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Councilmember Louis Reinstein and Mayor Nick Sortal traveled to Tallahassee last week and would like to share the information below.
Each year elected officials from Broward County gather in Tallahassee during the state legislative session for Broward Days with the aim of asking for funding and votes on matters that support our mission and do no harm to local governance.
 The No. 1 reason we are up there is money. We have three requests for appropriations: $800,000 for a water main replacement in Park East, $800,000 for utility relocations on the Southwest 65th Avenue bridge and $450,000 to provide for inclusive playground elements in community parks. If making a case in person can help that happen, it’s time well spent. Two years ago, we received $800,000 for a prior phase of a water main replacement project in Park East.
Every city is unique and has its own issues and needs. Being in Tallahassee helps us stand out when we want to make sure our projects get extra attention.
Plantation elected officials became more actively engaged with the State Legislature after the 2018 elections. Councilmember Denise Horland has been the leader in reaching out to Tallahassee and the Florida League of Cities. (Prior to the trip she sustained a leg injury and had to cancel). Horland has built relationships in Tallahassee to advocate for appropriations and work for better legislation. She is also the first Plantation official to serve on the advocacy committee and chair a Florida League of Cities policy committee, being chosen to head up Utilities, Natural Resources and Public Works. We are also fortunate that councilmember Reinstein wears another hat in his capacity as legal counsel for the Broward Legislative Delegation and has built great relationships with our Broward legislators.
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We all believe that there are benefits to building these relationships.
You gotta remember how different Broward is. About 50 percent of Florida residents live in unincorporated, presumably rural, areas. The median city population of our 411 municipalities is about 8,000. It's no wonder that Broward County with 31 municipalities sharing 1.9 million residents (average population size of 61,000) seems like such an outlier.
In addition to the stated mission, here are some things we learned. (We’re intentionally not disclosing the names for a majority of the speakers, because they appeared with an understanding there was no media):
Broward Schools Superintendent Peter Licata addressed attendees at one breakfast and spoke passionately about educating children as early as possible. He asked those in the room to raise their hand if they knew how to read by the time they entered kindergarten and when many hands went up, he correlated that to later success.
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“This is an easy one,” he said. “Let’s move funding down a little bit further.
“It’s not that hard. It really isn’t. But if we don’t, we just continue spinning that wheel.”
He also exhorted elected officials to use their powers for good.
Someone else noted that 75 percent of those who aren’t at grade level after third grade don’t graduate, another point used to emphasize how vital early education is.
One speaker noted that Republicans and Democrats agree on 95 percent of the issues.
Property insurance is the No. 1 issue.“Stability in the market” does not equal a decrease in rates. But it has to be reasonable. They also want more competition, reasoning that will drop prices.
Another leader said the quickest way to get money back from insurance is to harden your home via MySafeFloridaHome.org, with a windstorm and mitigation inspection. Less risk = less probability to file a claim = less cost.
Another one noted that “we’re a sales tax economy.” Florida has no state income tax, unlike many major states like New York or California.
Email: Mayor@Plantation.org, LReinstein@Plantation.org, DHorland@Plantation.org
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