Legislators let clock run on Everglades — and ignore our vote

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Remember Amendment One?

It was only about five months ago that we the people of the great state of Florida passed a constitutional amendment, no less, that provides for the funding of long-promised Everglades restoration through the purchase of land with a percentage of document fees.

Well, leave it to the Florida legislature to ignore a mandate from 75% of the people. Because that is exactly what they are doing as they let the clock run out on a much-ballyhooed 2010 land deal with Big Sugar that will expire if the legislature does not act this month.

This has gone from being an environmental issue to being a democracy issue.

This is the first time ever that our Tallahassee electeds have everything they need to make Everglades restoration finally happen in a significant way.

“For the first time in history, we have all the solutions tools at hand,” said Mike Collins, a spokesman for Saving Florida Water.

It is like they have all the puzzle pieces, but none of the political will to put it together:

1. Legislators have the law, Water Resources Development Act, signed by then President Bill Clinton in 2000 with then Gov. Jeb Bush at the White House. It was bipartisan legislation with the support of other Republicans like former Congressman Clay Shaw and authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
2. They have the 2010 contract with a five year option to buy 46,000 acres of land from United States Sugar Corporation, one of the Everglades worst polluters. The location is pivotal because the plan is to turn half of it into an underwater basin or filter or reservoir to clean and purify the agricultural runoff that overflows from Lake Okeechobee and feed it back into the River of Grass. Right now, that water is so dirty it is diverted from the Everglades into the Port St. Lucie and and Indian rivers to the east and west, polluting those waterways and the beaches and/or bays they pour into and hurting the tourist economies there.
3. And now, thanks to an overwhelming majority vote in November, legislators have the funding mechanism to pay for that land: They are to take 33% of the proceeds from the document stamp fees paid for any real estate transaction. And for 20 years. The money is there. The voters directed the legislature to use this money.

Legislators also have a deadline. Because that contract to purchase those 46,000 acres expires in October — or, effectively, in early May if the legislature doesn’t appropriate the funds before the session ends.

On Wednesday, a senate committee earmarked $37 million for land appropriation. Not this land. Just any ol’ land.

This land, the 46,000 acres of U.S. Sugar property, is valued anywhere between $350 million to $500 million, according to different sources. And the Amendment One mandate requires that $742 million be appropriated for land acquisition to restore the Everglades, where 8 million people, or one out of every three Floridians, get their drinking water.

Are our legislators really bad at math? Or is it more likely that they are low-balling and dragging their feet as U.S. Sugar uses it’s considerable political muscle (read: millions in campaign contributions) to get out of the contract so they can possibly develop the land themselves.

They got a lot of good ink and publicity from the deal in 2010 when they offered, in bad economic times, to sell the state the land at market value for a good cause. Now that the economy is better and the money is there for it to happen, they want to back out. Las malas lenguas say — and published reports have indicated — that U.S. Sugar Corp wants to go for a zoning change to build 18,000 homes and 25 million square feet of stores, offices and retail buildings on part of that land.

If the sugar barons’ rumored zoning changes are approved, that land will be worth a lot more than $500 million.

Progress Florida has collected 5,500 signatures asking the legislature to include the implementation of the contract and the land deal in its 2015 budget. Supporters of Amendment One, also known as the land and water conservation amendment, have been calling Senator Charlie Dean‘s office (R-Iverness), because he chairs the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee and is sponsor of Senate Bill 584, which would implement the voters’ will.

But why should that make a difference if an overwhelming 75% of the people voting has not?

It’s not like we don’t know who pulls the (purse) strings in Tallahassee. No fewer than 27 lobbyists are registered at the state as advocates for U.S. Sugar. That’s just for 2015.

Guess what their No. 1 job is this session? Getting legislators to ignore this issue for just a month longer so that the contract expires.

I guess we have to remind our legislators that they also have a No. 1 job — and that is representing the people who put them there and respecting the will of 75% of the voters.

  environmental issues, Everglades, Florida legislature, Rick Scott