Jacobs seeks $20M more for Orange County kids
Denies it’s bid to head off Children’s Trust
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs on Tuesday proposed a $20 million budget increase for children’s programs — a move that will likely delay a county ballot measure for a Children’s Trust that comes with a $58 million property tax increase.
Jacobs, who’s opposed putting the Children’s Trust issue on the ballot, said in an interview that she had been discussing the additional funds since late 2017, before the Children’s Trust campaign officially launched.
“This is not a counter proposal,” she said. “This has always been the plan. Quite candidly, I’m not considering their proposal. I don’t support their proposal.”
The Children’s Trust of Orange County, a campaign announced in February, was pushing for a November ballot mea-
sure to authorize a half-mill property-tax increase — $50 for every $100,000 in taxable property value, or $8 to $9 a month for the average homeowner.
The measure would have created an independent council that would decide how to spend the money on a range of programs, including those for kids who are abused, homeless, uninsured or at-risk for dropping out of school. But the effort ran into resistance when supporters sought approval from the Orange County Commission to put it on the ballot.
On Tuesday, though, Children’s Trust co-chairmen Dick Batchelor, a longtime advocate on child-welfare issues, and Jacob Stuart, former president of the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, vowed to push on regardless of the mayor’s plan, although they conceded that the odds of getting it on the ballot this year are extremely slim. Instead, they may try again in 2020. Jacobs, who is term-limited, is in her final year as mayor but running to chair the Orange County School Board.
“While it’s laudable that the mayor is recommending $20 million in new funding, we are confident that working with a new mayor and a new county commission, we can substantially increase that number to move the needle in addressing our children’s unmet needs,” Batchelor said. “The mayor and county commission failed the public by not putting this issue on the ballot for the voters to decide.”
He said 2,400 Orange County residents had signed a petition asking commissioners to put the matter before voters.
“We’re still urging them to do so — but we’re not hopeful,” he added.
Jacobs has objected to the idea because, she said, she wanted to ensure that the people spending taxpayer money are directly accountable to voters.
But Batchelor argued that an independent council would be protected from the whims of politicians. Stuart agreed. “It’s important to understand that this conversation is not just about new money,” he said. “It’s about a new covenant between our children and our community. It’s about the needs — and in some cases the desperate needs — of our children. An independent trust creates an opportunity for civic leaders to wake up every morning and say: What can we do today to enrich the lives and opportunities of our children?”
Children’s trusts — sometimes called children’s councils — already exist in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties. Duval has a hybrid model that uses separate funding through the county but does not impose a separate tax. In Orange, the proposed trust would be run by a group of appointees, including someone from the Orange County Commission and another from the county’s school board.
Jacob’s proposal Tuesday also called for the existing Citizen’s Commission for Children Advisory Board, which makes recommendations on how money for youth programs should be spent, to include broader representation, including someone from the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Superintendent of Orange County Schools, a local school board member and a judge assigned to juvenile cases.
“This proposal would not be there without the efforts of our child advocates,” Batchelor said. But Jacobs denied that.
Her proposal is expected to be discussed by the county commission July 17, the second of two days of hearings on the county budget. The commission already has retained an independent consultant to conduct a needs assessment of the current state of children’s services in Orange County following Jacobs’ assertion that a report submitted by the Children’s Trust was “filled with inaccuracies.”
The consultant will not have a complete assessment by the time of the hearing, but the mayor said it would be finished in time to direct how the additional $20 million is spent, assuming the increase is passed.
Batchelor said he expects that creating a separate Children’s Trust will now become an issue in the current mayoral campaign to elect Jacobs’ successor.