House looks to cut Hope Florida staffing as lawmakers scramble to set budget

Miami Herald

2 days ago

In an early, antagonizing move during the dedicated two-week budget conference that began Tuesday, the Republican House lawmaker investigating Hope Florida is proposing to cut millions from its state funding.
Rep. Alex Andrade is striking funding for 20 Hope navigator positions, state workers who man a hotline and are supposed to direct people in need to nongovernment programs for help. The hotline is the communicative spine of Hope Florida, intended to help wean people off of government assistance.
Andrade also suggested striking six proposed positions for navigators from the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs. The positions were requested in Gov. Ron DeSantis' proposed budget and initially funded in the House's healthcare offer from March.
But that was before Andrade began investigating the charity supporting Hope Florida.
The total amount the House is proposing to cut from its March healthcare budget offer is $2.5 million. The Senate would have to agree to the cuts.
Hope Florida's helpline is currently funded by federal child abuse prevention grants through the American Rescue Plan, which is set to expire. DeSantis asked lawmakers for $2 million to continue staffing the call line.
It's not clear how much Hope Florida, a nebulous program that spans numerous state agencies, costs the state. DeSantis has said it repurposes existing resources, including by converting at least 150 people to Hope navigators, but the state has also paid a vendor about $6 million to match needy Floridians with local churches and nonprofits under the program.
Andrade said that while the Hope Florida navigators give him 'less heartburn' than the related charity, he was still concerned about the state program. The program and the charity are linked in their mission to get Floridians off of government aid. Both are spearheaded by first lady Casey DeSantis.
Since Hope Florida has come under scrutiny, the first couple have been calling it a 'philosophy,' not a program. Andrade said their inability to define Hope Florida was troubling. And it also worried him that the state official who ran Hope Florida in the Department of Children and Families, Shevaun Harris, didn't know while testifying in his health budget committee earlier this year that there was someone who was responsible for the entire program.
'Shevaun Harris didn't realize she'd hired the Hope Florida executive director,' Andrade said over text message about why he was making the cuts, 'and the Governor's office can't decide if the program is a 'philosophy' or a 'movement.''
When asked whether the proposed cuts would affect negotiations between the two chambers, Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican and the Senate chairman of the health budget conference, said he didn't 'see any particular issue being a hang-up at this point.'
'It's more of a question of how far we can get before tomorrow at 2,' Trumbull told the Herald/Times in a text message. 'We are working to make as much progress as possible.'
Without a resolution by Thursday afternoon, higher-ranking members of the House and Senate will decide what to do with the navigator positions.
A Senate spokeswoman said that while Senate President Ben Albritton supports his chamber's offer on the Hope navigators — funding the 20 staffers currently employed and six additional positions in Veterans' Affairs — he wasn't going to weigh in at this time on how big a deal the House's decision is for negotiations.
Albritton, who is emphatic about his faith, generally supports Hope Florida. One of the key elements of the program is that it taps into the faith community for help steering Floridians from government aid.
'The mission of Hope Florida makes sense to me. I do believe it will help people that need direction to be able to build a better path for their life,' Albritton, R-Wauchula, told CBS News Miami on April 13.
The next day, the Herald/Times reported Andrade was planning to subpoena the attorney general in relation to his Hope Florida probe. He never did send the subpoena. Regardless, Albritton quickly killed legislation moving through his chamber that would have enshrined the program into state law.
'State government should be about continuous improvement,' Albritton said at the time. 'When things are not as transparent as we would like, or as they should be, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we should improve and look for opportunities to do better moving forward.'
Miami Herald religion reporter Lauren Costantino contributed to this report.