Sunshine State News | March 11, 2015
Transportation and affordable-housing proponents remain concerned about a Senate proposal that would strip money from transportation and housing trust funds to help meet the requirements of a new land-and-water constitutional amendment.
Meanwhile, the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee heard little objection as it unanimously supported a pair of measures (HB 1291 and HB 1295) that also would revamp trust funds to handle money for the voter-approved initiative known as Amendment 1.
The difference is that unlike the Senate measures (SB 576, SB 578, SB 580, SB 582, SB 584, and SB 586) the 191-page House proposal by Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, wouldn’t cut the amount of real-estate tax dollars that would be shifted from trust funds for housing and transportation.
“We prefer the language that is in the House bill,” said Bryan Cherry, a lobbyist for the Florida Coalition for the Homeless. “The House bill, the way it’s written, holds the housing trust fund harmless.”
The trust fund measures are just one of the approaches lawmakers are taking to carry out Amendment 1, which was supported by 75 percent of voters and sets up a 20-year funding pool for land and water conservation and management.
Both chambers also have advanced separate water policies tied to Amendment 1, which is expected to provide about $757 million for land and water projects in the fiscal year that starts July 1, up from around $470 million in the current budget year.
Neither trust-fund proposal specifies the use of the money, but both would shift percentages of revenue generated annually through real-estate documentary stamp taxes.
Currently, about 20 percent of the approximately $1.6 billion expected to be raised this year in the real-estate taxes goes to environmental purposes.
The House, which follows closer to a proposal by Gov. Rick Scott, would reduce the amount of “doc stamp” revenue that goes directly to general revenue to help carry out Amendment 1.
The Senate approach would require a little more than $100 million from transportation funding that typically comes from the doc stamps and another $100 million from affordable housing.
Jaimie Ross, president of the Florida Housing Coalition, told the Senate General Government Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday that such changes are unnecessary. Housing advocates argue that Amendment 1 can be carried out without reducing the money that goes into the affordable housing trusts, which assist people with disabilities, veterans and working families in need of housing.
Bob Burleson, president of the Florida Transportation Builders Association, said the redirection could hit the state’s 5-year work program by about $1 billion.
“Hopefully you all will look at that and take that into consideration as this bill moves forward,” Burleson told the Senate panel.
Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican who is the author of the Senate trust-fund measures, continued to back his approach.
“That’s a recommendation,” Dean said of Boyd’s House proposal after the Senate committee hearing. “That isn’t here yet. It’s not in statute. Let’s wait to see if it gets to conference (negotiations).”
Asked if he prefers his approach, Dean said, “I didn’t know there was another option.”
Article accessed on March 16 at: http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/transportation-housing-funds-split-senate-house