The state’s legislators and bureaucrats have millions of dollars in federal funds available to help disabled Floridians. They just choose not to use them.
Millions in national funds that could assist disabled Floridians are available to state lawmakers and bureaucrats, but they are simply choosing not to use them. Millions in national funds that could assist impaired Floridians are available to state lawmakers and bureaucrats, but they are choosing not to use them.
The state’s legislators and bureaucrats have millions of dollars in federal funds available to help disabled Floridians. They just choose not to use them.
In my several decades of activism, I have never heard a lawmaker or bureaucrat say, “We have plenty of money right now. What would you like us to do?”. . Instead, they always come right out of the box with a statement like, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any money right now to help you get what you need to live a good life.” Without fail. Maybe they think saying this will make the shrill people placing demands on them go away and not come back until there is plenty of money to spend—which will be never.. . That’s why, whenever I hear that statement coming from someone in power, I always immediately write it off as BS. The statement would be true if they just changed one word and said, “I’m sorry but we don’t have any desire right now to help you get what you need to live a good life.”. . It’s all a matter of political priorities. A case that graphically illustrates this point comes to us courtesy of the Arc of Florida, an organization that advocates for “high quality supports for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be fully included in all aspects of their community.”. . The Arc of Florida examined the spending records of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD), the state agency that “supports individuals with unique abilities and their families in living, learning and working within their communities by creating multiple pathways to possibilities.” Naturally, many of the people for which the Arc of Florida advocates rely on programs administered by APD for vital support.. . The examination found that APD did not spend more than $157 million in allocated state funds that had been budgeted by the state legislature to be spent serving people with disabilities in fiscal year 2022-23. When taking into account the additional federal matching funds that the state could have received but opted not to, the analysis said, “There might have been an additional $789 million to help individuals in desperate need of services…”. . The Orlando Sentinel reports that 23,000 of the disabled people on the lengthy APD waiting list could have been served with this money. The 34,000 people the APD is currently serving “face cuts each year to the services that help them live fuller lives.”. . In a blog post, the Arc of Florida wrote, “The sad irony of this situation is that while APD left dollars unspent, service providers are running deficits each month . . . . The facts present a disturbing picture of what might have been if funds appropriated by the legislature were spent as intended.”. . Please remember all of this, the next time you hear Florida Governor (and Republican presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis bragging about his state’s low taxes and fiscal health.
