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Central Florida Democrats last week zeroed in on the impact Republicans’ funding priorities will have on Orange County and the state.
Angie Gallo, who represents District 1 on the Orange County School Board, said the school district lost $11 million from its budget for the coming school year, which starts Aug. 11. The loss is the result of a July 1 freeze on federal education funds.
“We were expecting cuts to come the next school year, not this school year,” Gallo said at the July 10 press conference, organized by the Orange County Democratic Party at Pan American Behavioral Health in Orlando. “This school year alone, if we want to keep the same programs and the same people in place, we’re going to have to find $11 million out of our already-tight budget.”
Gallo said the funding loss will hit 50,000 students, eliminating programs for English-language learners, migrants (including toddlers) and students in juvenile justice centers.
“These are not optional programs,” Gallo said, “they’re lifelines.”
She added that arts programs, STEM enrichment, student wellness and mental health programs are also at risk. “Imagine a time when robotics or chess clubs or other innovative programs will not be accessible to our students,” she said. “These cuts don't trim budgets. They create voids, voids in classroom and student services and family supports, and they disproportionately impact the students who need the most help.”
Congressman Darren Soto, who represents parts of Orlando and Kissimmee, told VoxPopuli that he expects nearly 2 million Floridians to lose their healthcare insurance as a result of the "One Big Beautiful Bill," which he dubbed the “big ugly law.”
“That’s the second-most of any state in the nation because we have a huge amount of folks on Obamacare and on Medicaid,” he said.
Numbers specifically for Orange County are not yet available, but Soto said he is bracing for the worst. “With my district and Max’s [Frost] district being two of the top 10 Obamacare districts in the nation, I expect it to be hundreds of thousands of people who will lose their healthcare in Orange County.”
Speaking about the Big Beautiful Bill's cuts to Medicaid, Coy Jones was blunt. political director for the 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-United Healthcare Workers East
“One too many people will die unnecessarily,” said the political director for the 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-United Healthcare Workers East, which represents the staff in nursing homes and hospitals. “We're talking tens of thousands of our grandparents, our parents, our aunties, our uncles, Mr. and Mrs. Jones from across the street, our elderly who depend on this care, who literally just want to live their lives out with dignity and respect. Slashing Medicaid will close critical facilities and eliminate thousands of jobs for caregivers. Our members are already seeing the impacts of this legislation.”
Felipe Souza-Lazaballet, who is running for House District 42, now represented by the term-limited Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, told attendees that along with the $75 billion to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and build more detention centers, the One Big Beautiful Bill jacked up the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services fees for individuals trying to appeal deportation orders in Immigration Court. Appeals used to be $0-110; now they’re $900. Other fees for humanitarian protection applications and work authorizations have also spiked.
“That's putting a price on justice,” said Souza-Lazaballet who is also executive director of the CommUnity Center in Apopka.
“ Let's be clear. This is punishment for being poor. This is punishment for being brown. This is punishment for being born on the other side of the border that they think is the wrong side of the border … This does not fix the broken immigration system," he said.
