BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Editor
Union County has banded together with several other small counties that have significant prison inmate populations to ask the Florida legislature to increase a program called the Supplemental Distribution to the amounts originally approved for distribution to the counties.
Union County Coordinator Jimmy Williams is always looking for ways to save the county money and to discover more funding sources for county operations as well. He and his staff discovered the reduced distributions in a review of the routine funding the county receives from the state and he presented the matter to those in attendance at the recent meeting of the Small County Coalition. It was decided to send the legislature a group letter requesting that they allocate the full amount originally approved when the program was put in place. The funds for distribution come from the Local Government Half-cent Sales Tax Clearing Trust Fund.
The funds are a form of compensation to small counties for the impact the large prisons and high prison population (more than 7% of the county’s total population) have on their finances, made into law in 1982. Prisons take up large areas of land in these small counties but are exempt from paying ad valorem taxes (the largest source of funding for most counties) on this land. In addition, large prison facilities increase the usage of local roads which must still be serviced and maintained largely (except for some grant money)by the counties.
The distribution is made up of two parts and is available to any county that meets two criteria. The county must have a population of 65,000 or less and must have received less than the current per capita limitation based on the county’s population. Currently, the counties that meet these criteria are: Baker, Bradford, Calhoun, Dixie, Franklin, Glades, Gulf, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson, Lafayette, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, Union, Wakulla and Washington.
The amount of funds each county should be receiving, according to the original plan, is based on the percentage of the county population that is made up of inmates. For Union County that percentage is 31.10% (the highest percentage among the 17 counties listed to receive the distributions. For Bradford the percentage is 13.32%. If the distributions were fully funded this would bring the amount allocated to Union County to $289,632. If fully funded, Bradford would receive $231,306.
For the past 25 years or more the funding has been reduced and has remained at the same level since 1997. Under the current reduction, Union County has been receiving only $73,533 ($216,099 less than full funding) and Bradford County only $58,725 ($172,581 less than full funding). These figures are derived from the actual amount appropriated for the 2021-22 distribution by the legislature in its final budget for that fiscal year.
In their communication to the legislature the small counties state that the funding has remained at the same, reduced level for the past 25 years with no specific reason given. The statutes require the Department of Revenue to calculate the amount each county should receive annually, which is not being done. The Small County Coalition is seeking to have the statute amended to require that the responsibility of the calculation be moved to the Revenue Estimating Conference so that the actual calculation can be factored into the appropriations process. This would give the legislature the full funding figure to deal with while writing the state budget and allow the counties to receive the full amount (percentage) by law.
The fund amounts originally intended for allocation to the counties would go a long way to help them make ends meet in their own budgets and the Small County Coalition is dedicated to making the legislature work within the statutes as written. The results of this effort will become apparent in the next completed budget arrived at by the legislature in the next few weeks.
