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Social Service Groups Narrow Proposals For Legislation

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 30, 2007

TAMPA - Help for relative caregivers, uninsured children and residents who are aged, disabled, homeless or mentally ill topped the list of needs during Hillsborough County's first community legislative summit Thursday.

More than 100 social service providers gathered at The Children's Board of Hillsborough County to decide which bills they will ask the county's legislative delegation Dec. 7 to support during the next legislative session.

Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, urged participants to search for ways to improve services without adding costs.

"There is no appetite to look at increasing the revenue side," Glorioso warned. "This is an election year."

The upcoming legislative session will be a difficult time to ask for money, said Roy Miller, president of The Children's Campaign, a child advocacy agency in Tampa.

"It's very distressing, of course, to hear all this talk about budget cuts ... when there are so many needs going unmet," he said.

This year's property tax reductions have left state leaders and social service advocates scrambling to keep programs and services afloat.
Summit participants identified 18 issues they will back, including a $2-a-day increase for relative caregivers raising children adjudicated dependent by the state.

On average, relative caregivers, often grandparents, receive about 57 percent less financial assistance than foster parents, according to the Florida Kinship Center, a University of South Florida agency that provides support for relative caregivers.

"Increasing the rate will provide much needed support for caregivers, who are mostly on fixed incomes," the request said. "The increase will also decrease the risk of children going into the more costly foster care system."

The estimated cost of raising the monthly rate, which is about $242 to $298 depending on the child's age, is more than $14 million.

In Florida, about 345,000 children are living with relatives, more than 9.5 percent of all children in the state, according to the proposal headed by Hillsborough Judge Tracy Sheehan. About 23,000 children in the county live with relatives, with about 18,000 without any court supervision or formalized custody arrangement, she said.

The proposal, chosen by the summit, is essentially an amendment to state law that would cost nothing to approve. The change would allow those relatives to petition the court for concurrent custody of children to obtain legal authority to provide care such as medical attention.

That differs greatly from temporary custody, which requires the court to make a finding of abuse, neglect or abandonment and often results in the parent's estrangement from their children's caregivers.

The summit let child welfare advocates split into nine groups to discuss the bills; each group then offered two proposals. Others included:

•Streamlining enrollment into KidCare, doing away with obstacles such as making children wait until they have gone without coverage for 60 days before enrolling.

More than 500,000 children in Florida are uninsured, according to the proposed bill. About 8,000 children per month lose their health insurance because their family income changes and is too high for Medicaid. Another 3,800 lose the coverage for 60 days because their premium is late.

•Renewing and fully funding the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund, which earmarks dollars paid by home buyers for documentary stamps for affordable housing. Right now, only about 25 percent of those dollars goes toward the intended purpose, said Judi Jetson, director of the USF Collaborative for Children, Families & Communities.

The community legislative summit emanates from town hall meetings held by the Children's Board, Hillsborough County and the United Way of Tampa Bay. The idea comes from the Treasure Coast counties of Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River.

For the past seven years, Treasure Coast community members have come together to produce the "Red Book," a list of the top two priorities in each social service area. The Red Book has become a resource tool for elected officials.

For information, contact the board at (813) 508-0502.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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