NEW BILL FILED IN THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE TO ONCE AGAIN REDISTRIBUTE THE FUNDS FROM FLORIDA'S 'LIVE THE DREAM' SPECIALTY LICENSE PLATE

​House Bill 355, was filed on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, by Representative Dr. James Bush III, (D-Miami Dade), a retired teacher who was a state representative from 1992-2000, 2008 and more recently 2018 to the present. This is the only bill he has filed so far.
The bill seeks to revise the distribution of annual use fees from the sale of ‘Live the Dream’ license plates and reduces distribution to Sickle Cell organizations from 60% to 40%, and provides for the distribution of 35% to The Dream Foundation, based in Tallahassee, Florida and led by Michael Dobson, a former lobbyist, for "programs and services relating to the ‘Dream Reentering Citizens Fund’, as follows: 
10% shall be used for administrative costs associated with the operation of the Dream Foundation, Inc., and for marketing and promoting the license plate. 
10% shall be used for programs and services provided directly by the Dream Foundation, Inc., which assist inmates released from the Department of Corrections in successfully reentering the community.
15% shall be distributed as grants to administer and market programs and services throughout this state which assist inmates released from the Department of Corrections in successfully reentering the community."
The existing statutory language that was changed in 2020 providing for distribution to the Miami-based Chapman Partnership, Inc for programs for relief of poverty, hunger and homelessness is replaced with proposed language that states that at least 20% shall be distributed as scholarships to high school seniors in this state, at least one of whose parents or legal guardians is incarcerated, for the purpose of attending a state university, a Florida College System institution, a career center operated by a school district under s. 1001.44, or a charter technical career. Scholarships shall be awarded through a competitive application process overseen by a scholarship program committee composed of one representative from a PACE Center for Girls, one representative from Children of Inmates, Inc., one representative from Living Stones International, Inc., and one representative from the executive team or board of the Dream Foundation, Inc. Fiscal oversight of the scholarship program shall be performed by a certified public accounting firm. 
The existing provision of “up to 5% may be distributed by the department on behalf of the Dream Foundation, Inc., to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., as a royalty for the use of the image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the license plate," remains intact.

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