Fiona McFarland wants politics out of child welfare and transparency introduced to AI

Rep. Fiona McFarland wants proper funding around child protection and an easier ability to identify artificial intelligence-created content. As she starts a third term in the House, the Sarasota Republican will tackle those topics and improvements to transportation policy.

Now a mother of four, she has already filed legislation that could streamline the process for opening child care centers. But she also has had her eyes for years on improvements to a formula on disbursing funding for community-based care (CBC) providers working with the state.

Right now, the very way the Legislature actually funds work shows a tacit acknowledgment that the current numbers don’t work.

“There’s a formula in statute. It’s algebraic, based on calls to the hotline and things like that, and it’s just baked into statute, but we haven’t used it for five years” she said.

“Between DCF (Department of Children and Families) and the Legislature, we’ve sort of negotiated on the back of the bill the distribution of funding for the state’s 14 CBCs. That means if you are connected to the Senate President or Speaker of the House, you have a good funding year. That’s how we do a lot of funding, but it’s tough when it’s child welfare. There’s nothing political about taking care of kids, and I take issue with that funding allocation becoming political.”

She wants a working formula, and one that’s crafted around modern demands. The state established its existing formula in 2011, and while it has been updated over time, McFarland said it’s overdue for a cost-of-living adjustment. It also grants special weight to the number of calls a region sees to a child abuse hotline. But in an internet age, “there are very few calls to a ‘1-800’ number anymore,” she said.

It’s time, according to McFarland, to consider the true cost drivers in areas around the state and bring the appropriations into line.

Committee assignments signal other topics that will shape McFarland’s third legislative term. She will chair the Student Academic Success Subcommittee and will serve on the Education & Employment Committee, Security & Threat Assessment Committee, Ways & Means Committee, Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee, Information Technology Budget & Policy Subcommittee and PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee.

McFarland praised Speaker Daniel Perez’s decision to put IT budget and policy work in the same subcommittee. The committee assignments show she will see a lot of technology issues come before her this Session, and she brings her own interest in how Florida regulates the use of artificial intelligence.

Representing a district rich with visual arts — and home to the Ringling College of Art & Design — she has heard a great deal of concern about computer-generated content. But she knows some of the work will be difficult to tackle at the state government level.

“I want to increase transparency for Floridians so they know when they are seeing an AI-generated image or video, or they hear a voice or a song that is AI-generated,” she said.

“As I talk to people, AI is so big and there are so many different assets. All the states are taking on and identifying the fears and problems with AI. What I am hearing from other lawmakers and residents, their biggest fear is being misled. Whether it’s on social media or something in the news or in campaigns, they fear just being misled by an image or video that looks really convincing and it’s not real.”

McFarland also will bring district concerns and appropriations requests, but she also wants to see systemic improvements to planning the state’s roadway improvements.

“I’m talking about improving how we plan for transportation projects that actually matter to constituents and start to move bureaucracy and red tape in the construction phase,” she said.

Like many lawmakers, McFarland frequently hears complaints about cones shutting down lanes of traffic for road construction when seemingly little activity occurs and projects slowly come to fruition. She wants to see efficiencies there. But she also wants to look at the quality controls on projects. She still wants local transportation entities like Metropolitan Planning Organizations setting priorities, but there needs to be some more thoughtful evaluation of the broader transportation network.

“Across the state, you encounter things like a two-lane major road that stops at the county line and turns into a windy, one-lane road with a bike path,” she said. “That will score well in our planning process but residents recognize it makes no frickin’ sense.”

She also wants to evaluate claims processes in the state, including reevaluating the sovereign immunity caps on local governments when actions result in major hardship for citizens wronged by some level of malpractice. State law limits the damages payable to an individual from claims against local governments at $200,000, or in some agreed settlements $300,000. Any damages higher than that can only be handled through action by the Legislature, and the interest in those cases varies year to year.

McFarland said the Legislature hasn’t evaluated the caps since 2010, and it’s time for an update. She knows that could mean an increase in costs for local governments throughout Florida.

“From my point of view as a legislator, claims by definition are always a terrible case,” she said. “They have to be for people to be willing to go through a multiyear process and to get a lawyer and a lobbyist to bring a claims bill. We have got to do more to keep government accountable in cases of negligence at the local level.”