Q&A – What’s The Real Story Behind the Hope Florida Controversy? - Driven By Braman Motorcars
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Is there something to the Hope Florida thing or is this a political hit to keep Casey from running for Gov?
Bottom Line: It’s a good question because there’s a good chance most Floridians aren’t aware of what Hope Florida is, let alone what the recently purported controversy surrounding the program actually is about. Yet, it’s this story that the DeSantis’s critics hope will keep Casey out of the governor’s race and also potentially to put an end to the state’s funding of the program in the current state legislative session. So, let’s start by discussing a little background about the Hope Florida program.
Hope Florida is a program spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis and implemented through the Florida Department of Children and Families starting in September of 2021. It aims to guide Floridians toward prosperity and self-sufficiency by connecting them with community resources. The program employs "Hope (or Care) Navigators," who work one-on-one with individuals to identify barriers—such as lack of skills, childcare, or employment opportunities—and develop personalized plans to overcome them. It emphasizes collaboration between the private sector, faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and government to maximize support without relying solely on public assistance.
While Casey has generally played an active role within the DeSantis administration, Hope Florida is her signature initiative as Florida's First Lady. According to the DCF’s records, since its establishment, Hope Florida has served over 100,000 Floridians, helping nearly 30,000 program participants to reduce or eliminate reliance on public assistance programs, with an estimated taxpayer savings of $80 million annually. There are currently 42 locations across the state for individuals to receive in-person assistance. That takes us to where the potential controversy begins.
Last Wednesday Politico produced a report detailing a “mysterious” $10 million “donation” from healthcare company Centene, which operates Sunshine Health. At the crux of the story is this. Centene had been engaged in a lawsuit with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (and agencies in 20 other states) over allegations that the company had been overcharging Medicaid for prescriptions. The company entered into negotiated settlements totaling over $1 billion. Florida’s share of the settlement was $67 million. Notably, in Florida’s settlement agreement $10 million was to be allocated to Hope Florida. Those are the known facts. This takes us to the allegations.
Pensacola Republican Alex Andrade, Chair of Florida’s House Health Care Budget Subcommittee had been looking into the matter and said this in a committee hearing to Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris: I still can’t get answers about a $10 million transfer of funds that was probably illegal. That’s when this situation turned ugly – first in the committee and then outside of it in the form of controversy.
Harris said the $10 million specifically went to community-based organizations via Hope Florida that aided in people becoming more self-sufficient. She also said that it wasn’t taxpayer money, so she didn’t understand why she’d been called by the subcommittee to address the matter. Andrade said he found that to be “offensive”. That’s an important distinction in this. His conclusion was: It looks like a creative way, without oversight, to send $10 million in taxpayer dollars to Hope Florida.
So that’s what the situation is and that’s where we are with this. Naturally with Andrade’s charge that the DeSantis administration illegally allocated taxpayer funds to the benefit of Casey DeSantis’s hallmark program, that was ripe for news outlets to pounce on and they have.
Now, in terms of what’s what here I think there are two different lanes to consider. First, there is the matter as to if the DeSantis administration (perhaps up to and including the governor or first lady) used a heavy hand to steer the funds, or if state administrators viewed Hope Florida as the best use for those funds. Second, there is the matter as to if the steering of those funds, without legislative approval, was in fact an illegal end around the legislature. Third, there’s the end result to consider. This isn’t some Hunter Biden Burisma or Chinese energy scam where the end result was the DeSantis’s lining their pockets. There’s no dispute that the money went to Hope Florida. It’s also documented that Hope Florida has helped tens of thousands of Floridians within just a few years. Unless there’s much more to the story about specific illicit use of those funds by Hope Florida, what’s the real story here? That the DeSantis administration at worst used direct influence to help Floridians through a program that’s evidenced to have worked?
The angle that DeSantis critics would suggest would be in play, is that it would be advantageous to Casey DeSantis for Hope Florida to look as successful as possible for a potential gubernatorial bid. That very well may be. But even then, if Floridians were still helped in the end, what really would the impropriety be?
For those reasons, unless there’s considerably more to the story that’s evidenced, a la inappropriate use of the funds at Hope Florida, there’s likely less to this story than meets the eye.