Caldwell provides Chamber with legislative update
Medicaid expansion and water quality in Southwest Florida have been at the forefront of the minds of many Southwest Floridians lately.
It was pretty much the same on Wednesday as State Rep. Matt Caldwell (R-79), whose district covers North Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres, was guest speaker at the monthly North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce luncheon at All-Star Lanes on Tamiami Trail.
Caldwell discussed the latest legislative session, with the hot button topics being the budget, Medicaid expansion and the decision by the state to not purchase the U.S. Sugar land, which would have helped divert water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades in an attempt to save a delicate ecosystem that includes the Caloosahatchee.
Caldwell said in regards to the budget, Medicaid expansion and the budget go hand in hand, and that impoverished children, pregnant mothers and the permanently handicapped are not the targets of legislative discussion. The commitment to the neediest must remain, he said.
“We’re talking about those who have no disabilities, no children. The only reason they would qualify is that they have no job,” Caldwell said. “Our position is that we need to get these people jobs rather than put them in Medicaid.”
If nothing else, Caldwell said a minimum-wage job would qualify them to get insurance from the Healthcare Marketplace under the Affordable Care Act and tax credits that go with it.
The Medicaid controversy has gummed up the works on passing a state budget. Caldwell said the budget doesn’t need to be held up on that issue, that it should be negotiated separately.
“We’ve gotten some negotiating room from the Senate. The Senate president said he didn’t want to go to conference to negotiate without Medicaid. He has agreed to go forward with the other negotiations,” Caldwell said.
As far as the purchase of the U.S. Sugar land, Caldwell said spending $1 billion on the land would not solve the problems with flooding.
He said in years like 2013, where the estuaries were inundated with rain and flooding, the real solution lies in restoring the Kissimmee River and projects like the C-43 reservoir and other projects.
That said, Caldwell said that the days of a truly pristine Caloosahatchee River from the 19th Century are history.
“To have the river look like it did in 1845 when we became a state isn’t possible. We have a million people living here and we’ve changed it by our presence,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell said that sending the flow south into the Everglades would potentially drown out millions of South Floridians, as the draining of the area years ago allowed for people to move there, as it was part of the Everglades before.
What does this mean to Caldwell’s district? The budget contains several water projects including several creek systems and the restoration of water quality in Nalle Grade Park, as well as projects in Alva.
Caldwell is confident they can reach the finish line.
“You can never predict what will happen in a special session. I expect we can make a lot of progress, limiting the amount of issues to be discussed,” Caldwell said.