Qualified Target Industry Fiinal Report  -- The Collins Center conducted a review of the Qualified Target Industry tax refund program for Enterprise Florida, the public-private partnership responsible for heading up Florida's statewide economic development effort.

The purpose of the tax credit education scholarship program as defined by the Florida Legislature is to provide low income school aged children with scholarships which will expand their educational opportunities and help the children of Florida achieve a greater level of educational excellence. Business taxpayers use limited tax credits against their Florida corporate income taxes to fund this program. The Collins Center's research objective was to determine the tax credit program’s impact on public education revenue. The Collins Center updated its 2002 projections of the Florida Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program fiscal impact upon public education revenues with data from fiscal years 2002-2004. The major findings for the three years of available data (2002 FY- 2004 FY) are provided in this report.

 

This (January 2006) study explains the basic outlines of the Florida education finance system – how much is spent, where it comes from, where it goes and what the trend in spending looks like over time. It includes detailed tables of revenue and spending figures for all 67 Florida school districts.

 

Revitalizing Democracy: 2001 -- Following the Election 2000 controversy in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush asked the Collins Center to organize and staff the Governor's Select Task Force on Elections Procedures, Standards and Technology. Its purpose was to research the best practices for elections procedures and standards and to find the best available technology, to take public testimony and input, and to recommend solutions to the Governor and the Legislature.

Florida’s voters went to the polls on November 5, 2002 to test one of the nation’s most comprehensive election reform efforts since the very close and controversial 2000 presidential election. New voting machines, new voter education efforts, new early voting schedules, and newly trained poll workers were key pieces of this election process. Follow-up Voter Satisfaction Surveys were conducted in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Results from all three surveys indicated that Florida has come a long way to restore voter confidence since the 2000 presidential election.

 

2006 Voter Satisfaction Survey Press Release
2006 Voter Satisfaction Synopsis of Survey Results

 

An early Collins Center project was a 1991 convening of citizens that devised the Florida Voluntary Code of Fair Campaign Practices for candidates, news media and the public. Former St. Petersburg Times Publisher Eugene Patterson, a member of the original board of the Collins Center, spearheaded the convening that devised The Code of Fair Campaign Practices.

 

Our Environmental Emergency is Now -- In the latest issue of the FORUM, the magazine of the Florida Humanities Council, Collins Center Vice President Steve Seibert discusses Florida's growing population and its potential impact on one of our state's most precious resources -- the environment.

 

Men of color have "higher overall rates of death than white males and a higher rate of preventable diseases." In addition, "men of color suffer from higher rates of poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and discrimination than their white counterparts.” With the strains on the safety net, those most likely to lose coverage are men. In 2003, as part of the W.K. Kellogg Men’s Health Initiative and with ongoing support from the National Center for Primary Care at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Community Voices Miami partnered with The Growth Partnership to launch a men’s health study in Overtown, one of the poorest communities in the United States. The objective of this work was to better understand the status of men’s health in Overtown (Overtown Summary- Overtown Stats) and to raise awareness among public policy makers and the community at large about issues confronting men from distressed communities in general. In doing so, project leaders also sought to draw parallels between Overtown and other similar communities across the country. Miami’s Overtown, a historically African-American neighborhood, is one of the lowest urban wage centers in the country.

 

In the interest of public safety, fiscal responsibility, and criminal justice effectiveness, the Florida Coalition for Smart Justice opened a conversation to explore better ways to achieve a safer, more just, and more effective criminal justice system that will have the desired outcomes of less crime, less public costs, and greater rehabilitative effect on offenders. The Coalition seeks to both identify and achieve safer and healthier communities for Florida’s citizens as a result of an improved criminal justice system.

 

This work was completed in February 2006 by attorneys at the Florida Justice Institute, Inc., for the Collins Center for Public Policy, Inc., in support of its work for the Governor's Ex-Offender Task Force.

 

Sustainable Florida:  On this page you will find links to Sustainable Florida - Collins Center publications, compilations of best practices from award winning organizations, case studies for use in the class room and informative links to other organizations.

 

Potential Impacts of Oil & Gas Exploration in the Gulf - During the 2009 legislative session, the Florida House passed HB 1219. Regulation of State Lands and Oil and Gas Resources. HB 1219 would have removed existing prohibitions against granting leases on state-owned submerged lands (i.e., state waters) and against granting permits to explore for and develop oil or gas resources in state waters.

 

In November 2009, Senate President Jeff Atwater called upon the Century Commission – along with Florida State University’s Institute for Energy Systems and Economic Sustainability (IESES) and the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research – to assist the Senate with a detailed and comprehensive review of the implications of offshore drilling. In responding to the charge from Mr. Atwater, the Collins Center for Public Policy, which staffs the Century Commission, developed this information resource for the citizens of Florida. For more information on this project, visit Exploring the Gulf.