The decades-long drive to save the Everglades isn't purely an environmental exercise. Skeptics say it's really about the money.
Behind the billions of tax dollars spent to "fix" the dying River of Grass are millions of dollars in campaign contributions that fuel an ongoing political turf war statewide.
Gov. Charlie Crist was the latest beneficiary of a well-greased money machine, which took down Crist's 2006 primary opponent, Tom Gallagher, and then donated $1.1 million to the Republican Party of Florida, chaired by Crist protege Jim Greer.
Soon after his election, Crist went behind closed doors with U.S. Sugar executives to negotiate a deal to buy 180,000 acres from the financially troubled landholder -- ostensibly to "save" the Everglades.
Central to all of this was Eric Buermann, a Miami attorney, whom Crist appointed to the South Florida Water Management District board.
Before ascending to the water board, Buermann was custodian of Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government, a "527" electioneering organization that raised $3 million during the 2006 election cycle.
Buermann also was attorney for a related 527 group, Floridians for a Better and Brighter Future. That organization contributed $1.29 million to the Truth and Integrity fund.
The 527 groups -- named for their numerical designation in the IRS tax code -- are conduits for distributing "soft" money to political parties and for hard-hitting campaign tactics.
Floridians for a Better and Brighter Future's president was Christopher LaCivita, of Richmond, Va. LaCivita produced the "Swift Boat" ads that helped to sink John Kerry's 2004 presidential run.
Both the Better and Brighter Future group and the Truth and Integrity organization filed their final federal tax returns from Alexandria, Va. post-office boxes. Both folded shortly after Crist was elected.
Big Sugar money flowed through both 527s and helped clear the way for Crist's election. The deal with U.S. Sugar followed shortly thereafter.
But, Big Sugar is so sprawling that it has its own feudal divisions, and, so, the political battle rages on.
Two key players, Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals and the Miccosukee Tribe, have branded Crist's Everglades deal as nothing more than a public bailout for a major campaign donor, U.S. Sugar.
"This deal is not driven by science. It's not driven by need,'' said Gaston Cantens, a Florida Crystals vice president. "It was driven by one person's political ambition and one company's necessities.''
Critics, citing a recent New York Times story that questioned the governor's motives, see the Crist-U.S. Sugar alliance as just another chapter in the politicization of the Everglades.
Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, Crist's opponent in the 2010 Republican primary for Senate, has said that U.S. Sugar gave "at least $103,987" in campaign donations to Crist, but following all the money isn't easy to do when 527 groups are involved -- and that's by design.
"It's a web of interlocking influence," says Daniel Smith, associate professor of political science at the University of Florida. "This sweetheart deal for Big Sugar has been in the works for some time."
Crist's election brought the sugar deal to fruition, as the newly seated governor named Buermann, the 527 attorney and custodian, his "transition team leader" for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The governor also positioned Buermann on the board of directors of the South Florida Water Management District.
The Crist-U.S. Sugar package calls for SFWMD to borrow $536 million to purchase 73,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee, with South Florida property taxpayers paying off the long-term debt.
Buermann, as SFWMD chairman, has tirelessly advocated for "the governor's vision,'' but he also has acknowledged that the agency's costs are mounting as property values and the tax base sag.
A Feb. 17 memo from the district's financial adviser, The PFM Group, forecast potential water district budget shortfalls of $89 million and $110 million during the next two years, likely requiring cuts in the district's operating and maintenance costs to be able to afford the U.S. Sugar deal.
"Some of the most powerful forces in the state are on both sides of this issue," Buermann said. "I've tried to keep the politics out of it."
The former general counsel of the state Republican Party said he has "chagrined" Crist by "asking so many difficult questions about this deal every step of the way."
"Maybe the appraisals are too high, but in 100 years, what does it matter? You have to maintain a long-term vision or get stuck in the weeds," Buermann said.
Twice downsized from its original $1.75 billion, 180,000-acre scale, the smaller Everglades land purchase faces more scrutiny from the Florida Supreme Court in April. The Fanjul family's Florida Crystals and the Miccosukee Tribe have led the legal assault, calling the deal a blatant bailout for a major Crist campaign donor.
Cantens said Florida Crystals participated in 10 years of negotiations, during which the company "gave up thousands of acres" for a reservoir and other Everglades ventures.
"We want science-based restoration. (The U.S. Sugar deal) is the tail wagging the dog."
Contary to popular perception, phosphorous pollution flowing into the Everglades has decreased in recent years. The 2010 South Florida Environmental Report, published by the state DEP and the SFWMD, reported a 68 percent reduction in phosphorus loads in 2009 and a 54 percent decline over 14 years. The target was 25 percent.
As for the cash flow, Cantens said that environmental groups, including Paul Tudor Jones, head of the Everglades Foundation, primed the pump for the U.S. Sugar deal with strategically timed and directed campaign contributions.
Barely three weeks before the 2006 election, Jones, a Connecticut-based venture capitalist, contributed $400,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.
Two months earlier, Jones gave $50,000 to Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government -- the same 527 group that funneled $1.1 million to the RPOF.
Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, said there was no coordination with Big Sugar in the timing or placement of political contributions.
"There was no notion of a land deal at that time. There was no communication among the principals. The money was being given for very different reasons," Fordham said.
"Big Sugar leverages its influence. The (Everglades Trust) money was to counteract Big Sugar," he added.
Coincidentally or not, on the same Aug. 31 date that Jones donated to Floridians for Truth and Integrity in Government, six Big Sugar companies donated a combined $500,000 to the 527 fund for which Crist's protege, Buermann, served as custodian.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, the contributors were: U.S. Sugar ($150,000), Flo-Sun Inc. ($100,000), Florida Crystals ($100,000), Americas Export Corp. ($50,000), Southern Gardens Citrus Processors ($50,000) and Southern Gardens Groves Corp. ($50,000).
Thom Rumberger, chairman of the Everglades Trust, said, "They (Big Sugar) may have an issue and we may have an issue. We're together on some, but certainly not on things like fertilizers."
Rumberger, a former Florida judge and longtime Tallahassee attorney, said the environmentalists' campaign to halt backpumping of phosophorous-laden discharges into Lake Okeechobee in 2007 turned the screws on Big Sugar, which pleaded for relief from Crist. The governor then suggested that U.S. Sugar sell out.
Noting the deal that followed, Florida Crystals' Cantens mused, "If Charlie Crist spent as much time raising money for the state as he does for his political campaigns, the state would have plenty of cash."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com, or (772) 559-4719.
