An Overview Over The Issues Florida Has Faced Over The Last Year
Florida is a Spanish dominated state that is known for its luscious beaches and its amazing sun. It is known for their tourism with popular areas such as Port Miami and Walt Disney World. However, there are a lot of political issues that the government deals with behind the scene to keep the state of Florida running. During the legislative session earlier on this year, the Florida House and Senate agreed and increased the budget for education and nursing homes. They discussed issues about healthcare, and the urge for the higher education system. Hurricane Irma was discussed and the effect it had on the community and, how to prepare for the next natural disaster. The biggest and most controversial issue was the Parkland shooting that occurred which lead to a debate about gun control. The paper addresses the environmental issues faced in Florida, and its negative effect on tourism. Finally, tax cuts and texting while driving were the final issues that were mentioned and discussed.
This paper is aimed as looking at each individual issue and analyzing how it affects Florida and the population. The lawmakers during the state legislative passed an $88. 7 billion budget for the year of 2018. The Parkland School shooting set a tone for the budget and the purpose for the distribution of the money. It increases funding for school safety to ensure that every student is protected at school, it aids in mental health to ensure that people get the medical attention they deserve before they act out drastically and violently such as a school shooting. “The kindergarten-through-high-school system will be the primary beneficiary of a $400 million school-safety initiative that includes $69 million for mental health programs and a $162 million “safe schools” program to hire more law enforcement officers to provide security at schools”.
The effect this ha on the residents of Florida is a positive one. Parents are no longer fearful in sending their children to school amongst all the school shootings that have taken place over the past five years. With increased law enforcement at schools, they act as a deterrent to prevent other children from coming to school with weapons, whether it is to show it off to their friends or for a violent purpose. Mental health is a big issue that is not addressed as much as it needs to be. Prevention of delinquent behavior early on in a personas life could be their saving grace. Florida is the second state that has people who have no medical insurance coverage. Currently “19. 2% of Florida’s residents, or 3. 4 million people lack health insurance”.
Florida has Medicare that only covers people of age sixty-five and over and Medicaid, which covers people with very low income and disabilities. The population that is left uninsured is the working aged adults with paying jobs. Majority of them are Hispanics and African Americans. The solution is to increase access to affordable health insurance and enhance support for safety net programs. Providers should be encouraged to expand preventive services and walk-in care for uninsured Floridians. Lawmakers approved a plan to revamp the approval of new trauma centers. This could mean that hospitals could help patients with immediate medical problems to avoid emergency departments while still receiving the necessary care. They also approved the proposal that could lead to the use of “direct primary care” agreements, which involve patients and doctors contracting directly for primary care, reducing the role of insurers. The fact that more than half of the population does not have any access to healthcare or are not insured, this is a way to ensure that people get the best possible access to medical care they can get without the hefty bill of medical expenses at the end of their treatment. In Florida, 82% of freshman and sophomore students attend one of Florida’s 28 colleges according to the Florida Department of education.
Throughout his term as Senate president, Stuart Republican Joe Negron has made a top priority of “revamping the higher-education system. Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday signed a wide-ranging bill that includes permanently expanding Bright Future scholarships”. This bill is one that will have a positive impact on the undocumented students, as it will be one that doe not discriminate against anyone, and is also inclusive of all races. The bill also calls for expanding some need-based aid programs and would require the state university system to use a four-year graduation rate as part of its performance-funding formula, instead of the current six-year measure they are using currently. The reason for the four year formula instead of the six year formula is to ensure that people graduate in a timely manner and do not abuse the system. Instead, the faster they go through the program, the more opportunities that will be left open and available for other deserving students in need.
The Legislative session came into session shortly after the hurricane. Hurricane Irma caused havoc in the state in September and caused billions of dollars in damage. The tourism sector is expected to have lost close to $25 million dollars as hotel rooms sat empty. Agriculture took a large hit, which had a negative impact on the state, as agriculture is the second source of revenue within the state. In Okeechobee County in southern Florida, for instance, “an informal evaluation cited by the Farm Bureau pegged the loss at $16 million. Overall, the total economic cost of Irma, including property damage and lost economic output, could reach $83 billion, according to an estimate by Moody’s Analytics” due to the negative impact from the hurricane that citizens of the state experienced, the House and Senate took steps such as ratifying rules for nursing homes and assisted living facilities to have backup generators and fuel supplies to help keep the facilities cool this is after many nursing homes, were left in darkness after the strength of the hurricane.
As nursing homes have a lot of old people who are in wheelchairs, hence they cannot be relocated or evacuated easily. Nursing homes are the top priority as majority of the cities in Florida are retirement homes, and majority of the population is ageing as people move to Florida for their retirement. . “Scott’s administration issued the rules after residents of a sweltering Broward County nursing home died after Irma knocked out the building’s air-conditioning system”. As they are older and cannot manage to keep themselves safe without the help of anyone else, it is then the states priority to ensure that they are kept safe and dry during any form of disaster. Earlier this year, a student went into a school and shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. This sad and unfortunate event forced lawmakers and the people in the government to address school safety. It is the law for a child to attend school, but the shooting put fear in student’s heads as well as parents. “Rick Scott, governor of Florida, on Friday signed a $400 million package that includes improving mental-health services and allowing trained employees to bring guns to school”.
After the shooting, there was also not the issue and large debate of gun control. Florida raised the minimum age to 21 and requires a three-day waiting period for people buying rifles or assault weapons. “The nationwide sporting-goods chain Dick’s announced that it would no longer carry assault-style rifles or high-capacity magazines, and would not sell guns to people under the age of twenty-one, regardless of local laws”. By the end of the week after the tragic shooting and the march organized by the children to protest gun laws, Kroger and Walmart had said that their stores, too, would no longer sell guns to customers younger than twenty-one. The National Rifle Association filed a federal lawsuit challenging the age restriction of gun laws as they support people buying guns from the age of eighteen.
Overall, the Parkland shooting was a traumatic event for the state and the people living in the state. Increasing the age restriction is a way that makes the residents of Florida feel safer in their everyday lives considering what they have been through. Florida Tax Watch, which describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit taxpayer research institute and government watchdog” approved a bill that includes $170 million in tax cuts. The measure includes holding a three-day tax “holiday” in early August to allow back-to-school shoppers to buy clothes and school supplies without paying sales taxes. The sale exempts items that cost less than $60. A similar seven-day “holiday” is held in early June for residents to buy hurricane supplies. This is called the disaster preparedness sales tax Holiday for items that are related to disaster preparedness. The bill also includes tax breaks for farmers and ranchers who suffered damage in the Hurricane including their crops and their land.
All of the tax breaks and tax cuts are to benefit the citizens of Florida, as they usually cannot afford the items on a regular basis. If a parent has a lot of children who all need school supplies, then the tax cut makes it more affordable for their child to get what they need for class. Having farmers recover after the hurricane was crucial, as mentioned before, farming is the second source of revenue to the state of Florida. It was essential to ensure that their land and crops were restored in a short period of time. In Georgia, they recently introduced the hands free law, which means that drivers are not permitted to be on the phone while driving. Their hands must be off the phone at all times. The goal is to toughen Florida’s ban on texting while driving. However, the proposal failed to make it partially through from the Senate, because of concerns about “racial profiling of minority drivers”.
Minorities, especially Hispanics are currently stopped for the smallest reasons because of their race of the fact that they may be undocumented and illegal, living in the United States. African Americans, especially the males, are stopped as searched as they are profiled for being violent criminal offenders. Currently, “texting while driving is a “secondary” offense, meaning motorists can only be cited if they are pulled over for other reasons”. The state says, “Florida car crashes killed almost 2, 700 this year, but the number killed in texting-related accidents is unknown”. However, with the current law, on average only about four drivers a day are ticketed throughout the state for texting while driving, only after the primary stop has been carried out already. Had the proposal passed, texting while driving would’ve been considered to be a primary offense, with police being able to pull over motorists for texting while driving. This puts the safety of the public in danger, as there are many people who lose control of the car while driving.
Many of the accidents can be fatal, including the loss of life for the innocent party involved. The last major issue that Florida faces is the environmental problem. The issue is particularly big and crucial in Southwest Florida but it is also ignored. According to the St Augustine news article, the waters are covered by a red tide, which is defined as:“A naturally occurring algae bloom that can be worsened by nutrient pollution from human and animal waste and excessive fertilizer use. It is killing fish and other sea life from Sarasota County south to Charlotte Harbor, and the green slime is smothering the Caloosahatchee River”.
With the large amount of algae that is covering it lead the states to declare a state of emergency, which covered “Lee, Glades, Hendry, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties”. The state of emergency was declared due to the loss of life to the plants, which lead to a decline in the ecosystem. The result was that many animals that needed water to survive died.
Florida also relies on tourism for its economy to flourish. Tourism declines in these areas if the water quality is bad. Florida is known for its beautiful beaches and coastlines and the algae water is a deterrent for any prospective visitors. The water also has a negative effect on the farming industry. Although the fertilizers for farming causes the growth in algae, if there is no clean water then plants cannot be watered. Candidates in the next upcoming elections have invested in clean up measures as part of their campaign. This could have the candidates as majority of the population is affected by the water quality and loss of diversity.
