Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 6-11-21

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State Senator Discusses His Budget Successes With Sentinel Staff
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
State Senator Darryl Rouson strives to follow his conscience and do the best he can for the people he serves. The senator stopped by the Sentinel office to discuss his 2021 legislative initiatives. With census-driven redistrict- ing coming in March 2022, Senator Rouson is keeping his options open for his polit- ical future.
Raised in the Tampa-St. Pe- tersburg area through high school, Rouson attended Xavier University and re- ceived his law degree from the University of Florida.
He opened his law practice but an addiction to cocaine cost him his livelihood and first marriage. He ended up in Chicago in the Church-One Addict Program, a program
that taught churches how to help recovering addicts.
Rouson remarried, but his wife died from breast cancer. After her passing, he relapsed and became homeless for a brief time when he returned to St. Petersburg. He turned this around, successfully returning to law and community activ- ity. He became president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP. He credits his present wife and blended fam- ily of nine children with the support it took to achieve his professional and community goals.
As a State Senator and Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Rouson has won considerable power in his po- sition.
According to Rouson his ef- forts in 2021 have led to the following:
• Office of Minority Health
MONIQUE STAMPS, GWEN HAYES, IRIS HOLTON, STATE SENATOR DARRYL ROUSON, C. BLYTHE ANDREWS, III, CARL NORTON, JR., AND TOMMY WILSON.
and Health Equity (HB 183) This bill, along with a $9 mil- lion appropriation, will ex- pand the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity in the Department of Health. The office will now have significant
funding to provide education and access to quality care for minority population.
• Urban Agriculture (SB 628) Provides for pilot pro- grams in 5 large cities to ex- plore adaptive reuse of urban lands. Pilot projects can bring fresh foods to urban areas that often have issues with food in- security.
• Motor Vehicle Insurance Reform (SB 54) Mandatory Bodily Injury. This new law significantly overhauls car in- surance bringing Florida in line with 48 other states by re- quiring bodily injury coverage. By removing personal injury protection coverage, we are switching to an At- Fault sys- tem, so that Florida drivers will be responsibly covered, fraud will be reduced, and pre- miums overall will go down.
• Taskforce for Closing the Achievement Gap for Boys (HB 7033) creates a task force that by the end of 2021, will examine evidence-based strategies for closing the achievement gap for boys.
• Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (SB 96), this commission builds upon the recommendations of the Grand Jury that was convened after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission to re- view and make recommenda- tions on the behavioral health care system in Florida.
• Moffitt Cancer Research Institute (HB 7061) This in- creases the amount of money from the cigarette tax that goes to Moffitt Cancer Re- search Center from 4 percent to 7 percent and then further to 10 percent after 3 years. They will now be receiving an extra $11 million each year until 2024 when it will in- crease to an extra $23 million per year.
• Police Reform (HB 7051)
Police officers in Florida will have training and standards for: use of force, de-escalation training. duty to intervene when there is bad conduct on an officer’s part, and a duty to render medical assistance.
• Abandoned Cemeteries (HB 37) creates statewide task force to identify, and honor forgotten burial grounds in Florida.
In addition, Senator Rou- son says he has been success- ful in appropriating money for minorities in several areas.
These include: $30,000,000 for African American Funding Grants; $9 million for the Of- fice of Minority Health; $500,00 for Pinellas Science Center, $250,000 for Virgil Hawkins FL Chapter of Na- tional Bar Association; $2 mil- lion for Police Athletic League of St. Petersburg, $475,000 for Links - Florida Youth Leadership; Mentoring and Character Education Pilot, $600,000 for the Cuban Club Fourth Floor Restoration; $500,000 for the Jackson House Restoration; $250,000 for Sickle Cell Disease Foun- dation; $50 million for 2nd DCA Courthouse named after Bernie McCabe, and $11,000,000 for Opioid Set- tlement funds.
Rouson explained that the Opioid settlement will set aside $500,000 to provide to the Department of Children and Families to facilitate community engagement in assessing cultural health dis- parities and to develop strate- gies that engage minority populations with community services, and to enhance the awareness of mental health and substance abuse services available to minority commu- nities.
Rouson is a personal injury attorney at Rubenstein Law in Tampa.
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