Agencies, governments plead for more state money

The Highlands County Legislative Delegation Meeting didn't sound like the sort of event where emotions would overflow, but pleas not to cut state funding came from people with drug addictions and mental illnesses, representatives of pregnant mothers and infant children, schools and South Florida Community College.

On Friday, representatives from more than a dozen governments and agencies met with Rep. Denise Grimsley and Rep. Baxter Troutman. All asked for bills to be passed or money for their programs.

The most controversial was Spring Lake Improvement District, which wanted a bill to update the improvement district's ordinances, take over defunct homeowner associations, and to allow for a sheriff's substation, a fire station and a school.

Spring Lake resident Billie Jewett was adamantly opposed: "I think I represent almost everyone," he told the legislators. He had the signatures of 120 residents, and thought nearly 100 percent opposed what he called a power grab. About 3,000 people live in the subdivision.

Terry Lewis, an attorney who represented Spring Lake, assured Grimsley and Troutman that the bill would just update the law for improvement districts. "There is no significant increase in the power of the district." And, he added, the SLID board is no longer interested in buying the golf course.

SLID Chairman Leon Van quoted a visioning survey from more than a year ago. Of the 501 respondents, a majority wanted to make room for a police, fire and EMS station.

He doesn't have the signatures, Jewett countered.

After 30 minutes of back and forth, Troutman asked Van and Lewis why so many residents were so adamantly opposed to the revisions. Grimsley proposed that since state Sen. J.D. Alexander wasn't at the meeting, that they table the item. If he was opposed to it, it would be tabled anyway, she reasoned.

Highlands County Commission Vice Chairman Jeff Carlson asked lawmakers to consider an Internet tax, and doubling the $1.50 fee on license plate renewals.

In Florida, a million trips were denied to the Transportation Disadvantaged last year due to a lack of funding, Carlson said.

"We can't afford to have public transportation," Carlson said. The fee increase would help.

The tax on Internet transactions is hotly debated, Carlson said. He's taken a few phone calls on the matter.

"But it's not a new tax," he said. "The problem is lack of enforcement."

He's asking Florida to enforce the law, and reminded businesses that they are already required to collect a tax on Internet transactions. If they don't, they're breaking the law, Carlson said.

Richard Norris, vice chairman of the school board, asked the state to fully fund the class size initiative. Unless they are changed, all the constitutional averages are to be in place by school year 2010-11. That's getting more and more difficult, he said.

Norris and the school board also asked that the effects of Florida's new high school grading formula be analyzed before making additional changes to the current requirements. New requirements should be delayed until revenues stabilize and new teachers can be hired.

Finally, the school board needs the ability to tax two full mills, Norris said. This year, the Legislature reduced the board's taxing authority.

SFCC President Norm Stephens reminded the legislators that when the economy is suffering, students enroll in college. At the same time, the Legislature has cut higher education funding. "As you consider funding for next year, we ask that you consider our growth," Stephens said.

Healthy Start, said Executive Director Mary Jo Plews, served nearly 1,000 mothers and babies last year with $350,000 in funding. Highlands County has an infant mortality rate - 3.8 percent - that's lower than the state. But Highlands County is ninth in the state for births to underage girls.

More than a dozen former inmates and alcohol or drug abusers came, all with yellow name tags and the acronym JASA, for Jail Alternatives to Substance Abuse. Five took the microphone to tell lawmakers that JASA saved their lives. One man, who preferred to speak from the audience, said he wrote letters to JASA for 43 straight days. The program was full.

More money is needed for mental health too, a mother said. Her daughter, away in the Midwest for college, became clinically depressed. She was returned to her mother, who could not get her into a psychiatric hospital. All were full.