Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by YES Market Media
A recent United Way research reveals that over half of Florida households are working but still find it difficult to make ends meet. The report highlights the mounting financial pressures on Floridians.
In 2022, the study’s focus year, 4 million of the 8.8 million households in the state were either impoverished or unable to pay “the basic cost of living in their county.” Many of them were ineligible for government aid.
The study does not assign blame; instead, it uses statistics from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Census. However, a number of policy analysts stated that Florida’s state government should take greater action to keep the state from becoming unaffordable for the working class, especially in light of the recent period of inflation and the termination of pandemic public assistance.
Chief executive officer of the left-leaning Florida Policy Institute Sadaf Knight sent an email to the Herald/Times saying, “We need to ensure that state lawmakers are fully investing in people and communities across the board to boost Floridians’ fiscal stability.” “This entails providing meaningful, targeted tax relief to Floridians who are having financial difficulties.”
According to government data, the percentage of financially strapped homes in Florida has been rising, with 13 percent of households currently falling below the federal poverty threshold, which is $31,200 for a family of four. Florida was placed 44th out of all the states and the District of Columbia in terms of family financial troubles.
According to the survey, households headed by Black people (60%) and Hispanic people (52%), who are employed, fall below the criterion known as the ALICE (asset limited, income restricted, and employed) set by the United Way.
Cashiers, chefs, stockers, order fillers, fast food and counter employees, security guards, and other workers in the state’s predominately low-wage industry were among those most likely to face difficulties.
Ben Albritton, a Republican from Wautulla who will take over as president of the Florida Senate, stated that state lawmakers are already tackling the state’s affordability problems.
In an email to the Herald/Times, Albritton said, “In Tallahassee, we have worked on short and long-term solutions to help keep our state affordable for young families, retirees, and everyone in between.”
However, working Floridians face numerous obstacles.
According to the analysis, the minimal cost of housing, food, and transportation for a single adult in Florida went up from $28,344 to $30,084 in 2022. The rise for households consisting of an infant and a preschooler was from $66,324 to $81,120.
Furthermore, pandemic aid for families ended in 2021 with the expiration of the American Rescue Plan, significantly limiting the financial resources of families throughout Florida when tax credits returned to their levels from 2020.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has often accused President Joe Biden of causing inflation to rise. In response, he pushed last year for tax discounts on diapers and other home goods as well as toll relief for drivers.
He also fought for funding for workforce initiatives and trade apprenticeships, and he signed legislation into law aimed at increasing the state’s supply of affordable housing.
However, he also put into effect this year a bill that forbids local governments from asking their contractors to pay more than the minimum wage established by the state, which is scheduled to rise to $15 per hour in 2026. He forbade municipal governments from enacting rent restrictions last year.
Additionally, he increased taxes on Floridians by $1 billion annually by mandating that out-of-state businesses begin paying sales taxes in 2021. Corporations benefited tax-wise from the judgment.
Medicaid coverage expansion for working-class people has also been rejected by DeSantis and the Legislature. A Fox News anchor questioned DeSantis on why Florida’s uninsured percentage was higher than the national average at the second GOP presidential debate held last year.
“The population is growing. Additionally, Florida offers few welfare benefits,” DeSantis retorted. “Basically, we’re saying that this is a field of dreams and that you can succeed here, but we’re not going to be like California, where a huge number of people are on government programs without having to work.”
The Herald/Times sent inquiries for comment to DeSantis’ office, but they received no response.
Legislators may alleviate the situation by, among other things, expanding access to subsidized child care, extending the hours of voluntary pre-K to all day, and putting in place a scheme that would give working-class families tax rebates, according to Knight, CEO of the Florida Policy Institute.
In order to help reduce property taxes, lawmakers lowered insurance policy levies and put a constitutional amendment on the ballot, according to Albritton, the incoming president of the Florida Senate.
Albritton added, “More families have options for where they live and how their children are educated, thanks to legislators’ huge investments in affordable housing and school choice.”
Albritton stated that there is always space for improvement and more work to be done, adding that families in Florida are undoubtedly experiencing the effects of inflation, which is “having a serious impact across the country.”
Nevertheless, he claimed that the legislature had approved “historic tax relief that helps lower the cost of raising children and aging with dignity, packed with tax holidays and permanent tax relief.”
In April, Albritton’s opponent, Miami native and incoming House Speaker Danny Perez, R-Miami, stated to WLPGLocal 10 News that the state’s biggest problem was affordability. Requests for comment on this story were not answered by him.
The United Way research outlines a number of issues that lead to an increasingly expensive state and observes that the number of financially strapped households in Florida has been rising since the Great Recession.
After the federal and state eviction bans ended in 2022, 47 percent of households earning less than the ALICE criterion said that rent accounted for more than half of their income.
A TOLL ON DEBT, SAVINGS, AND BASIC NEEDS
As stated in the report:
Families throughout the state found it difficult to cover necessities like food, auto payments, and medical costs.
Wage gains were observed for the majority of low-paying jobs; nevertheless, in Florida, the median retail-sales pay increased from $13.46 per hour in 2021 to $14.03 in 2022, but these increases “were not enough to make up for years of falling behind.”
Child care expenses continued to be among the highest. “Parents have fewer options due to provider shortages and a lack of affordable care,” the research states.
In Florida, over half of Black and Hispanic families with low incomes did not have access to healthcare because they could not afford it.
The survey indicated that seniors have witnessed the highest increase in the number of homes below the threshold, and that people 65 and older who are leading such households are also experiencing financial challenges.
According to the survey, “many older adults have needed to continue working due to rising costs and insufficient retirement savings.” “In 2022, approximately 218,000 individuals aged 65 and above who were employed in Florida and below the ALICE threshold had retirement savings that did not exceed Social Security.”
According to data from the Federal Reserve, credit card balances are at $1.12 trillion, 13.1% higher than they were a year ago, and household debt levels nationwide increased by $184 billion in the first quarter of 2024. The newly elected president of the Florida Senate, Albritton, stated, “Those are real impacts.”
However, DeSantis has utilized the state’s expanding finances to pay down state debt ahead of schedule and put away $17 billion in reserves—points he has touted repeatedly during the campaign trail—while families in Florida are struggling to make ends meet.
DeSantis and Republican legislative leaders, rather than being helpful, added to the suffering of Floridians, according to lobbyist Karen Woodall of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy.
She called it “criminal” that the state has been laying aside so much money rather than using it to assist its inhabitants.
According to Woodall, “there is no rational, reasonable explanation for why people in this state are in this situation.”
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
