Specific provisions of the General Appropriations Act Implementing Bill that may affect counties are listed below:
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| Section 2. |
Provides that the Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice may expend appropriated funds to assist in defraying the costs of impacts that are incurred by a municipality or county and associated with opening or operating a facility under the authority of the respective department which is located within that municipality or county. The amount that is to be paid under this section for any facility may not exceed 1 percent of the facility construction cost, less building impact fees imposed by the municipality or by the county if the facility is located in the unincorporated portion of the county. |
| Section 7. |
Provides that funds in a special law enforcement trust fund, derived from the sale of forfeited property, may be used to reimburse the general fund of a local government for monies advanced from the general fund prior to October 1, 2001. |
| Section 8. |
Provides that for purposes of developing a tentative work program and not to penalize any district or county for local efforts to improve the State Highway System, the Department of Transportation will allocate funds for new construction to districts base on equal parts of population and motor fuel tax collections. The section provides the reduction of previous work plans to be consistent with any reduction in funding levels for SFY 2010, however it also authorizes the consideration of use of cash balances to fund current year projects and the deferral of out-year projects. |
| Section 9. |
Provides that the Department of Transportation (DOT) shall transfer funds to the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development in an amount equal to $20,300,000 for the purpose of funding economic development transportation projects. Also provides that funding for related projects shall not negatively impact existing projects that were funded as of July 1, 2009 in DOT’s five(5) year work program. |
| Section 10. |
Authorizes the Governor to recommend the initiation of fixed capital outlay projects funded by grants awarded by the federal government through the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). |
| Section 12. |
Authorizes the Department of Children and Families to allocate funds appropriated for forensic mental health treatment services to the areas of the state with the greatest service demand and capacity. Authorizes additional funds appropriated for substance abuse and mental health services in proportion to contributed provider earnings. |
| Section 15. |
Authorizes the use of a three step process for the provision of funds for Medicaid low-income pool payments to hospitals provider access systems. The first phase will distribute funding to qualified hospitals based on the amount of local government funding provided for the uninsured and underinsured. The second phase will distribute funding to qualified hospitals in proportion to amounts received in the first phase. The third phase of the process shall distribute funding based on a hospital’s Medicaid days, charity care days, and 50% of bad debt days respective of total Medicaid days, charity care days and 50% of bad debt days. Additionally authorizes $2.4 million to be allocated to rural hospitals. |
| Section 17. |
Requires that the Department of Children and Family Services ensure that all public and private agencies and institutions participating in child welfare cases enter specified information into the Florida Safe Families Network, the department’s child-welfare case management system. The department shall coordinate with the Office of the State Court Administrator to provide access to the information, and shall submit a report to the legislature and Governor by February 1, 2010. |
| Section 24. |
Defines the method in determining reductions in ad valorem tax revenue for purposes of allocating appropriations to offset reductions in fiscally constrained counties based on revisions to Article VII of the State Constitution approved in a special election held on January 29, 2008. |
| Section 30. |
Provides for the allocation of SFY 2010 appropriated funding from the Water Management Lands Trust Fund to be allocated for the purposes of paying debt service on bonds issued before February 1, 2009 by the South Florida Water Management District and the St. Johns Water Management District, transferring $8 million to the general fund, and the remaining funds to be distributed equally between the Suwannee River Water Management District and the Northwest Florida Water Management District. |
| Section 31. |
Extends for another year the authorization that the state may remove and clean the incidental petroleum discovered during routine removal and replacement of underground petroleum tanks at a site that is a low score site on the DEP’s petroleum clean-up list and that will become inaccessible for future remediation due to road infrastructure and right-of-way restrictions resulting from a pending Department of Transportation road construction project or for secondary containment upgrading of underground storage tanks required under chapter 62-761, Florida Administrative Code. |
| Section 32. |
Provides for the funding of activities related to the preservation and repair of the state’s beaches from the Ecosystem Management and Restoration Trust Fund. |
| Section 35. |
Requires the Department of Environmental Protection to award $2.6 million of grant funds equally to counties having populations of fewer than 100,000 for waste tire, litter prevention, recycling and education, and general solid waste programs. |
| Section 41. |
Authorizes funds in the Department of Transportation’s State Transportation Trust Fund to be used to pay administrative expenses incurred in accordance with applicable laws for a multicounty transportation or expressway authority created under chapter 343 or chapter 348, where jurisdiction for the authority includes a portion of the State Highway System and the administrative expenses are in furtherance of the duties and responsibilities of the authority in the development of improvements to the State Highway System. |
| Section 42. |
Authorizes funds in the Department of Transportation’s State Transportation Trust Fund to be used for the purposes of funding county and school district transportation infrastructure improvements. |
| Section 47. |
Authorizes funding to be used for the “Florida Homebuyer Opportunity Program” to be used to ensure that residents of the state derive the maximum possible benefit from the federal first-time homebuyer tax credit created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The section further defines the requirements and guidelines for the program an d used of its respective funding by state and local government agencies. |
| Section 62. |
Provides that, except as otherwise expressly provided in this act, this act shall take effect July 1, 2009; or, if this act fails to become a law until after that date, it shall take effect upon becoming a law and shall operate retroactively to July 1, 2009. |