Brent Batten for the Editorial Board | Naples Daily News
Kudos
Kudos to state champions.
Two local high school sports teams have won state championships, not in the sport in which they compete but arguably in something more important.
The Florida High School Athletic Association recently released its Fall 2019-2020 Academic State Champions. At its meeting Tuesday the Collier County School Board will recognize two local winners.
The Gulf Coast High School football team was at the top of Class 7A with a team grade point average of 3.278.
The Naples High School girls cross country team was best in the state in Class 3A with a cumulative team GPA of 3.930.
Congratulations to both.
Kudos
Kudos to winter.
Not the sort of winter they have up north, with snow, sleet, icy roads, drifted driveways and high heating bills.
Winter Southwest Florida style, as in Winterfest 2020.
Collier County Parks and Recreation for the first time is hosting Winterfest at Sugden Regional Park on Avalon Drive in East Naples.
While it won’t have the artificial snow of past snow festivals at Golden Gate Community Park, the event will have something almost as good – live music.
Headlining the festival is local favorite, The Ben Allen Band.
There will also be food trucks, a beer garden and games.
Winterfest 2020 runs from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The cost is $10 per car or $2 per person.
Kick
A kick to the Florida House of Representatives, which appears poised, again, to take money from the state’s affordable housing trust fund and divert it to other uses.
Over the past 20 years, the Legislature has “swept” more than $2 billion from the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund to pay for other areas of government.
During that time, the state has experienced a shortage of housing for people of low and even moderate income.
That’s especially true in Southwest Florida, where rapid growth has driven up the prices of houses and apartments.
The House Appropriations Committee earlier this week released a draft budget that commits about $150 million from the Sadowski Fund to housing programs but sweeps $240 million for other purposes.
Budget proposals from the Florida Senate and from Gov. Ron DeSantis directed all the Sadowski Fund to housing.
Typically, budget negotiations during the legislative session result in a compromise.
A Senate bill to be heard next week would require that in future years, all the Sadowski money be used for housing programs.
As we’ve written before, if legislators don’t believe an affordable housing trust fund is necessary, they should vote to do away with it. But As long as it exists, it should be used for its intended purpose.
The Sadowski Fund was created in 1992 and raises money via a tax on real estate transactions.
Article last accessed here on February 5, 2020. A print-ready version is available here.