The full text of the referendum: “In order to provide additional early childhood education, safety, developmental, preventative, health and wellbeing services, including after school and summer enrichment programs, should an independent special district entitled the “Escambia Children’s Trust” be created and authorized to levy an annual ad valorem tax of one-half mill of 10 years.”
Do Escambia County Sheriff’s VR Simulator, Real Time Crime Center, PSA program and movie nights fit the referendum?
The voters were told contracts would be revoked if certain outcomes aren’t being reached after certain measures are taken. The ECSO has vague outcomes and offers no measurements. However, the ECSO proposal isn’t unique in these deficiencies.
After the referendum passed, PNJ reporter Kevin Robinson interviewed two supporters of the initiative, Julian MacQueen and Kim Krupa. He wrote, “The funding from the new trust will be contract- and performance-based. That means programs and initiatives will be given certain measurements and outcomes to reach, and those that fail to meet those targets can see their funding withheld or contracts canceled.” Kim Krupa is on the Trust’s staff.
In October 2020 before the vote, Krupa explained the services the Trust would fund: “It’s wrap-around (services) our communities need, our kids and families need, to be able to pull Escambia up from those negative outcomes.”
A month after the vote, she appeared before the Board of County Commissioners and told them the trust would make generational investments that would have a real impact on the community. “We are talking about matching these egregious disparities with the type of deep systemic investments they deserve. That’s the only thing that’s going to pull us out of the bottom.”
It appears the Trust may have lost its way.