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From Florida Lobby Associates
Lester Abberger, FAPA Legislative Representative

With less than 45 days before the 2004 Legislative Session, lawmakers are currently meeting in Tallahassee on a roughly bi-weekly basis.  Hundreds of bills have been filed to date, the Governor has released his proposed budget this week, and committee meetings are in full swing. During this time of year, issues and budget priorities begin to take shape, formulated by legislative delegations, the Governor, organizations, and citizens alike.  Below are some of the major issues and trends that will likely dictate the debate in Tallahassee for 2004.

Budge Issues
Last year, a special session was needed in order to complete the current year budget in what was an unusually tight budget year for the state of Florida.  Since then the economy has shown signs of strengthening and tourists have returned to Florida in pre 9-11 numbers.  State experts even believe that the legislators will have more revenue than was believed to be available when the Governor crafted the budget that was released last week.

However, with an ever increasing population and a heavy reliance on sales tax revenue, lawmakers continue to find themselves with less and less general revenue to fund ever increasing demands for state services.  Education and Medicaid expenses combined continue to account for over half the state's entire $55.4 billion proposed FY 2004-05 budget.  In addition, ballot initiatives such as High Speed Rail, Universal Pre K, and Classroom Size Reductions will place further budget demands on Florida in the upcoming years.  Governor Bush said, "This year, we stand in the eye of the hurricane", referring to the relative calm of this year's budget forecast before the storm of future years where more trust fund raids and creative financing of programs will be likely.  Highlights from Governor Bush's Proposed 2004-05 Budget are as follows:

Education
$15.9 billion for K-12 public schools
$9.6 million for Universal Pre-K
$79,841,500 or $2369.18 per student for FRAG (No Increase)

Human Services
$13.8 billion in Medicaid funding ($1.1 billion increase)
$12.1 million increase for nursing home diversion care
$3.2 billion for KidCare funding
$16 million for Tobacco Prevention
$2 million for Regional Planning Councils

Article V Revision 7 Funding
$223 million for Revision 7 funding, transferring costs of court system from local government to state government. However, cost shifts to local governments totaling near $200 million are included in the proposed budget. Requiring counties to cost share pre-trial juvenile detention at $68.6 million is one example.

Natural Resources
$100 million in General Revenue for Everglades Funding
$300 million for the Florida Forever Program
$15 million for hydrogen fuel cell seed money
$18 million for construction of wastewater systems in the Florida Keys
$178 million in storm and wastewater projects
$22.5 million for Beach Re-nourishment Projects

Cultural and Historical Projects
$2.5 million for Historical and Museum Grants
$8.5 million for Cultural Grants

Transportation
$5.8 billion for work plan
$225 million increase in Intrastate Capacity Projects
$25 million for Rural Incentive Program
$0 Transportation Outreach Program TOPs

Prominent Reductions in Proposed Budget
$166 million in Affordable Housing Trust Fund Doc Stamps Growth
$100 million in the Transportation Trust Fund
$477 million being re-allocated to other priorities from reductions in Juvenile Justice, Corrections and FDLE personnel and other efficiencies
$1.6 billion in non-recurring funds being used to fund recurring items
Proposes holding semi-annual Medicaid reimbursement increases to institutions and providers at same level for one year.

You may view and search The Governor's budget recommendations at http://www.ebudget.state.fl.us/. 

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Governor loosens state's purse strings:
Do-it-all plan calls for tax cuts, increased spending, but democrats criticize social services shortfall
By Marc Caputo, The Miami Herald, January 21, 2004
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7758887.htm

State set for big tax increase: 
Automatic rise will impact businesses
By John Kennedy, Orlando Sentinel, January 26, 2004
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-asectax26012604jan26,1,5640737.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state
NOTE:  If this link does not open, copy and paste it into your browser.

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Our keynote speaker this year is David Callies, FAICP, the Benjamin A. Kudo Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Professor Callies teaches land use, local government, and property law. He is also one of the authors of the American Planning Association's policy on the relationship between the ballot box and planning.

For further information and registration forms, go to http://www.floridaplanning.org/events/04_legislative_workshop.asp.

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Dear TRU$T Coalition Partner-  As you know, on Tuesday Governor Bush released his proposed FY '04-05 budget.  While FDOT and the Governor's office will understandably want to talk about how this budget increases money for transportation, you need to also know that it contains a one year "raid" on the Transportation Trust Fund of $100 million! 

Given the fact that last year the proposal was for $200 million to be diverted for five years, we've made progress.  However, the bottom line is that NO AMOUNT OF MONEY SHOULD BE DIVERTED FROM THE TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND!  This money was collected from transportation users for a specific purpose ... transportation.  Whether it is $100 or $100 million that's proposed for diversion, the principle remains the same and this action is still WRONG.

That's why we're continuing to push for Legislators to sign the TRU$T Pledge.  We now have 34 Legislators who have done so ... but more importantly, 21 of these are members of the Senate. A newly revised list of TRU$T Pledge signers is posted to http://www.bettertransportation.org.  Please redouble your efforts to recruit Legislators to sign this important TRU$T Pledge.

--Doug Callaway

Feel free to contact Doug Callaway, President of Floridians for Better Transportation, at (850) 521-1256 or dcallaway@bettertransportation.org.  

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As reported by the Florida Association of Counties, the Joint City-County Annexation Work Group is continuing its negotiations to develop consensus annexation reform legislation for consideration this Session. The Joint Work Group consists of city and county commissioners and city and county staff. As to the status of negotiations, the Joint Work Group is focusing on allowing interlocal agreements to change the process for annexation. Either a city or county could initiate the agreement process. Two issues to be addressed in upcoming meetings are whether annexation can continue under current law while the negotiations are ongoing, and whether a failure to agree will be resolved through some sort of binding process. The Joint Work Group is
also working on some amendments to the current annexation process that may result in more notice to the county  and residents and property owners in the area scheduled to be annexed.

With regard to annexation reform, FAPA's Legislative Guidelines state the following:  FAPA supports annexation that provides coordinated land use planning and efficient provision of infrastructure and services. To that end, FAPA supports legislation that carries forward any annexation proposal agreed to by both the Florida League of Cities and Florida Association of Counties.

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What follows is an excerpt from the National Association of Regional Councils January 23, 2004 newsletter, eRegions.  It is an excellent summary on how MPOs are funded and how proposed federal legislation might impact this funding. 

Currently, MPO planning activities are funded through the PL Set-Aside that is an apportionment to MPOs from the main (core) program areas - Interstate Maintenance, Surface Transportation, National Highway System, Bridge, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program, and a part of the Transit Account. MPOs currently receive a 1.0 percent set aside from these programs.  SAFETEA increases this percentage to 1.5 percent. There is confusion about the role of Minimum Guarantee (MG), a core program, and if MPOs get funding from it. Congressional intent was that the MPO PL Set-aside should have also been  taken out of MG and it was not. As a result, MPOs lost close to 70 Million in PL funding over the last 6 years. Why is this important? Because, SAFETEA fixes the MG program and makes it part of the take down. The "bone of contention" is that the fix is impossible because MG is a mechanism that brings states back up to a pre-set funding level. Removing the 1.5 percent of PL funding would cause an under funded loop that would never achieve a "minimum guarantee" to any State.

While the Senate is debating PL Funding Increases they are also debating MG. There is discussion that a new "Equity Bonus" set-aside would be created, outside of the MG loop that would in essence still increase MPO PL Funding and not tamper with MG. At this point, nothing is set in stone. It may well turn out that the Equity Bonus is larger then any PL increase. The Senate may determine that a combination -- PL and the Equity Bonus -- is just  too much money to commit. Legislators may opt to adjust the PL percentage and/or the Equity Bonus number to something more manageable, or, determine that the PL Core Programs (see above) may need adjustment. For example, the Senate may decide to exempt Bridge and Interstate Maintenance from the PL set-aside.

Some legislators who favor easing conformity and project delivery restrictions also see those solutions as a de-facto increase in MPO funding, that is, "If you have less to do you don't need new money." While it is hard to argue with this logic, it is also hard to calculate the exact saving to an MPO, say for streamlined project delivery. Therefore, it is imperative that MPOs make a case for additional PL funding based on the diverse and changing nature of their work. In addition, PL funding has not been adjusted, but has remained flat for the last 15 years.

Another way MPOs are funded is through Surface Transportation Funding (STP) dollars. All communities, including those with a population of 5000 and under, receive a portion of STP funding provided to states. By law, STP dollars are in essence suballocated to regions. An increase in the amount suballocated, currently 62.5 percent of STP, would be a substantial increase in the amount of funding available to MPOs and others. This issue is currently being debated as well.

Final Apportionment Formulas and total funding amounts are being drafted  and negotiated in the Congress. The size of each program is being calculated and funding for MPOs is a part of Senate  deliberations. Each of the 100 Senators must cast a vote on the bill and sometimes it takes only one to radically change the provisions contained in the passed bill. National Association of Regional Councils staff encourages you to continue to provide information to your congressional delegations, with the offer to provide input on legislative proposals and their outcomes/impacts on MPOs.

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