If you're wondering why the Legislature didn't restore Florida Forever's once-upon-a-time $300 million for land purchases ... could it be because the program's managers gave lawmakers the perfect excuse?
According to figures provided by House staff, the Florida Forever program is sitting on a pile of unused money -- not just the $12.5 million it was budgeted last year, but a total $84 million.
In the bank. Eighty-four million greenbacks just hanging out.
Between the surveys, the approvals, the laundry list of bureaucratic hurry-up-and-wait, land acquisition is at least a two-year process. Yet, last year buying failed to start on a single acre of land.
So, if I'm a legislator and Amy Baker, the state’s chief economist, shows me Florida Forever is basically in siesta mode, and I've got two or three dozen people lobbying me for their Amendment 1-suitable project, I might not exactly feel the buy-land urgency either.
Maybe it's not about he who shouts loudest. Maybe it's about showing, not telling. If I'm a legislator, show me an in-process land parcel, not a fat bank account.
Because now I've got reason to go along with my colleagues who stretch the definition of Amendment 1 like a kid with a rubber wrist-rocket.
The main point of a Florida's Waters & Land Legacy press statement circulated Monday was to complain that the conference committee budget proposal allocated only $17.4 million for the acquisition of parks and wildlife habitat under Florida Forever -- out of the $750 million available to be spent in Amendment 1’s first year.
Asked about the Florida Forever failure to spend the money it has before demanding more, Will Abberger, chairman of Florida Water and Land Legacy, the Amendment 1 sponsor committee, told Sunshine State News, "There are 2 million acres on the current Florida Forever project list, representing $10 billion in land value. The funding is inadequate no matter how you cut it. We wanted $155 million this year, less than the $300 million we got in the past."
In all, the new budget proposal sets aside $81.8 million for Everglades restoration, $55 million to buy land and $47.5 million in funding for restoration of the state's natural springs. The Senate helped to constrain those numbers by resisting House attempts to bond some of the money. That would have allowed the state to spend roughly $10 for every dollar used for bonding.
Said Abberger, “Last November Florida voters sent a loud and clear message to the Legislature: Make funding for conservation land acquisition a priority. The Legislature is ignoring Florida voters.”
That may be. But if the matter goes to court, as Florida Audubon and other groups threaten, it seems unlikely a court will rule against lawmakers' decisions to use Amendment 1 proceeds on the broad spectrum of non-land restoration uses spelled out in the amendment. On the other hand, lawmakers are on thin ice if they've budgeted money from those proceeds for existing agency operations, as Abberger suggests.
"The fund-shifting amounts to more than $230 million, nearly $300 million as far as we can tell, in the current Amendment 1 budget proposal," he claims. "We're exploring all our options at this point."
The Legislature has its lawyers, too. For sure, the matter is far from over. But it might be more difficult -- this first year, anyway -- to convince leery legislators that an organization claiming to have been underfunded for the past five-plus years now needs $300 million -- or even $155 million -- for land purchases when it has $84 million squirreled away, $84 million it failed to put in play last year.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
