100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future, by Marco Rubio: on Welfare & Poverty


Marco Rubio: Incentives to actually construct affordable housing

Floridians need affordable housing. However, due to dramatic increases in housing costs, many low- and middle-income Florida families can no longer afford safe and decent housing. Florida's affordable housing shortage is exacerbated by developers' failur to build affordable housing beyond what is legally required. This partly stems from a lack of incentives for builders to ACTUALLY CONSTRUCT affordable housing.

Solution: Increase incentives for developers to construct affordable housing. The 2006 Legislature encouraged the provision of affordable housing for essential service personnel, extending housing assistance to those with extremely low incomes, and providing other financial and regulatory incentives to encourage affordable housing. The legislation included density bonus incentives for land donations for affordable housing purposes. Florida should increase incentives for developers to not only provide the land for affordable housing, but also construct the housing units themselves.

Source: 100 Innovative Ideas, by Marco Rubio, p. 96 Nov 1, 2006

Marco Rubio: Redesign child welfare to outsource foster care

In 1996, the Florida Legislature launched a pilot program to redesign the child welfare system by outsourcing foster care services to qualified service agencies led by community leaders. The development of the community-based care initiative revealed the natural tension between central accountability and local control. The early days of community-based care relied heavily on the department's central control and community-based care groups (CBCs). As CBCs have gained experience, they have sought greater independence and a broader span of control.

The 2005 Legislature authorized a pilot program to create a block-grant structure that establishes a fixed price contrast with an independent, outcome-based evaluation. Significant progress has been made, but greater opportunities exist in the movement toward block-grant, outcome-driven operations. These programs should be modified as necessary and expanded as soon as feasible.Florida should enhance independence and flexibility in community-based care.

Source: 100 Innovative Ideas, by Marco Rubio, p.101-103 Nov 1, 2006

Marco Rubio: Institute tax-free zones in downtrodden inner-city areas

During the 1990s, Republicans in the US House of Representatives, seeking an alternative to the failed 1960s-era anti-poverty orthodoxy, approved welfare reform measures that overhauled thirty years of government entitlement programs. Today, notwithstanding these anti-poverty measures, Miami is one of America's poorest cities--an unacceptable designation.

Fostering growth in downtrodden regions requires a bold, dramatic, and innovative approach to economic development and urban revitalization. The Legislature should institute a pilot program that creates a tax-free zone in the most economically depressed areas of our state. Florida must resolve to break down the economic obstacles that exist in many urban centers today with the same vigilance and zeal used to assail racial and gender barriers over the past forty years.

Source: 100 Innovative Ideas, by Marco Rubio, p.165-166 Nov 1, 2006

  • The above quotations are from 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future, by Marco Rubio.
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Candidates and political leaders on Welfare & Poverty:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Nov 29, 2018