Children’s Trust wants $58M for Orange County kids
Supporters of the Children’s Trust of Orange County are still trying to get an additional $58 million a year for youth programs, despite failing to get the matter on the November ballot and a report from consultants hired by the county saying the tab should be “significantly” less.
The discrepancy was highlighted during an Orange County Commission meeting Tuesday as consultants from Tallahasseebased FOREFRONT laid out preliminary findings on spending an additional $20 million on children’s services — an amount the county approved in September after rejecting a proposed tax hike that would have raised more than twice that much.
The tax money would have been dedicated to cover gaps in services for kids who are abused, neglected, sick, homeless, living in poverty or struggling in school.
But consultant Keith Carr, hired to analyze the need, told the commission, “We believe the funding gap is significantly less than the $58 million that was proposed in the tax increase,” though he did not offer a precise amount.
The discussion came as the Children’s Trust — a bipartisan effort led by longtime children’s advocate Dick Batchelor and Jacob Stuart, former president of the Orlando Chamber of Commerce — announced it is relaunching its campaign to focus on Orange County Mayorelect Jerry Demings and the incoming county commissioners, who will take office in December. Batchelor added, though, that he would not push for another ballot measure on the issue.
Instead, he said, the campaign will ask the new commission to pass an ordinance that would dedicate another $38 million each year — or about onehalf of 1 percent of the overall budget — for children’s needs.
“While that [$20 million] is laudable,” Batchelor said, “it does not do nearly enough to meet the severe unmet needs of children here in Orange County.”
Demings, currently the Orange County sheriff, would not say whether he supported the idea.
“I look forward to a full briefing on this important issue and others when I assume the office of mayor after December 4th,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the consultants suggested the county may want to target specific ZIP codes with the $20 million approved. Of the 53 ZIP codes in the county, they said, residents of just seven were responsible for more than half of the juvenile arrests in the past two years, and the same neighborhoods had a disproportionate share of foster children, cases of child abuse and neglect and teen pregnancies.
Those ZIP codes were 32808, 32805, 32839, 32811, 32818, 32810 and 32801. All had a disproportionate number of children living in poverty.
“A lot of people will talk about [the pitfalls of ] labels,” said consultant Randy Nelson, director of the criminal justice administration graduate program at BethuneCookman University. “But you can’t fix something unless you identify what it is.”
An appointed advisory panel, the Citizens’ Commission for Children, created in 1988, will ultimately recommend how the $20 million — or potentially, the $58 million — is spent after the consultants issue a final report. That’s not expected to happen until early next year.