Guest Author
If there were a Hall of Fame for Florida lobbyists, one sure way to get into it would be to push through legislation creating a trust fund for the special interest you represent.
More than half the money spent by the state comes from state and federal trust funds — essentially earmarked for a particular use.
Lobbyists who wander the halls of the Capitol seeking money or power for their clients score big when they can secure a guaranteed annual payment.
In Florida’s $89 billion budget for the coming year, $25 billion in state money is in hundreds of trust funds. The legislature swept $380 million into the general fund to spend on what it considered higher priorities.
Typically trust funds are funded by a particular tax or fee and all the money those sources produce is available for spending, regardless of actual need.
The prime example is land acquisition. Billions of dollars are dedicated to buying millions of acres of land with no endpoint, removing that land from the tax rolls and precluding local governments from having money available for the needs of their constituents.
But every trust fund created reduces the options legislators have in striving to write a balanced budget.
They do have, and use, the option of moving money from a trust fund into the general fund so that it can be used for other purposes, but it is done in the general appropriations bill. In the “back of the budget” pages, they list the amounts and trust funds they will come from but do not specify where the money is going to be used.
The 2017 Legislature created a working group to study affordable housing and it recommended not taking money from the fund. The 2018 Legislature took $182 million, appropriating only $124 million for affordable housing.
This year, they took a few more dollars from the affordable housing trust fund, causing the tax-and-spend crowd considerable heartburn.
Leaving aside the argument of whether the taxpayers should be subsidizing someone’s home, the way it is done is questionable. It would be better if the trust fund “sweeps,” as they are called, were handled in separate bills so each could be voted upon based its merits. This actually has been recommended by Florida TaxWatch.
TaxWatch also said the Legislature should refrain from raiding the affordable housing trust fund. Legislation was introduced this year to put it off limits, but it did not pass. Sweeps of schools, highway funds and state pensions already are banned.
Gov. Jeb Bush tried to help correct the trust fund situation. His administration’s budget office had a group that looked at the various funds and tried through the Legislature to downsize those that were not justified. It actually made some progress, but little has been done since then, to my knowledge.
Maybe it is time for another effort.
The Legislature should have a review of the funds, pruning those not really deserving, and in the future take from those remaining by a separate bill that would have the same review as other bills, including an impact statement.
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Lloyd Brown, a former reporter, columnist and editor, is retired but still writing occasionally for eyeonjacksonville.com, American Thinker and other publications.
