Legislative update and state appropriations

1:15:59Good morning Commissioner Yeah is Ralph Lair, Intergovernmental Affairs Officer. Um before I I bring up Sean, our our our team with Sunrise Consulting. uh to speak with you about our legislative update. Um Commissioner Starkey, uh uh to your issue with our our federal lobbyist team, uh Van Skoyak, here get loud and clear. They will be making a presentation um in advance. Uh we have our first meeting with uh public um infrastructure Friday, uh to go with their team to go over list of

1:16:29issues. And we're gonna be doing that with a couple other uh departments and divisions within our organization, but hearing you loud and clear. Okay, good. So at that point, uh I'm gonna ask Sean Foster to come up. If there's a little time, I'm gonna tag team and and uh get some issues he might have missed.

1:16:47Okay. He's not gonna miss anything. Welcome, Shad.

1:16:51I'm

1:16:51out of breath. I literally ran from the car, so Um

1:16:57What an honor to be back here in front of you with a session that it's been and I've said that for many years Ralph uh actually a much older Ralph was uh I'm not aging him, but he was actually a mentor to me when I started as a legislative aide in in nineteen sixty nine. I'm just kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding Ralph. And and uh and so many years we say about session, this uh this was the most unique or odd session or weird, without a doubt this was. And uh And I'll give you the emphasis, my first meeting in Tallahassee. Remember, we couldn't get into the Senate, you couldn't get to meet the Senate

1:17:27staff, you couldn't get to meet the committee staff, anybody. In the House, they had to send their legislative aid down. You had to text them and come out and get you. You had to be on the list and go up. My first meeting with uh Representative Mariano, uh her aide had tested positive five minutes before our meeting for COVID. Uh she was obviously not able to meet me right then. Uh Representative Mariano had to come down and meet me and bring me up. I was the first person for a meeting that She had to meet down in the lobby. And then you weren't allowed to actually stay in the

1:17:57doesn't matter. If you had a meeting, you had to exit immediately. She said, Sean, I'd like to escort you out, but I have a Zoom meeting that starts 30 seconds ago. So oh my gosh. So we literally had to scurry down the stairs so you did not get caught by the Senate uh uh l um staff or to me the house staff out out of the building. It was very, very odd. Uh so I'll start with the budget. Well well

1:18:20and Sean, wait a minute. Yes before before session started you were like this is gonna be a really bad session. We're gonna we're gonna be billions of dollars in the And remember that?

1:18:30It it was. And I would I told you, if it had been, and Ralph and I had talked about, I mean, you think about the dollars that came from the American Rescue Act, almost 10% of the budget. So we're at $101.5 billion. If it had not been for the $10 billion that we got from the federal government, uh, there would be no good here. There would be no good. There would be none of these projects on here, none of these other big grants. It would have been a year that had been decimated. Uh they took seven billion of the American Rescue Act and implemented it into this year and they held off another seven another three billion for the next budget.

1:19:00One and a half billion was vetoed because he was unable to do one of the projects, but that's also going towards it. But you're right, Commissioner. It would have been uh schools would have been hit the hardest. Uh I mean there's there's just no way we could have met met the needs and everything from the clerk's office and the issues that they've been having for years. So I just wanted to profile a couple of the big ones. Mental health services and substance abuse. That's been a governor's and his wife's priority since they started. So have a $1 billion added for those types of services is amazing for the state of Florida.

1:19:31Homeless grants, and I've tried to put these, these are items that we'll be able to apply for here with Pasco County. The resilient Florida Trust Fund and program with a bill that was Passed a half a billion dollars. Uh the septic to sewer, that is gonna be a grant program that we can apply for directly. That was our Senator Simpson's priority and has been for years. Um, Ralph, I think it started with an idea a few years ago, it was like fifty million dollars. So to see it now up to six hundred and twenty-six is is amazing. And jump in anytime, Ralph, too. Uh SHIP,

1:20:01I just wanted to show here 150 more million. The governor uh wanted more than this, and I think you'll see some uh direction for that. The Florida Gro uh Growth Grant Fund, Job Growth, that's $24 million from last year, another $50. I just emailed, I know Ralph and I were talking about getting that out the staff for some economic development projects that are gonna be available. But this was a big one I wanted to share with you and to share with your constituents. I know you guys have had Uh funds available for rental assistance previously through the county. But there's

1:20:31a one and a half billion dollars now available through the emergency rental assistance program. That website is already up. Constituents can go there directly to that and then apply for it. It'll be similar to what they had applied before, Kathy, with some verification on income that you know through there, a little bit lighter than what you all had to deal with. be a great assistance for folks here in in Pasco County. Um we know that that need's gonna be greater.

1:20:56You know what? We haven't o we've only spent twenty five percent of the money that we've already been given in that category.

1:21:02I I'm I'm hearing that uh statewide also, so

1:21:08Oh, go ahead. I was gonna say, yes, so we are not in need here in our county on the rental assistance. What we are waiting for is the uh state to release uh assistance on the mortgage. Uh so uh we have plenty of people that are waiting right now and so as soon as the state releases those funds, we will have uh another uh avenue for our residents.

1:21:30Great. And I'll and I'll end on this.

1:21:34I think the same thing's gonna happen with this. Amount of money that's not gonna be able to utilize and and we'd like to h if we can see that shifted over to the to the mortgage assistance and where that's gonna be. So three projects that went through to the governor. I guess to start with a big one. Pasco County appropriation items, the hand cart water and wastewater, six and a half million dollars. That is going to be a huge asset, obviously, here for Pasco County. Two and a half, I'm sorry, two hundred thousand dollars for Ackerman and Lindrick,

1:22:05sewer and water quality, 3.8 million, Commissioner Starkey. I know that talking to you, that's gonna be a great assistance to your constituents and and to yours throughout that area. So

1:22:15Commissioner Starkey did a phenomenal job helping get through the process. Yeah.

1:22:19That was that was very fortunate that we got all that.

1:22:22I I had a senator tell me to stop having Commissioner Starkey text her. Every year.

1:22:30Wait, wasn't that a speaker? I think that was a speaker.

1:22:33It

1:22:33was

1:22:33a speaker a couple years

1:22:34ago. Well

1:22:35was it uh legal notices. Uh we spoke before Ralph and I had spoken before saying, you know, this bill has been in front of you for uh in front of the legislature going six, seven years, Ralph, and we've really felt as progress that it had last year. This should have a benefit now. Uh the legal notices is providing the internet. I also Understand there could be some tweaking because uh the original intent was to make it you know available to all uh other internet providers, not just through I'm sorry, website providers, not just through a a um a newspaper. There was some pushback for them,

1:23:05but it will have a savings for the county and uh we'll follow through with the provisions and information for you. And I appreciate because what was happening, and we we use Pasco County and Hernando County as your your county was. spoke uh about in committee and they talked about the expense that it had to to the county and Hernando County's expenses actually went up by doing it because they had one newspaper at one week uh doing it and so their cost was actually great and had a huge savings. So thank you for getting back with me on that information that we needed. You know, this is

1:23:35a a huge bill. Uh there are many, many provisions here in NHB 337 and impact fees. Uh one of the things I will say is it is what it's not saying the most on here is most clear, it is new. And current impact fee. That is going to be new and current impact fee if you want to do these things. The implementation of the studies and the provisions, as you can see right off the bat, one of the costs is going to be a demonstrated need study justifying the increase that has been completed within the past 12 months prior to the adoption of the

1:24:05impact fee. What I would say is Ralph and I are will have a detailed information for your staff on this. You can see the preemption. This was a bill that passed unfortunately but that we opposed. And we'll have all the information in the bill for you, for your staff and and for your attorney.

1:24:25And uh this one here, there's a few of these that passed on permits and licenses. Another one you can see passed and washed because the other bill uh in the house was one that we I mean and the Senate had some provisions that we supported. But I want you just to see some of these you may already be doing, but a lot of the smaller counties are going to have some issues with the technical items on this. Requires local governments to post on its website each type of building permit application, all required attachments, procedures, reviewing, provide approving applications, and the

1:24:55status of each application. Uh the next one you can see that I've highlighted too is when you fail to meet those requirements that are in this bill, your per original fee will be reduced ten percent. by per day. Um some people feel that you know this was necessary. I don't know the some of the groups that were behind it, but there again are some deep provisions in this bill that I did not put in. You can see it's even a full PowerPoint, but Ralph and I will make sure that you get the uh the bill analysis and the complete information on this and how it will impact the

1:25:25county. The resilient trust fund is that money that we had talked about in the original with the appropriations. It's going to create the resilient Florida Trust Fund within the Department of Environmental Protection as a funding source. As soon as we get that information out from the grant as provided, we will make sure that we get it to you and your staff, obviously. It's already been signed by the governor. To the end. We've are already are looking forward to the next session, but I really wanted to give you this detailed information. In March, um the Revenue Estimating

1:25:55Conference reviews their financial estimates for the next 12 months because they want to give them the exact amount of money that they have to go forward. So this update came 30 days after they made the adjustment in March. They had a $800 million more than what they project projected in March. And the one area that increased was sales tax. So in all of the other since the pandemic hit, every other provision that was expected to uh come in for sales

1:26:25tax hit the point except for sales tax. We were still down on that, even though we were up. Sales tax came up eight hundred million dollars more than expected for the sales tax revenue in uh in April. And I expect that even to go up with the other bill that was passed with the sales tax revenue that will be collected in the Senate Bill 50, that's gonna bring over a billion dollars. So going into next year, we are looking already good. We have four billion dollars extra into reserves. Uh so next year looks like a really good year. And last, I'll just say Ralph

1:26:55and I are already working on timelines to work with you and the staff on uh any provisions that uh that were implemented that you would like us to go back and review with the legislators appropriation items again, obviously and any policy items.

1:27:11So jumping off that real quick in addition on the appropriations to the ten million five hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and eight dollars that pa uh the county received directly. the county as a whole really did well. Uh Zephyrhills Municipal Airport received $3 million for an extension on their runway. The Sarah Vanenberg Tennis Court received $4,665,000. Florida National Guard Armory will now be placed in Zephyrhills for $25,000.

1:27:43Uh there will be a CARES One-Stop Seniors Center in Dade City for $1,250,000. AM Skills Workforce Training received $450,000. Pasco Hernando State College received $25,000 for a student success and community engagement center in Dade City. Uh the EPASCO Association of Challenge Kids Summer Camp. This is a recurring one. They didn't meet last year because of COVID, but they're starting back their camp this year,

1:28:13receives $34,738. Metropolitan Ministries received money to expand their campus here in Pasco County for five million dollars and Bridging Freedom Program in Pasco County received seven hundred thousand dollars. What we thought was gonna be an easy year legislatively was not. The legislature continued to pass laws that preempt Local government. So I have already given the

1:28:43organization all the bills that passed. It's like 46 pages of bills that impact the county somehow, somehow. So they've been going over those as um the governor receives those and signing them. He's almost done. He still has a bunch uh uh to look at. At this point he's only uh vetoed one bill. Um in addition to the um date that Sean mentioned for um the first committee week, which is September, there'll be two committee

1:29:13weeks in October. Uh two three committee weeks in November, none in December. Session starts January eleventh and will end March eleventh. Any questions? Any questions from

1:29:28the book? Is that typical to have three in November?

1:29:31Yes, that's our appropriations uh week. So normally when it's after the election year, it would be the uh month of February where we'll have three in twenty twenty-three. Okay. Or twenty twenty-two, excuse me.

1:29:44Um I had a question. Oh uh the Sarah Vandenberg um appropriation, what category does that fall in?

1:29:53I'll have to go back and look, but I'll I'll give that to you.

1:29:56Okay, I'm just wondering if it's a

1:29:57I don't know if it was a separate line item. I don't I don't know if it came from an ex um from a a pot of money where there are other items similar to it. It might have been uh just a separate line item that they pulled money from a particular account.

1:30:11Yeah, I'd like to know.

1:30:12I can easily find that. I have it in my desk.

1:30:15All right, so when do we start when do we start thinking about next year?

1:30:21I'll probably say after you get back from your uh summer break.

1:30:25All right.

1:30:27I

1:30:27just

1:30:27want to say before we leave off too. Uh I want to thank the staff uh all the way around the replies that we got back so quickly when we needed it on amendments and we needed it on bills and how would it impact uh not just policy wise but a cost uh to our residents and to the Pasco County government and and they were stellar, faster than any other client I had. So I really appreciate that.

1:30:48Mr. Chairman Mariano. Um Sean. Great job, Ralph, great job this year. I know we got lucky with a lot of different things, but to get all those things put in place was phenomenal. Um two things I got special projects coming up. One's the Septic Cassur project up at Seapines. We've done the study on it. If you could work with us to make sure that from what was crafted legislation that we can kind of make sure we're gonna make the steps. We're getting ready for public comment and a a bunch of other things to go up there. Uh and also at uh Timbee Regional Planning Council, which I'm actually chairing

1:31:18this year. Um they have got a big resiliency push as well. So if you could kind of maybe m maybe reach out with you, myself and Sean Sullivan, kind of get together and kind of take a look at what we think we can incorporate to uh move forward, uh to make sure we're gonna hit the butt hit the notes we wanna hit to try to make the whole region get stronger as well.

1:31:37Uh on the on the first note that you said with the that grant program that I mentioned about the septic to sewer, I think that program would be applicable for that and we'll make sure that you and the staff get the information to to submit it.

1:31:46Mr. Chairman Mariano. Mr. Moore, just in a in a And it's great, you know, what we received. We're very thankful. We do need to focus this time, next time around, on some of those flooding issues that are going around in Cohalo, that are going around in East Pasco, off Island Boulevard in those areas. Those are very important. Those affect our citizens on a day-to-day basis. versus pork. So That needs to be a focus. It needs to be a big focus going forward. Yeah, these are things again that are folks affecting

1:32:17the residents daily. And they have to worry about it on a daily basis. So that needs to be top priority.

1:32:23Well is that uh are we sti gonna stick with the one per commissioner thing or

1:32:29Uh we'll talk to you uh uh when we uh do the update um to prepare going into that, but have some thoughts based on what the feedback we got from our delegation.

1:32:40Okay.

1:32:41So if you will.

1:32:42So I had mentioned that Pinellas County and Sean, you weren't here to hear this, so I'm gonna say it again. Um P Penellas County Board of County Commissioners has a meeting with their delegation. And I I think it's in their chambers. and with their federal delegation federal delegation. We've never done that. Um I I would be interested to s to hear what other counties do. And if we wanna, you know, be a little bit more proactive that way. So

1:33:12Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that possibly might might be they can set some time up uh during their delegation meeting just to meet with the commissioners. Uh we can't that's public meeting and and note of uh notice of the paper. Commissioner, to your point, so already working with uh Mike Karbala uh with the funds that were set up uh in the appropriations this year uh for septic dessur, uh the resiliency. Note that

1:33:43all those grants are a fifty percent match. So we're looking at our projects that we have. We've got a lot of them here in our county, especi uh especially with the septic to search. Uh so we gotta we've gotta see how we can we can utilize that and what dollars we currently have so we can go after those dollars. And and and trust me, our I I I yesterday I just sent a uh an email uh to Mike. Our com our legislative delegation, I got a call from Senator Simpson's office and Representative Maggard's office to

1:34:14say, hey, guess what? They've opened the portal. You can apply. It's like, thank you. We appreciate it. We're right on it. So so we're working on it as quickly as we can to see if we have projects that we can move forward with uh with the funds that uh came out this year.

1:34:27Um I I have a question on the resiliency money. And Jack, I I saw in the news somewhere that I was reading there is a big meeting in the Keys, uh state meeting on the resiliency stuff. but I couldn't see when it was. It was Tampa Bay Business Journal had a or someone had an article on it. Um

1:34:46Thinking of ways we can use that money, uh and I recall When um S some investors bought a strip mall on nineteen. Um because um Some a lot of nineteen is in a flood zone in order to redevelop something on nineteen. You have to make it Um You know, you really have to put in some protections for f flooding. if you don't elevate it. So the Aldi grocery store on nineteen they

1:35:16had to come in and put these Um special kind of doors. that are metal metal on the bottom and they they had to make it make the grocery store flood resistant without elevating it. And so I'm wondering if we can look at going after some of these resiliency monies. that could help some of our small businesses along the nineteen corridor. So it's kind of economic development and resiliency at the same time.

1:35:42We can look at it. I don't know how much of those that applies to is to local governments. I thought it was more mostly to those grants to I'm I'm sorry to b small businesses, more it was more so to local governments, but we can look into that for you.

1:35:54Mr. Chairman Mariano. And to tag on to that, yeah, c you know, we've got that Sun Coast Recovery Center went through the same thing. Whether like I've never seen the place flat out. But they have to raise up that first three feet they gotta protect. And that goes up and down the coast. And I think as part of what we're suffering so much on redevelopment Long nineteen is for those those ex same reasons. So maybe You know, I think your suggestion, Commissioner Starkey, was great to have our federal and our state together to kind of talk these things through. Okay, what can we do? How can we help? Uh and maybe it works. And um Sean,

1:36:24as far as Hernando County goes, you represent now now as well. I know a couple of years ago they were going to uh t uh Washington to try to get, because they're a small county, some federal money for County Line Road. And maybe we can talk about that, how we can work together on that coming up because I know it's a big road for them and if we can get some outside federal funding or state funding to to help make that work for next year.

1:36:48J um and just going back to the um flooding on the flood zones on nineteen, especially when they just redid the maps. as we were looking as Amskills was looking to buy a building. We could not buy anything that was in a flood zone. because we wouldn't have been able to use any C D B G money. So it definitely affects the property values. uh along along that corridor. So Um you know, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know how you I don't know how you raise a highway or raise the land all alongside

1:37:18it, but That there's a laid tension to how we can make it resilient.

1:37:26Okay.

1:37:28Thank you guys. M uh Mr. Chairman M. Uh my assistant had given me some of this um some research when I was speaking before about broadband, but um Under um Let's see, under the Federal Communication Commission's FCC e-rate program. The government has given seven point two billion dollars for the emergency connectivity f in the Emergency connectivity fund. So there there's seven point two

1:37:58billion dollars to help communities with their connection issues. And David Ingall said that um There the h lack of high speed broadband inhibits economic growth and prosperity in multiple ways. Limits l it limits locations in the county that are attractive for business and industrial development. This is a major hurdle for redevelopment along the county's older commercial corridors. So it may be along three or one as well. I don't know. It limits equity in the community since most of the areas without broadband coverage cover census

1:38:28tracts with a high proportion of low and moderate income, limiting empowerment and education. So he said two years ago he approached the county CIO regarding lack of broadband service in the county. and that the county had looked at providing broadband service to areas that are not served by existing commercial carriers. But the legacy cost of infrastructure was a m major hurdle. So I do think there are some issues in the county that we never really talked about. Um The school district placed Khajit

1:38:59Smart Bus 900 Wi-Fi access points. At Lakutschie Elementary, Pasco Elementary, Woodland Elementary, Rodney B. Cox Elementary, and Cody River Elementary. to help serve those areas where um for economic reasons or others students could no could not access the internet mm during the pandemic. So

1:39:23Did you did you have something you want to say?