THREAD: In honor of all our new followers, Florida Policy Institute brings you "2018 in 18 Graphs" - our most popular & favorite data visualizations from 2018 that illustrate how Floridians are faring coming into the New Year. #sayfie 1/
#18: "#CashRegisterJustice". Florida's Court System is financed mostly (94%) by fines, fees, and other legal obligations that create barriers to justice for low-income Floridians. #sayfie @FinesandFeesJC @splcenter @ACLUFL bit.ly/2R2ZMLK 2/ 
#17: Rural Florida relies heavily on state funding to support education & infrastructure in some of the most underserved communities. Cuts over time at the state level have disproportionately impacted rural school districts. #sayfie @FLSchoolBoards @PublicSchoolSup @FLPTA_Leg 3/
#16: Who would benefit from Medicaid Expansion in Florida? Over 500k people. According to our study released in Jan.2018, it would also SAVE the state $500k. bit.ly/2LNBdNn @CoveringFL @FLHealthJustice @HealthyInFla #sayfie 4/
#15: Florida ranks 48th in Tax Fairness. Despite our reputation as a "low tax" state, Florida is decidedly high tax for low-income residents bc we overly rely on regressive sales and excise taxes. From "Who Pays?" release with @iteptweets in October bit.ly/2Vg93ih 5/
#14: Florida tied for worst poverty level in US, using Census supplemental pov measure. This measure is considered more accurate given it includes a state's safety net programs. Florida's programs are among the nation's least generous, landing us tied for worst poverty.#sayfie 6/
#13: FL's Higher-Ed per-pupil spending cuts fourth worst in nation since 2008. We fund our higher ed systems 9.3% less than we did in 2008, whereas the US as a whole increased 5.8%. From our August report: bit.ly/2Vnaqvm #sayfie @FLCollegeAccess 7/
#12: Critical affordable housing shortage in Florida. Only four states have fewer affordable units per low-income family. From our August report by @sadafknight bit.ly/2TqmCKn @FLHousingC @ShimbergCenter @UnitedWayBC #sayfie 8/
#11: Sadowski Fund sweeps over the years. Despite the affordability crisis, Florida's legislature continually diverts funds to pay for other priorities (mostly tax cuts almost dollar-for-dollar) despite the will of taxpayers. $2B over the last 15 years. @SadowskiFL #sayfie 9/
#10:FL lags other states in drawing federal funds available for student health services.Given the need- nurses,eye & health screenings,mental health-FL can do more to provide tech asst to districts to get this $. @FloridaEA @All4Schools bit.ly/2GQkiL3 #sayfie 10/
#9: Forever FL goes unfunded. In '90, FL Legislature passed Preservation 2000 Act, which authorized $3B in bonds, preserving 2 million acres of land. Has gone largely unfunded, however, over the last decade.Last year's $101m was a welcome step forward.@conserveflorida #sayfie 11/
#8: Florida once again tops the nation in ACA signups in 2018. Despite barriers like an abbreviated open enrollment period and dramatic funding cuts for marketing and outreach,2018 saw a slight uptick in the # of Floridians enrolling on federal Marketplace.@CoveringFL #sayfie 12/
#7: School nurses can't keep up with demand. '05 to'15, growth in health conditions experienced by students far outstripped the growth of registered nurses on campus, a key strategy for improving health outcomes. From our Sep report: bit.ly/2F05Jlr #sayfie @flnurses 13/
#6: Wage needed to afford FL rent at least 2x min. wage. Tomorrow #MinimumWage goes up in Fl to $8.46/hr; however, it would need to be nearly twice that for a renter to afford a 1B apt; >2.5x min wage to afford 2B apt. @SadowskiFL #sayfie 14/
#5:Lowest-income Floridians pay the most.We rank 48th in tax fairness for a reason--the lowest 20% in income pay nearly 13% of their pay in state & local taxes, while top 1% pay only 2.3%.Look up "regressive" in the dictionary& you'll see Florida's picture.#sayfie @iteptweets 15/
#4: Florida's state budget. Learn more about the process with our 2018 update to Florida Policy Institute's Budget Primer: bit.ly/2Ao22TE #budget #sayfie 16/
#3: Tax breaks & expenditures grew to record-breaking $20B last year. This is larger than our K12 and higher-ed systems' state funding combined."Silent Spending"-spending through the tax code-largely goes unscrutinized. More in our June report: bit.ly/2R3zZDq #sayfie 17/
#2:FL ranks 50th in funding public services.Not only does FL spend least per capita on public services (education,health services,etc), but trend has been going the wrong direction(down) while rest of the US took advantage of the Recovery to increase public investment.#sayfie 18/
And our #1 chart for 2018, shared more than any other on social media... 19/
Our #1 Graph of 2018: Florida cut teacher pay more than any other state since 2009.While the legislature considers what to do with a possible #surplus, ,a tight labor market has created a greater teacher shortage than ever. bit.ly/2F0eEo4 #sayfie @FloridaEA 20/
Thanks for joining us for "2018 in 18 Graphs"! May 2019 bring much happiness and prosperity to Floridians, and statistical significance to all our data nerds and wonks. Happy New Year! End/
