Public Service Funding Mystery Series Episode 2 – Where does the money go?
On March 19th, the Florida Legislature adopted its 2020-2021 annual appropriations budget which totaled $93.2 billion. That money is distributed to 31 departments and agencies which serve the citizens of Florida. The budget is not final yet as the Governor has a line item veto which can be used to eliminate any of the nearly 800 local projects totaling nearly $500 million.
The governor’s recommended budget groups the departments & agencies into six major categories. A comparison of 2001-02 to 2020-21 follows:
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| 2001-02 | 2020-21 | Inc. | 2001-02 | 2020-21 | Inc. |
| Category | $ | $ | (Dec.) | % | % | (Dec.) |
| 1. Education | 15,502 | 27,043 | 11,541 | 32.15% | 29.01% | -3.14% |
| 2. Health & Human Services | 16,312 | 39,363 | 23,051 | 33.83% | 42.23% | 8.40% |
| 3. Criminal Justice | 3,131 | 4,963 | 1,832 | 6.49% | 5.32% | -1.17% |
| 4. Environment | 3,066 | 4,454 | 1,388 | 6.36% | 4.78% | -1.58% |
| 5. Transportation | 7,431 | 11,587 | 4,156 | 15.41% | 12.43% | -2.98% |
| 6. General Government | 2,779 | 5,806 | 3,027 | 5.76% | 6.23% | 0.47% |
| Total | $48,221 | $93,216 | $44,995 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 0.00% |
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| Health Care Admin – Medicaid | 10,377 | 30,778 | 20,401 | 21.52% | 33.02% | 11.50% |
| Children & Families (DCF) | 2,538 | 3,370 | 832 | 5.26% | 3.62% | -1.65% |
| Juvenile Justice (DJJ) | 623 | 587 | (36) | 1.29% | 0.63% | -0.66% |
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The growth rates show that Health Care – Medicaid has been the priority over the past 20 years. About 60% of Medicaid costs are federally funded but Florida must find revenue to cover its growing 40% share each year. Medicaid’s share of the total budget has increased by 11.50%, reducing the share available to all the other categories.
Education has suffered the biggest decline of 3.14% which in 2020-21 would be a loss of $2.9 billion. The DCF and DJJ have suffered declines of 1.65% & 0.66% which equate to losses of $1.5 billion & $615 million. Each of those three departments will be featured in an upcoming monthly Newsletter.