A year after slashing Everglades funding, Florida lawmakers
appear poised to give some back.
House and Senate budget negotiators this week agreed to set aside some $30
million for restoration projects. That’s still $10 million short of Gov. Rick
Scott’s request but a major leap from the zero the Senate had initially penciled
in.
Environmental groups praised the move as a positive sign, saying they were
cautiously optimistic that it signaled a change in direction from last year’s
tough session, when lawmakers and Scott gutted Everglades and conservation
land-buying programs, state growth management rules and other long-standing
regulations.
Now, they’re keeping their fingers crossed the trend will continue with a
still-bigger target — a Senate bill that would lift spending caps lawmakers last
year placed on the state’s five water management districts, which are largely
funded by property tax revenue.
The Florida Conservation Coalition calculated that the cap, placed on
property tax rates that supply much of the districts’ revenues, wound up
shriveling budgets by nearly 40 percent, or $700 million. The law also shifted
oversight of the agencies’ spending to the Legislature.
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida, said that even
legislative leaders acknowledge that last year’s measure went too far,
threatening to cut into the districts’ “core missions” of providing flood
protection and a supply of clean water to the public and natural systems like
the Everglades.
Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, acknowledged the ripple
effects had run deeper than desired. The South Florida Water Management
District, which oversees Everglades restoration, has tapped reserve funds to
cover shortfalls, a strategy that will work only in the short-term.
Alexander said he helped put the new bill together “because I felt like we
needed to take another look at it and find a more sustainable policy. There are
reserves that are just a bit out of balance and I think, longer term, that in
order to meet the water resource needs, the water boards must keep the state
waters clean.”
While the bill would lift the caps on spending, it also leaves a final review
of the district’s budget largely to lawmakers — a provision environmentalists
hope to see removed. They’re supporting a proposal by Scott that largely
restores the system that existed before last year’s changes, leaving oversight
of the districts under the governor, who also appoints their governing boards.
Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, said
legislative authority only injects more politics into efforts to maintain
funding for Everglades restoration and cleanup projects already expected to take
decades.
“We certainly don’t want to see the process become pork-barreled where, from
session to session, you have a new committee chair that wants to put projects in
his own backyard,” Fordham said. “You can’t provide long-term planning with
that.”
But lawmakers also may be reluctant to give up newly won control over the
districts, agencies that collect hundreds of millions of dollars in property
taxes and have pursued expensive projects or land-buys without legislative
approval.
Under Gov. Charlie Crist, the South Florida Water Management District sought
an audacious $1.75 billion deal to buy out the sprawling empire of the U.S.
Sugar Corp. The deal, heavily criticized by lawmakers, was eventually downsized
to a $197 million land purchase of 26,800 acres.
But some environmental groups have questioned whether the Legislature’s power
grab will stand up under court challenge, saying the system of independent
districts was established in the state Constitution.
Environmentalists are banking on beefed up support to repair some of the
losses from last session.
The Florida Conservation Coalition — created in November under the leadership
of Bob Graham, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator, and a number of
influential former state executives — has made the water management rollback a
priority.
They also give some credit to Scott, who told conservation groups in January
that he had learned a lot in his first year and was vowing to make Everglades
issues a priority.
With the state under pressure from federal judges, the governor last year
outlined a plan to expand the network of artificial marshes used to reduce the
amount of farm pollution flowing into the Everglades. Negotiations with federal
agencies continue over the state plan, which was significantly smaller than one
proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Scott followed up by proposing $40 million in restoration funding in his
budget. That’s still down from a peak of $100 million to $200 million in annual
state funding during the administration of former Gov. Jeb Bush but double what
Scott proposed the previous year. Scott’s budget proposal also included $15
million for Florida Forever but lawmakers have not yet allocated anything for
the land-buying program in their roughly $70 billion proposals.
“It does make a difference by him putting it out there,” Draper
said.
