in the state budget.

We applaud his effort, confident that the Sadowski Trust Fund, if left intact, could be a valuable tool in meeting this region’s affordable housing needs.

The dedicated taxes will generate an estimated $387 million this year. Of the $325 million generated last year, about $200 million went to affordable housing and $125 million went to other things. Over two decades, about $2.3 billion has been swept from the fund.

Local government housing programs get 70 percent of the unswept trust-fund revenue. Thirty percent goes to the state programs like the State Apartment Incentive Loan program.

The money can be used to leverage private-sector loans and equity and create jobs in the housing sector.

We have no doubt the state Legislature has plenty of things it can spend money on.

But trust funds are created for a reason: A need has been identified and a source of money has been provided. If the Legislature believes that was done in error or that the need no longer exists, it can vote to do away with the trust fund.

As long as the fund exists, it should be used as intended. We find almost amusing one legislator’s explanation that not sweeping the trust fund would be “irresponsible.”

Some of the same politicians who vote to take money from the affordable housing trust fund for general use will probably be among those boasting about reducing taxes next election season.

Last year, DeSantis approved a state budget that included sweeps from the affordable housing trust fund.

We encourage him to make clear he won’t do it again.

The practice of sweeping money supposedly dedicated to one purpose to fund something entirely different must stop.

Article last accessed on January 6, 2020 here. A print-ready version is available here.