Ryan Ray
What a tangled web we weave when we practice to achieve (even admirable) public policy goals via constitutional amendment.
That sums up the current state of affairs for presumably millions of Florida voters who support both Amendment 1’s expansion of funding for water and land conservation and affordable housing programs like the Sadowski housing trust fund, says Florida Housing Coalition President Jaimie Ross.
Ross and his group are planning to vehemently oppose state Sen. Charlie Dean‘s SB 586, one of a handful of bills meant to serve as vehicle’s for Amendment 1’s implementation. The Inverness Republican — and chair of the key Environmental Preservation & Conservation Committee — has filed a series of bills including to put all Amendment 1-related funds into one big pot that Senate President Andy Gardiner says will not cut overall funding for such programs.
Ross begs to differ.
“At first blush, Senate Bill 586 appears to do no harm to affordable housing; but, in actuality, the bill will do significant and permanent harm to affordable housing if no changes are made,” said Ross in a statement on Monday.
“For example,” said Ross, “if this legislation passes as is, monies coming into the housing trust funds will drop from $266.87 million to approximately $154.14 million for fiscal year 2015-2016. And, the changes that this bill proposes will be permanent, substantially reducing the doc stamps distributed to the state and local housing trust funds every year, in excess of $100 million per year.”
“The voters of Florida were repeatedly assured by proponents of Amendment 1 that it would not hurt affordable housing,” said Ross. “When 75 percent of Floridians voted for Amendment 1, I don’t think they meant to hurt the Sadowski Act, which provides funding for Florida’s most vulnerable citizens, persons with disabilities, the elderly and veterans.”
Ross, though, is still waxing hopeful regarding the chances of enacting his group’s kind of Amendment 1 implementation bill.
“We hope to work with the Senate to craft a bill that implements Amendment 1 without causing harm to Floridians in need of affordable housing,” he concluded.
The bill will, filed last week, will likely be taken up at least in concept when the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation meets on Wednesday.
