Our View: Affordable housing shortchanged again.

When it comes to helping Floridians of modest means secure affordable housing, Gov. Rick Scott and the state Legislature came up short again this year.

When it comes to helping Florida businesses that struggle to recruit and retain workers when there’s a dearth of places those workers can afford to live, the state’s elected leaders shrugged it off once more.

And when it comes to doing what they said they would do — allocate the full portion of real-estate taxes earmarked for affordablehousing programs — well, you didn’t think they really meant that, did you?

In a year when the budget legislators passed grew by $6 billion, it’s hard to understand why they would raid the money meant to address the crisis in affordable housing to address the crisis in school safety. But that’s what happened. To put $400 million toward hardening schools, increasing mental-health services and equipping some school personnel with guns, the governor and legislators robbed the piggy bank for work-force housing.

For a short time, it looked like this year would be different, and lawmakers would end their decade-long raid on the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Funds. Senate leaders refused to go along with the House’s plan to divert money from the trust funds to spend on pet projects and other line items in the budget or cover for revenue lost to tax cuts.

But the Parkland school shooting “changed everything,” said Sen. Rob Bradley, who chaired his chamber’s budget committee.

Wait a minute: The budget legislators passed last year was $82.4 billion. This year’s is $88.7 billion. Are we to believe the self-styled fiscal conservatives running Tallahassee saw their only choice as robbing Peter to pay Paul?

In the end, blaming the Parkland school shooting, they swept $185 million from the $300 million on tap for affordable housing. Then they patted themselves on the back for a job well done. But really, they offered less than half a loaf to deal with one of Florida’s worst problems.

Affordable housing is in short supply throughout the state — especially in Central Florida. Last year the area encompassing Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties ranked third from the bottom nationally for its availability of housing for extremely low-income residents. Only Las Vegas and Los Angeles were worse.

Our region’s lack of affordable housing isn’t just a challenge for extremely low-income residents. New college graduates, saddled with student-loan payments while earning entry-level salaries, also struggle to find affordable places to live. Middle-income employees holding critical jobs in our communities — first responders, teachers, nurses, social workers and others — often can’t afford to live near where they work.

When it leaves large groups of people in our community at risk of eviction and homelessness, or it forces them to commute from long distances to get to work, the affordable housing crunch holds back Central Florida’s economy. It strains public services, increasing costs for all taxpayers. It deprives many families of the quality of life, and the chance to succeed, that everyone deserves.

Unlike most other problems plaguing Florida, this one has a readymade solution — not enough to end, but certainly enough to ease the problem. Legislators in 1991 had the foresight to create a solution when they passed a law that places a 10-cent surcharge on every $100 paid for real estate — for the purpose of funding affordable-housing programs. This generation’s legislators just can’t abide by those instructions.

Voters have a chance to break this pattern of irresponsible policymaking in November. Vote for those who have a track record of keeping their word and a full commitment to solving the state’s problems.