Many state and federal directives require local governments to provide services or programs without providing the appropriate monies or funding sources. These directives, which are known as “unfunded mandates,” can compromise a county or local government's ability to provide essential services that have been deemed appropriate by the local community. The Broward County Board of County Commissioners opposes any federal or state legislative actions that create an additional financial burden on local governments, as these “unfunded mandates” require resources that would otherwise be used to fund local needs and community services.

The top state mandated expenditures impact the County budget annually by approximately $70 million, or over .4 mills. The most costly mandates are:

	Millions of Dollars
Article V (net of revenues, does not include capital)	27.1
Medicaid match	8.2
Department of Juvenile Justice payments	6.8
Regional Transportation Authority operating subsidy	1.6
Medical examiner (net of revenues)	5.2
Regional Transportation Authority capital payment	2.7
Health cost for inmates injured or ill at time of arrest	2.6
Health department and out of County Health Care	2.7
Florida Department of Law Enforcement mandated training	1.7
“Heart and Lung” claims for Worker's Compensation	7.7
Emergency Management (net of revenues)	1.0
Shift of sales tax to fiscally constrained counties	0.7
Additional Worker's Compensation cost for first responders	0.6
Countywide election early voting costs	1.2
Legislative delegation office	0.2
Total	70M

The question of federal mandate impacts is a more difficult issue to quantify. In addition to the impacts of post 9/11 security costs, driven by federal and state mandates which Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport are addressing, there are these significant issues:

Detention costs – Approximately 25 percent of every tax dollar raised by Broward County goes to pay detention costs. These costs are driven by many factors including federal and state mandates. The County is under a federal consent decree which mandates that we operate under a jail population cap. This contributes to the County's need to expand the jail system, However, there are many other factors, including state sentencing guidelines, the requirement to house sentenced inmates up to a year instead of the prior six month period and a pre-trial system bogged down by state rules and regulations that contribute to increased costs in this area.

Federal Fair Labor Standards Act – In the 1980s the courts determined that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applied to government entities. This is the law that governs what positions receive overtime and the requirement that it is usually paid at 1.5 times the regular hourly rate. If it was permissible to pay overtime at the regular hourly rate, the County could save approximately $8 million in tax dollars primarily related to law enforcement services.

Americans with Disability Act – The ADA mandates that public entities provide paratransit services when the entity provides fixed route services. The current paratransit budget is approximately $27 million. In addition, the County has expended tens of millions of dollars on ADA-related physical improvements to buildings and other infrastructure to comply with the federal law. Unfortunately, the County cannot provide a precise number as these improvements have been made over many years. However, they are significant.

In addition to the state and federal mandates listed above, there were significant, unavoidable, escalating costs that impacted Broward County 's budget over the last five to 10 years. The most significant of these were $10 million in operating costs for voter-approved new parks and libraries, $20 million in mandated tax increment payments to cities, $4 million in new charter mandates approved by voters, and $5 million in property insurance.