Florida Statute 402.18 - Full Text and Legal Analysis

The 2025 Florida Statutes

Title XXIX
PUBLIC HEALTH

Chapter 402
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

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402.18 Welfare trust funds; creation, use.—

(1) All moneys now held in any auxiliary, canteen, welfare, donated, or similar fund in any state institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Children and Families shall be deposited in a welfare trust fund, which fund is hereby created in the State Treasury, or in a place which the department shall designate. The money in the fund of each institution of the department, or which may accrue thereto, is hereby appropriated for the benefit, education, and general welfare of clients in that institution. The general welfare of clients includes, but is not limited to, the establishment of, maintenance of, employment of personnel for, and the purchase of items for resale at canteens or vending machines maintained at the state institutions and for the establishment of, maintenance of, employment of personnel for, and the operation of canteens, hobby shops, recreational or entertainment facilities, sheltered workshops, activity centers, farming projects, or other like facilities or programs at the institutions.

(2) All moneys now held in any auxiliary, canteen, welfare, donated, or similar fund in any district of the department shall be deposited in a welfare trust fund which is hereby created in the State Treasury, or in a place which the department shall designate. Money in the fund of each district of the department, or which may accrue thereto, is hereby appropriated for the purpose for which the donor intended. Absent specific intentions of donor, such moneys shall be used for programs for the benefit, education, and general welfare of all clients of the department. All sales taxes collected by the department in a district for the Department of Revenue may be deposited into the district trust fund to facilitate preparing consolidated sales tax returns and remittals of sales tax to the Department of Revenue.

(3) The department shall deposit in a welfare trust fund all receipts from the operation of canteens, vending machines, hobby shops, sheltered workshops, activity centers, farming projects, and other such facilities designated as accruing to a specific welfare trust fund, and any moneys which may be assigned to a specific welfare trust fund by clients or others. Separate revenue and expense accounts shall be maintained in the department’s accounting system for each such facility. Annually, the net proceeds, after providing an allowance for depreciation, shall be determined for such facility and made available for expenditures for the benefit and welfare of the clients of the department. The moneys of said fund shall constitute a trust held by the department for the benefit and welfare of the clients of the department.

(4) Any contraband found upon, or in the possession of, any client of the department shall be confiscated and liquidated, and the proceeds thereof shall be deposited in a welfare trust fund.

(5) The department may invest in the manner authorized by law for fiduciaries any money in a welfare trust fund which is not necessary for immediate use. Such investments may include, but shall not be limited to, investments in savings share accounts of any credit union chartered under the laws of the United States and doing business in this state, and savings share accounts of any credit union chartered under the laws of this state, provided the credit union is insured under the federal share insurance program or an approved state share insurance program. The interest earned and other increments derived from such investments of such money shall be deposited in the welfare trust fund. Moneys required for current use may be deposited in any bank, credit union, or savings and loan association authorized to do business in this state, provided such deposits are insured under a federal depository or share insurance program or under a state-approved depository or share insurance program, and provided such moneys are available on demand.

(6) The department shall maintain accounts in the welfare trust fund for the sale of goods, services, or products resulting from sheltered workshop, activity center, and agricultural project operations carried out in the rehabilitation of the department’s clients, each project being accounted for separately in accordance with cost standards established by the department, but the cost of such projects shall not include any wage or salary expenditures funded by a general revenue appropriation applicable to such rehabilitative activities. The cost of materials incorporated in such products sold, if funded by an appropriation of general revenue, shall be restored to general revenue unallocated at the end of the fiscal year of sale from the proceeds of such sales; provided, however, that the cost of inventories on hand June 30, 1984, shall be accounted for as part of the working capital authorized for such activities. The department may extend credit for the sale of products produced in such activities, and for those sales made for its clients through its hobby shops, to purchasers of demonstrated credit standing sufficient to warrant the amount of credit extended after prudent evaluation of information relating to such credit standing. The department may obtain credit reports from reputable credit reporting agencies to assure prudence in the extending of credit, except when payment is made by credit card, charge card, or debit card as authorized by s. 215.322. The department shall provide an allowance for doubtful accounts for credit sales and record an expense in a like amount based on a good faith estimate, such provision being recorded as a cost of such sales. The net revenue after such provision shall be retained in the welfare trust fund and used only for the benefit of the department’s clients for whom the trust fund was established.

History.—s. 1, ch. 65-194; ss. 19, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 2, ch. 79-269; s. 18, ch. 85-167; s. 9, ch. 97-241; s. 138, ch. 99-8; s. 136, ch. 2014-19.

Note.—Former s. 965.081.

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Amendments to 402.18

Annotations, Discussions, Cases:

Cases Citing Statute 402.18

Total Results: 2 | Sort by: Relevance | Newest First

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Willie Harris v. T.J. Forsyth & F. Christensen, 735 F.2d 1235 (11th Cir. 1984).

Cited 20 times | Published | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 22286

...restrictions on the property rights of inmates. We note that the statute and regulations relied upon to seize the money in this case are virtually identical to those approved of in Sullivan. Compare Fla.Stat. § 945.215(l)(e) (1981) with Fla. Stat. § 402.18 (3) (1977) and Rule 33-3.06 FAC (1982) with Rule 33-3.06....

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Ago (Fla. Att'y Gen. 1984).

Published | Florida Attorney General Reports

...MAY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES DESIGNATE A CREDIT UNION AS THE DEPOSITORY FOR FUNDS RECEIVED AND HELD IN TRUST BY IT FOR THE PERSONAL USE OR BENEFIT OF CLIENTS PURSUANT TO s 402.17 , F.S.? 2. MAY THE DEPARTMENT DESIGNATE A CREDIT UNION AS THE DEPOSITORY FOR WELFARE TRUST FUNDS PURSUANT TO s 402.18 , F.S.? 3. IS IT THE INTENT OF s 402.18 , F.S., THAT THE PROCEEDS FROM SHELTERED WORKSHOPS AND FARMING PROJECTS AT DEPARTMENT INSTITUTIONS BE DEPOSITED IN THE WELFARE TRUST FUND? 4....

...Against the backdrop of these principles, your questions are specifically answered as follows. QUESTION ONE Your request states as its first question, "May the Department designate a credit union as the depository for welfare trust funds pursuant to Section 402.18 , F.S.?" However, by reference to the excerpts of the Auditor General's report which you attached to your request, I assume for purposes of this opinion that you intended to ask whether the department has statutory authority to designa...

...l . . . regarding the status of credit unions as depositories for client funds." I am therefore addressing this issue as question one and will consider the question stated in your letter as the first question as a separate question with respect to s 402.18 , F.S....

...tment is not authorized by law to designate a credit union as depository for client funds or trust moneys, and is without statutory authority to invest such moneys in the accounts or shares and deposits or obligations of a credit union. QUESTION TWO Section 402.18 , F.S., provides for the creation of "a welfare trust fund" for each institution under the department's jurisdiction in s 402.18 (1), F.S., and for the creation of "a welfare trust fund" for any district of the department in s 402.18 (2), F.S. Both subsections specify that such funds are "hereby created in the State Treasury, or in a place which the department shall designate." While AGO 78-162 suggests that s 402.18 (2), F.S., appears to be an exception as "specifically provided otherwise by law" to the requirement of s 215.32 , F.S., that "moneys received by the state shall be deposited in the State Treasury," I note that such moneys as may be deposited in a welfare trust fund legally maintained outside the State Treasury pursuant to s 402.18 , F.S., appear to be "public deposits" within the meaning of s 280.02 (1), F.S., and that such moneys are therefore subject to s 280.03 , F.S., prohibiting the making of any public deposit "except in a qualified public depository." That phrase...

...ute. Accordingly, I find no statutory authority in the aforecited statutes or in any other statute drawn to my attention for the department to designate a credit union as the depository for the moneys or the proceeds of the activities specified in s 402.18 which moneys or proceeds are to be deposited in "a welfare trust fund" as provided by ss 402.18 (1) and 402.18 (2), F.S....

...Graham, 388 So.2d 594 (1 D.C.A.Fla., 1980), pet. for rev. den., 397 So.2d 778 (Fla. 1981). Therefore, I conclude that the department is not authorized by law to designate a credit union as depository for the welfare trust funds described in and pursuant to s 402.18 , F.S....

...ated to the Centers; however, the sale proceeds and collections for services were deposited in the Welfare Trust Fund." Pursuant to questions raised by the Auditor General about the legal authority for these deposits, you ask if it is "the intent of Section 402.18 , Florida Statutes, that the proceeds from sheltered workshops and farming projects be deposited in the welfare trust fund." Section 402.18 (3), F.S., provides in pertinent part: The department shall deposit in a welfare trust fund all net proceeds from the operation of canteens, vending machines, hobby shops, and other such facilities designated as accruing to a specific welfare trust fund, and any moneys which may be assigned to a specific welfare trust fund by clients or others. When s 402.18 (3) is read with ss 402.18 (1) and (2), these moneys seem to be derived from the clients or from the operations of canteens, vending machines, hobby shops and recreational or entertainment facilities provided and maintained for the clients or for their general benefit a...

...stitutions to others from operations such as the sheltered workshops and farming projects described by the Auditor General as financed "for the most part" by general revenue appropriations to such institutions. The statutory scheme established by ss 402.18 (1), (2), and (3) appears to envision that "canteens, vending machines, hobby shops," recreational or entertainment facilities and "other such facilities" or "other like facilities or programs" shall be self-sustaining; i.e., from the net proc...

...bilitation of clients in institutions under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, as distinguished from the service, recreational or entertainment functions of the particular facilities or programs described in ss 402.18 (1), 402.18 (2) and 402.18 (3), F.S., I am unable to determine that the sheltered workshops and farming projects are "other such facilities" or "other like facilities or programs" within the purview of the statute such that the statute may be said to apply to and operat...

...provided otherwise by law" within the appropriate funds specified therein and as thereby created and established. See, s 215.32 (1)(a), and (2)(a), F.S. Therefore, unless and until legislatively or judicially determined otherwise, I conclude that s 402.18 , F.S., does not authorize the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to deposit proceeds from the operations or sales of products and services of the sheltered workshops and farming projects at department institutions in the welfare trust funds created thereby....

...., or to invest such moneys in the accounts or shares and deposits or obligations of a credit union; (2) the department is not authorized by law to designate a credit union as the depository for the welfare trust funds described in and pursuant to s 402.18 , F.S.; (3) section 402.18 , F.S., does not authorize the department to deposit proceeds from the operations or sale of products of its sheltered workshops and farming projects in a welfare trust fund created by or established under that section, and, accordingl...

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