The Florida Capitol building on Aug. 12, 2024. (Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Lawmakers on the Florida Legislative Budget Commission on Friday approved $3.5 million to cover food and contracted services at Florida’s eight veterans’ nursing homes and assisted living facility.
In its request for extra funds for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs said it lacked enough money to buy food and pay for services such as housekeeping. Deputy Executive Director Bob Asztalos cited rising food prices and the 96% occupancy rate at the homes in his presentation to the lawmakers.
“Really, there’s two drivers for these increased costs in contracted services. One is the inflationary cost in food, which we’ve all seen when we go to the grocery store,” Asztalos said. “But the big driver is that these are utilization contracts, and we went from 70% to our nursing home is full. We have 307 more veterans in our homes that we are taking care of.”
The new money is in addition to the $33.8 million for food and contracted services the department received earlier this year.
Broward Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky asked Asztalos why the agency didn’t use extra funds meant for employee salaries to cover those expenses, and he answered that the department is working on filling vacant positions.
“We have still not hired all of our positions,” Asztalos said. “We are actually doing really well as far as hiring. In July of 2022, we had 539 vacant nurse, RN, LPN, CNA positions; we are now down to 328. So, we filled 211 vacant positions, but we still have vacant positions.”
The budget commission considered 15 amendments from state agencies, such as the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Agency for Health Care Administration, and Department of Education. Lawmakers in both chambers comprise the commission, which can adjust the current fiscal year’s budget in case or shortfalls or emergencies.