9 Actions Florida Should Take to Help Taxpayers Impacted by Hurricane Ian

1.     Postpone tax notices and waive penalties or interest for late tax filings in affected areas

2.     Extend the date for residents to take advantage of the tax discounts they would normally receive for paying property taxes and special assessments in November and postpone or defer the deadline for property tax installment payments

3.     Protect individual and business taxpayers from the risks for notices that they will likely not receive because their home or business addresses is not accessible anymore

4.     Issue no new audits in severely impacted areas, extend the statute of limitations and postpone existing audits that haven’t reached the assessment stage because these can’t be responded to while entire communities are still recovering

5.     Create procedures for fairly estimating taxes which can’t be calculated because records have been destroyed by the storm, moving away from the current method which significantly overestimates activity if no records are available

6.     Initiate procedures to offer payment plan assistance for late taxes, rather than resorting to the standard collection methods, like liens, levies, or bank freezes

7.     Retroactively apply the recently passed law that provides property tax refunds for residential property rendered uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic event

8.     Provide tangible personal property relief and allow n on-residential properties rendered uninhabitable to receive property tax refunds

9.     Get Congress to pass a Disaster Tax Relief Act that includes provisions from past packages, including elements such as an Employee Retention Credit, an enhanced casualty loss deduction, and other relief provisions

Download the Recommendations

Other Resources

Florida Disaster.biz
FEMA
Florida Department of Financial Services
Florida SBDC
Disaster Contractors Network
Florida Disaster Fund

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

/ Categories: Blog

Apples and Oranges: Gender & Justice Programs

Apart from punishment and deterrence, another goal of justice and corrections is to prevent crime and rehabilitate offenders. Criminal and juvenile justice experts have long recognized the impact of prevention and reentry programs on achieving these goals, but, in order to be effective, these programs need to meet the needs of the populations they serve.  And when it comes to women and girls, they don’t.

In the realm of criminal justice, men tend to offend (or at least get caught) more often than women; female offenders comprise just 7 percent of Florida’s state prisoner population.  The same is true when examining the juvenile justice system, where girls comprise just 13 percent of all youth in residential facilities.  Due to these facts, justice-involved women and girls are often treated through programs and  services targeted towards the larger population: men and boys.  

But, while it’s true that women and girls are less likely to have contact with the justice system, it’s also true that they are much more likely than their male counterparts to end up behind bars for less serious/nonviolent crimes, and that they have unique pathways into the justice system as well as face different challenges upon reentry. For example, justice-involved women and girls are more likely to have experienced abuse (57 percent in women compared to 16 percent in men) or sexual assault (39 percent in women vs. 6 percent in men), and are more prone to have diagnosed mental health issues and be the main caregiver of a child—challenges that prevention and reentry services targeted towards male offenders are simply not designed to address.  

For many women and girls in the justice system, the use of gender-responsive programs that target these specific obstacles is essential for success.  California’s Female Offender Treatment and Employment Program, for example, provides targeted substance abuse, parenting, employment and other services to female offenders with substance abuse issues and has been shown to be effective.  Participants in the program recidivated 25 percent less than incarcerated women who did not receive treatment.  Florida has made some progress in the use of gender-responsive services for juvenile justice involved girls through programs like the PACE Center for Girls, which sees participant recidivism rates lower than 10 percent and academic improvements as high as 90 percent, but much still remains to be done, especially for adult women in the justice system.  

Prevention, diversion, and reentry programs are crucial to ensuring the safety of Floridians and the well-being of the state as a whole. Unfortunately, programs that address the specific challenges faced by justice-involved women and girls are scarce.  It is imperative that Florida focus on creating and expanding  gender-responsive  initiatives in order to improve outcomes for these female offenders, reunite families, and promote public safety in the Sunshine State.

To learn more about the unique needs of women in the criminal justice system, click here.

To learn more about girls’ pathways into the juvenile justice system, click here.

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