ORLANDO, Fla. — A nonprofit organization wants the voters in Orange County to decide if they want to raise taxes for an organization of leaders whose main focus would be on helping the county's children.
- Children's Trust trying to get taxes raised to better help children
- UCF professors say Orange Co. kids need significantly more help
- County commissioners to review UCF study
One after the other Tuesday morning, advocates as well as members of the community spoke out in support of creating the Children's Services Council to be put on the ballot connected to a property tax increase.
The money from the increase would surmount to about $100 to $200 per average homeowner.
The Children’s Trust and their supporters say they money would fund the Children’s Services Council, a group made up of some elected and appointed individuals who would invest the money in groups they decide need the funds.
"The Children’s Services Council first order of business is to do a needs assessment, and when you look at the continuum of care, where are the gaps, what programs work and don’t work, and funds that do work and try to move the needle in that direction and improve the lives of young people,” said Children’s Trust chairman Dick Batchelor, who frequently appears on Spectrum News 13 as a political expert.
If approved, the council would be made up of some elected officials and some people appointed by the governor.
Those 10 people in Orange County would have a say in what happens to property tax dollars amounting to about $58 million a year.
Following a recent study of children’s needs in Orange County, UCF professor Thomas Bryer and his partner discovered kids in Orange County need a lot more than what they are getting.
“Currently there are 3,400 children on the wait list for subsidized child care in Orange County. One in 17 children will experience homelessness throughout the course of the year,” Bryer said.
CEO and President of Shepherds Hope Marni Stahlman at the commission meeting said, “It’s time for this board to take another step forward now and move to place the Children’s Trust Initiative on the ballot. Let our neighbors vote, choosing once again to protect the most vulnerable among us our children.”
While most of the speakers were on board, many were concerned with how that property tax would impact low income families.
"Put it nicely, call it the children’s fund. You know what? Bringing another burden of tax for tax payers for those families who are barely making it, is not nice. Get it from someplace else, even though I support every effort to help children," said an Orlando resident.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said putting county tax payer dollars -- $58 million worth -- in the hands of an independent group that isn’t all elected and doesn’t answer to the county could be dangerous.
“The biggest challenge that I have for this is that in my life, I have never agreed that people who aren’t elected should be able to tax and spend our tax dollars,” Mayor Jacobs explained.
Mayor Jacobs and all those involved with the UCF study agree children are a priority.