(C) Florida Phoenix
This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



FL House Dems skeptical of price tag of proposed pregnancy and parenting resources website [1]

['Jackie Llanos', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-01-29  

So far, Pinellas Republican Rep. Berny Jacques has been successful in advancing a plan for a website to share public and private resources for pregnant people and parents, but Democrats said they don’t think such a proposal should cost the state $466,200.

The Florida Department of Health came up with the quote, which Jacques included in an amendment to HB 415 that lawmakers adopted on Monday during the Health Care Appropriations subcommittee meeting. Those funds would come from an administrative trust fund and the Legislature would have to approve an allocation for the website every year.

“My issue is really the cost. Having spoken to other organizations that have done something like this it’s not even a website where you have to reinvent the wheel because it is all organized, although hard to find on the DOH website, every resource you’re speaking to, except probably the pregnancy centers, are on there,” said Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman of Broward County. “And almost half a million dollars just seems like a lot of money based on my conversations with people who design websites. … also the most important thing about a website is promotion of the name and the URL and there’s no money in here for promotion of the website.”

According to a staff analysis of the bill, the funds would be budgeted in the following way:

$300 for the URL domain name

$261,900 for a web designer

$194,000 for a project manager

$10,000 for IT support

A third party contracted by the Department of Health would develop the website. Jacques defended the cost, saying the task wasn’t as easy as Dems were making it out to be.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people that the Department of Health website is not the most user-friendly. As robust as it may be, is not the easiest to find information in. So, just to have a top-quality website, you’re going to need to have some expenditures,” he said.

The resources on the website would include information on educational materials on pregnancy and parenting, maternal health services, prenatal and postnatal services, educational and mentorship programs for fathers, social services, financial assistance, adoption services.

The resources may be more expansive, but abortion services are not mentioned in the bill.

Other Democrats recommended that the website include information about Black maternal mortality or that the Department of Health consult a group of women in deciding what kind of information they would like to see on the website.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/01/29/fl-house-dems-skeptical-of-price-tag-of-proposed-pregnancy-and-parenting-resources-website/

Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/