Bruce Ritchie
A Senate committee chairman on Friday filed six bills to implement spending under Amendment 1 while supporters still were looking for details on how Gov. Rick Scott plans to spend the money.
Approved by 75 percent of voters in November, Amendment 1 in the state constitution will provide an estimated $757 million for water and land conservation programs in the 2015-16 state budget.
Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness and chairman of the Commmittee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation, filed six bills that are largely aimed at restructuring and eliminating state budget trust funds.
On Wednesday, Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said some trust funds may need to be eliminated so that Amendment 1 spending can be tracked. General revenue now is intermingled with Amendment 1 documentary stamp tax revenue to pay for environmental programs.
“The process our legislation will create is essential for the amendment to work properly,” Crisafulli said.
The legislation eliminates trust funds that are no longer necessary and creates versions of the Land Acquisition Trust fund in various state agencies to receive Amendment 1 revenue.
Late Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott’s office provided a breakdown of how he is requesting that money be spent under Amendment 1. His office released 2015-16 budget request highlights on Wednesday but not a breakdown of the Amendment 1 spending.
The governor’s budget request includes $100 million for the Florida Forever land-buying program, $130 million for Everglades restoration, $20 million for Kissimmee River restoration and $164.3 million for what is labeled “other/continuation” spending. A breakdown of the spending by categories can be found here.
Details were not available “other/continuation” category but the Amendment 1 spending seems to include $2.3 million in the Department of Environmental Protection budget for environmental permitting at the Northwest Florida and Suwannee River water management districts. Another $9 million is going to those water management districts for grants to local governments.
Some environmentalists have been wary of using the Amendment 1 money to fund existing state operations that little to do with land acquisition.
Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon Florida, said Friday he hadn’t looked at the governor’s Amendment 1 breakdown but he hoped to learn more details about it next week.
He said Amendment 1 supporters realize that some general revenue and documentary stamp tax revenue together have been used to pay for environmental programs that now would fall under Amendment 1.
“My fear has been they will take everything including the paper towels in the (DEP) washroom and call that Amendment 1 environmental spending,” Draper added. “I think we have to look very carefully at what is being called that.”
(Bruce Ritchie (@bruceritchie) covers environment, environment and growth management in Tallahassee.)
