The intent of this allocation is to improve the lives of children with autism through services including Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Behavior Analysis, and Psychiatry.

In addition, the program provides 4 hours of respite to caregivers. For participants the program provides socialization and wellness to improve:

Physical Health:
*  Fine motor skills,
*  Gross motor skills,
*   Exercise, and
*   Activity
Resulting in decreased doctor visits, decreased ER visits, decreased visits to the CSU, Pediatric Symptom Checklist 

Mental Health:
*  Help children develop necessary skills to establish healthy, age appropriate peer relationships;
*  Learn to engage with other children.
 

WRAP provides specialty mental health services to high-risk uninsured children/adolescents in Collier County who have severe to moderate problems in functioning across settings and for whom funding for an appropriate level of care does not otherwise exist.

Services provided include: mental health assessment, diagnosis, therapy, psychiatric services, and case management services for children with either a mental health diagnosis or co-occurring mental health/substance use diagnoses.

The majority of the services provided, including mental health assessment, diagnosis, individual and family therapy, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, case management services, crisis support and related supportive services for children, will be community-based and provided in the home and/or school settings (as appropriate).
 

The goals of the program are:
*  To offer opportunities for persons with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (ADRD) to engage in a program of meaningful social and recreational activities, in a secure and supportive setting, in order to maximize their cognitive and social abilities; and
*  To provide relief and support to family members and other primary caregivers of individuals with ADRD.

Activities are designed to help communication, improve mood and socialization skills. 
  * 80% of participants will be less agitated while in the group and shortly afterward.
  * 90% will be more engaged in their surroundings during the group and immediately following group.
  * 70% of participants will experience fewer symptoms of "sun downing" on days when they had music therapy in the group.
 
In addition, the program provides 4 hours of respite to caregivers. 95% of the caregivers report that the group has had a positive effect on their lives

Lighthouse for the Blind/Collier (LOC) - $90,000.00

The Lighthouse of Collier will serve thirty or more clients with blind or vision loss, who want to maintain independence in their homes. We utilize a Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (CVRT) or Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) or OT with Low Vision Rehabilitation certification to provide 1:1 instruction in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) to enable clients to function independently within their homes. 

LOC will provide educational services and training in clients' homes to help maintain their independence. Clients will be given anywhere from 3-15 lessons in compensatory skills depending on their vision loss.
 

This is the first critical step to master plan a multi-million dollar series of infrastructure projects including the conversion of septic to sewer, rehabilitation of stormwater system to improve flood protection and water quality, roadway improvements, and other related site improvements to promote functionality, health and safety. In addition, this area serves a population that is highly challenged by the cost of housing and other essential costs of living.

Benefits
Improve physical health thru the conversion of residences to sanitary sewer from failing septic systems.

Enhance/preserve/improve environmental or fish and wildlife quality.  The flowway will provide water quality improvements to benefit an area much larger than the project boundaries. Combined with additional stormwater improvements and septic conversions, this project will provide substantial water quality benefits as well as protection to sensitive environmental lands.

Protect the general public from harm (environmental, criminal, etc.) Reduce potential of flooding of roads and properties during major storm events by increasing stormwater conveyance and allowing faster recovery times for areas that are impacted.
Improve transportation conditions by reducing potential of flooding of roads during major storm events by increasing stormwater conveyance and allowing faster recovery times for areas that are impacted.
 

Naples Botanical Garden is developing a 75,000-square-foot Horticulture Campus that will enable it to better meet Southwest Florida’s environmental challenges, while contributing to global conservation efforts and enhancing its 170-acre property, a major tourism draw for Collier County. This center will allow the Garden to develop nature-based solutions to issues such as intensifying storms, warming temperatures, shoreline erosion, polluted stormwater runoff and declining pollinator populations

  * Increased growing space will allow the Garden to expand its collection of subtropical plants from various regions of the world, exposing visitors to new cultures and landscapes.
  * The campus will allow horticulturalists to refine growing techniques; test plant varieties for longevity, resilience and overall health; and share knowledge with commercial growers, environmental groups, and local governments.
  * Greenhouses and labs are designed to accommodate visitors from the public and the industry for tours, workshops, demonstrations and related educational opportunities.
  * The Garden collaborates with area environmental groups and local governments on ways to use plants to mitigate environmental challenges such as poor water quality and beach erosion. The Horticulture Campus allows the Garden to grow plants that are well-suited for these environmental purposes. In many cases, they are not widely available in the commercial landscape trade.
  * The Garden believes in nature based solutions to environmental problems such as harmful algal blooms. The Horticulture Campus will offer the facilities needed to advance its work in showing the benefits of rain gardens, shoreline plantings and bio-swales, such as the one being developed with Collier County at Hamilton Ave.
  * Research conducted at this facility will enable the Garden to introduce new sustainable plant species to the Florida landscape trade. This will benefit commercial and retail nurseries, landscape architects, land developers, landscaping companies, and commercial and government landowners.
  * Naples Botanical Garden consistently is among the topranked attractions in Collier County, drawing approximately 250,000 people/year. The new growing facilities will facilitate the production of additional "showpiece" plants that drive visitation and inspire repeat visits.
  * The Horticulture Campus will give Naples Botanical Garden increased capacity to grow more plants for community environmental and water quality projects; offer additional community education; and create demonstration landscapes illustrating how to use plants to purify stormwater.
  * Strategic landscape design will prompt water to move more slowly, allowing plants to absorb pollutants before the water filters into the ground.
 

Tide leveling and canal flushing is an integral part of the City of Marco Island's Master Plan for water pollution control. During the original development of the island, the tide leveling/flushing structures and piping were omitted from the development due to funding restrictions. This project will improve the water quality in two large basins separated by a major arterial roadway, San Marco Road. The project will install dual 48-inch pipe culverts as well as inlet structures

Enhance/Preserve/Improve Environmental or Fish and Wildlife Quality
Increased flushing action will increase the amount of oxygen in the canal waters therefore improving the habits for fish and wildlife.

Improve Stormwater Management
By completing one more project from our Master Planned Stormwater Management Program we are advancing toward overall stormwater containment. Street flooding will also be eliminated by the installation of swale inlets along the Tide Leveling pipe system.

Improve Surface Water Quality
With the completion of this project, water quality will be improved by the flushing action between two canal water basins twice a day at high and low tides.
 

The hardened building with increased size would allow the Golden Gate Senior Center to better organize their programs for area seniors, and also allow the community to take better advantage of aid opportunities available immediately after emergencies and other natural disasters. Expanded space will also be used by the Golden Gate Library in partnership with the Senior Center.

The Golden Gate Senior Center (GGSC) hosts the senior lunch program administered by Collier County Community & Human Services (CHS) Senior Nutrition Program. CHS also administers the senior utility assistance program and the Emergency Home Energy Assistance for the Elderly program. Expansion and provision of needed resiliency efforts immediately after emergency situations.

The Golden Gate Senior Center is home to programs, activities, and services providing wellness, education, nutritional meals, financial assistance, utility assistance, civic/recreational events for community seniors. Additional program space will allow the adjacent Golden Gate Library to expand educational, informational, and recreational programming to the needs of all ages.

 

This is a complete replacement of the existing Wastewater Treatment Facility to reduce the risks associated with the existing facility and to guarantee compliance with FDEP Rules and Regulations.  It eliminates the combined domestic/commercial wastewater discharge to the environmentally sensitive Ten Thousand Islands Wildlife Refuge, Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress National Preserve.

A permanent, reinforced composite concrete plant will have 30+ years life cycle with resiliency in lieu of the current metal package plant that has far exceeded its life cycle.
 

In 2007, The Florida Army National Guard proposed the construction of a military Readiness Center on 26 acres of land at the Immokalee Regional Airport (IMM).  In 2009, the Board of County Commissioners (Collier) approved a 25-year lease agreement with the National Guard. However, due to the economic downturn and change of presidential administrations, the lease was voided as construction did not commence in accordance with the performance milestones outlined in the lease.  In 2018, after discussions with Airport Authority staff, the National Guard included the Readiness Center in its Long Range Construction Plan, subject to congressional appropriation. It is currently in the top 6 projects for the Guard with the potential to accelerated given the Guard's updated plan to station a special battalion at IMM.

In this year's budget, the nonrecurring sum of $50,000,000 is appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Military Affairs in Fixed Capital Outlay to construct new readiness centers in Immokalee and Zephyrhills. Of the funds appropriated, $25,000,000 shall be used for construction of the 2/54th Security Forces Assistance Brigade Readiness Center in Immokalee, and $25,000,000 shall be used for construction of the Security Forces Assistance Brigade Readiness Center in Zephyrhills.


Please note:  Governor DeSantis has "line item" veto authority and can strike any of the above referenced allocations.

• Requires the Surgeon General to develop a public health plan to prepare the state for every foreseeable public health emergency
• Prohibits a business, government entity, or educational institution from requiring individuals to provide vaccine passports
• Provides a presumption that schools and businesses should remain open during an extended public health emergency, if possible
• Requires DEM to maintain an inventory of PPE
• Increases emergency order transparency by requiring orders to include an expiration date and be posted online in searchable format
• Creates the Emergency Preparedness Response Fund (SB 1892/HB 1595) for the Governor to use during emergencies, which will be exclusive funds for emergencies
• Makes the Surgeon General responsible for reporting cases and deaths during public health emergencies
• Requires political subdivisions to justify any emergency order that deprives an individual of their constitutional rights
• Requires all executive emergency declarations and orders to be filed with DOAH within 5 days, be posted online within 3 days, and be and made available on DEM’s website
• Requires DEM to maintain information on options that provide for physical distancing during a public health emergency for sheltering persons with special needs.
 

• Businesses
• Local Governments
• State Agencies
• All Floridians, because SB 2006:
     o Protects individual liberties
     o Prepares Florida for future emergencies
     o Increases transparency in case and death reporting
     o Increases transparency in responding to emergencies
 

• Allows the Governor to invalidate an emergency order issued by a political subdivision if the Governor deems it unnecessarily restricts individual liberties (does not apply to orders associated with a hurricane or other weather-related emergency)
• Provides an exception to the gift ban for public service announcements by the Governor, Lt. Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the Director of DEM, or the Surgeon General related to a state of emergency
• Provides that an emergency order issued by a local government automatically expires after 7 days and allows governing body to extend it in 7 day increments by majority vote up to 42 days
• This limit does not apply to hurricanes or weather related events

This bill was passed in both the House and the Senate and will be sent to the Governor for his action.

What does SB 90 do?

We cannot allow Big Tech companies to operate in darkness while manipulating social media – a kind of 21st century public square.
 

Requires big tech firms to:

• Publish standards used to ban posts, de-platform users, and shadow ban and apply them consistently 
• Inform users about changes to its terms of use
• Allow users to opt out of post-prioritization and shadow banning algorithms
• Ensure that candidates for office in Florida are not de-platformed or shadow banned
 

• Increases fine for de-platforming a candidate (to $250,000 per day from $100,000 per day for statewide candidates, and to $25,000 per day from $10,000 per day for all other candidates)
• Reduces the number of days that a user has to be banned by a social media platform for it to qualify as de-platforming, from 60 days to 14 days
• Reduces the time that a social media company has to notify a user after censoring, shadow banning, or de-platforming action from 30 to 7 days

 

Is this bill necessary?
Yes. Our society is heavily technology-dependent and a vast majority of Americans feel that Big Tech is inappropriately censoring or failing to censor speech on their platforms. Big Tech companies make up rules as they go and fail to protect platform users from arbitrary action. This bill introduces much needed transparency, accountability, and consistency.

Does this bill introduce consequences for Big Tech companies that de-platform candidates for political office?
Yes. SB 7072 allows the Florida Elections Commission to fine a social media platform $250,000 per day for de-platforming statewide candidates and $25,000 per day for de-platforming other candidates for Florida office.

Are there consequences for violating other parts of the bill?
Yes. If a social media platform has been convicted of or has been held civilly liable for state or federal antitrust violations, it may be placed on the Antitrust Violator Vendor List by DMS and is then prohibited from contracting with public entities.

This bill was passed in both the House and the Senate and will be sent to the Governor for his action.

• Stops surprise bills by requiring hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers (health care facilities) to automatically provide binding estimates for nonemergency scheduled services
• Encourages consumerism and increases transparency in the health care market by requiring health care facilities to post standard charges, including the discounted cash price, for a wide range of services on their website to help consumers shop for health care
• Protects consumers by providing a health care billing grievance process, preventing collections during that process, and increasing consumer asset protections from medical debt

 

Do patients already have this information?
No. Currently, patients can request a personalized pre-treatment estimate on cost of care. HB 1067 requires the estimate regardless of whether the patient requests it and makes the estimate binding.

Does HB 1067 establish a bill dispute resolution process?
Yes. The bill requires hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to establish an internal grievance process, allowing patients to dispute any charges that appear on an itemized statement or bill. Under the bill, the facility must respond to a grievance within seven business days.

Does this bill make the costs of services available to patients prior to seeking treatment?
Yes. HB 1067 makes medical treatment shoppable for patients by requiring hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to post a consumer-friendly list of standard charges for at least 300 health care services on their website. If the facility offers fewer than 300 services, it must post standard charges for each service it does provide.

This bill was passed on the House floor on April 21, 2021 and sent to the Senate, where it died.