Campaign yields gains for children

The campaign to seek Orange County voters’ approval in November for a $58 million tax for children’s programs appears to have hit a dead end. The campaign’s co-chairman, longtime children’s advocate Dick Batchelor, says he hasn’t given up, but he’s also talking about trying again for the 2020 election.

Even so, supporters of doing more to help kids at risk in the county have 20 million reasons to be encouraged.

This week Mayor Teresa Jacobs proposed a $20 million increase in Orange County’s budget for children’s programs. Jacobs insisted her proposal was not a response to the campaign chaired by Batchelor and former Central Florida Partnership President Jacob Stuart, and backed by a broad cross-section of respected community leaders. We think she protests too much.

Batchelor’s proposal, if approved by voters, would create an independent children’s services council that would levy up to a half-mill property tax — $50 for every $100,000 in taxable property value — up to 10 years. The dollars would be available to spend on effective programs for kids in need, including those who are homeless, abused, uninsured or at risk of dropping out.

Jacobs remains dead set against the idea of creating an independent council of unelected appointees with its own taxing and spending authority. “Quite candidly, I’m not considering their proposal,” she told the Sentinel’s Kate Santich.

Regardless, the mayor also has called for some welcome improvements to the obscure panel that currently oversees the county’s programs for children. Its membership would expand to include, among others, the county’s school superintendent and a judge assigned to juvenile cases — a definite upgrade in the panel’s influence and expertise.

We would still prefer to see the question of whether to put the proposed children’s services tax on the November ballot settled in a final public debate among the mayor and county commissioners before the deadline for action passes in the next few weeks. However, Jacobs has said she will not put the proposal on the agenda, and it doesn’t look like the necessary four of six commissioners will agree to do so, either. An assessment of needs for the county’s children ordered by the mayor and commission won’t be ready in time for a meeting on the budget set for July 17. Orange County staff identified inaccuracies in assessments conducted for Batchelor’s campaign.

While the increase Jacobs has proposed for children’s programs is less than half the amount that would be raised by a children’s services tax, there are some advantages to the mayor’s approach — assuming it is approved by commissioners. It would take effect in October, providing additional dollars much sooner than a tax increase approved by voters in November, which would have a lag time of more than a year. It would be carved out of the county’s $4.25 billion budget; it would not require a new tax. And the expenditures would be subject to oversight from commissioners and the county’s comptroller, unlike spending by an independent children’s services council.

Batchelor has vowed to try again for a ballot initiative in 2020 with whomever succeeds Jacobs, who is leaving the mayor’s office this year due to term limits. By the 2020 election, the next mayor and the commissioners will have had a couple of years of increased funding in the budget to evaluate. It’s possible they might conclude the additional dollars are meeting the need. Or they might decide more funding is necessary.

Batchelor and Jacobs have clashed on this issue for months. But thanks to both, the outlook for children at risk in Orange County has improved.

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs’ $20 million boost for children’s programs is a positive development.

A campaign led by children’s advocate Dick Batchelor has brought welcome attention to kids at risk.