Bruce Ritchie
Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday announced he will request $150 million for Everglades restoration in fiscal year 2015-16 along with $150 million for land acquisition and management.
Scott apparently will use money for water and land conservation under Amendment 1, approved by 75 percent of voters in November. The request for land acquisition falls short of what environmentalists are requesting.
The announcement comes in advance of Scott releasing his 2015-16 budget request later this week. Scott said the Everglades funding is part of a $5 billion “investment” by the state over the next 20 years to fund Everglades restoration.
“We will keep working to make sure we preserve our natural treasures so Florida can continue to be a top destination for families, visitors and businesses,” Scott said in a news release.
The governor did say the state is committed to fully funding the C-43 and C-44 reservoirs that will provide 100 billion gallons of storage to protect the estuaries of the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers from discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
That announcement drew praise from sugar farmers and the Everglades Foundation.
Scott’s request “should help cut through the rhetoric and begin building storage and treatment where the estuaries need it most,” said Brian Hughes, spokesman for a coalition of sugar farmers that includes Florida Crystals and U. S. Sugar Corp.
Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, said Scott is leading one of the largest environmental restoration projects in the world with an $880 million water quality treatment plan through 2025 and $90 million for bridging the Tamiami Trail over three years. Eikenberg said Scott’s budget request is a good starting point with the Legislature and he hopes the state will exercise an option to buy U. S. Sugar Corp. land there.
“The communities east (along the St. Lucie River) and west (along the Caloosahatchee) need to send the water south,” Eikenberg told Floridapolitics.com “Let’s not miss the opportunity from our perspective.”
David Guest of the Earthjustice Florida office said his nonprofit law firm welcomes any action that will create “meaningful restoration” but also said it doesn’t want more “corporate welfare.”
“Job number one is to stop the big South Florida agricultural operations from dumping their pollution into the public’s waterways,” Guest said.
Amendment 1 calls for transferring one-third of a state excise tax on documents, or an estimated $757 million in FY 2015-16, to the state Land Acquisition Trust Fund over the next 20 years.
Scott would provide the $300 million for Everglades restoration and land acquisition and management but he doesn’t say how another $457 million under Amendment 1 would be spent. Other industry and utility groups likely are pushing for money to be spent for water supply and pollution projects.
In updated request on Jan. 21, a coalition of Amendment 1 supporters wants $170 million for Everglades projects and $170 million for land acquisition. The coalition said it also wants $110 million for land management, which Scott has included in his request along with land acquisition for $150 million.
“The governor’s recommendation is not there,” said Eric Draper of Audubon Florida. “But it still is a substantive number.”
Bruce Ritchie (@bruceritchie) covers environment, energy and growth management issues in Tallahassee.
