By: The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board | Orlando Sentinel
There’s no better time than the state’s annual lawmaking session to see Florida’s rigged economy at work.
On Thursday, the state House of Representatives unanimously approved a budget that skims some $240 million from a pot of money — the Sadowski fund — that’s supposed to be used for affordable housing.
The fund is intended to help people who can’t afford a decent place to live, like some of the workers featured in the Orlando Sentinel’s “Laborland” series late last year. They work hard and keep Central Florida’s tourism economy chugging along, but that doesn’t guarantee a roof over their heads. Not in this state’s rigged economy, at least.
Florida’s financial situation must be on shaky ground if lawmakers feel like they need to rob so much money from a fund intended to help people find homes.
State finances are not on shaky ground. They’re fine. So fine that the House is considering a package of tax breaks and other changes worth $150 million. So fine that the House budget sets aside $650 million to increase teacher salaries and money toward $1,800 salary bumps for many state employees.
We have no beef with more money for teachers and state employees. We’re glad House leaders are doing that. If they were dolphins we’d toss them fishes.
But our state — particularly Central Florida — is in a housing crisis. Not a hyperbolic crisis, either. It’s real. Our region is one of the worst in the nation when it comes to available affordable housing. Entire families live clustered in hotel rooms, so vividly illustrated in the film “The Florida Project.”
But in the Florida House of Representatives that’s not a crisis. More like an inconvenience, or an annoyance. Or nothing at all.
Over in the Senate, where leaders seem to have a measure of compassion for those who struggle, the Sadowski fund is kept whole, with $387 million going to affordable housing programs.
Gov. Ron DeSantis also has declared his intention to see the housing fund remain untouched. Of course, that’s what he said he wanted last year, but $125 million was swept away in the final budget.
And once again in 2020, the Sadowski fund is poised to be just another bargaining chip in their budget game.
This is the year for the Senate and the governor to stand firm in their negotiations with the House. The Sadowski housing fund needs to be off the table. Find something else to barter with. Something that doesn’t deprive this state’s working poor of a place to live.
The governor, in particular, needs to put his foot down. If he lets a House sweep stand again, we can be pretty sure he was never serious about this.
Keeping the housing fund intact would end a 12-year-long string of legislative budget sweeps that have cost the fund some $2 billion, money that might have been used to keep working families from living in hotel rooms. To give them some dignity.
And while the Legislature is at it, Sen. Debbie Mayfield’s bill to protect the housing from these yearly sweeps also needs to be approved.
The Space Coast Republican’s bill adds the housing fund — which gets its money from a small tax on real estate transactions in Florida — to a list of other trust funds that are protected from gratuitous sweeps by the Legislature.
The “trust” in trust fund should mean something.
We write some version of this editorial nearly every year. So do other editorial boards across the state. And every year the Legislature grabs millions that are intended to simply help people get shelter.
Good heavens, lawmakers, is it really so hard to muster some compassion for your fellow, less fortunate Floridians?
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com.
Article last accessed on January 17, 2020 here. A print-ready version is available here.