Amendment 1 lawsuit still moving toward trial

As a May 25 deadline to complete discovery approaches, depositions continue in a lawsuit over how the state funds environmental conservation. 

Court dockets viewed Friday show a flurry of notices filed late last month for what are called “depositions duces tecum,” which compel witnesses to produce documents and be interviewed before a trial.

Environmental advocacy groups filed suit in Leon County in 2015 over the Water and Land Legacy Amendment, also known as Amendment 1. The constitutional change mandates state spending for land and water conservation.

The amendment, which needed a minimum of 60 percent to pass, got a landslide in the 2014 election of nearly 75 percent, or more than 4.2 million “yes” votes.

Amendment 1 requires state officials to set aside 33 percent of the money from the real estate “documentary stamp” tax to protect Florida’s environmentally sensitive areas for 20 years.

But advocates — including the Florida Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club — sued the state, saying lawmakers wrongly appropriated money for, among other things, “salaries and ordinary expenses of state agencies” tasked with executing the amendment’s mandate.

Named defendants include the Legislature, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Circuit Judge Charles Dodson scheduled a weeklong bench trial in Tallahassee for July 23-27, with a pretrial conference set for June 15, records show.