Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam on Thursday urged members of the House State Affairs Committee -- the lawmakers charged with increasing spending on water sources and sensitive lands -- to first create "an overarching, already prioritized (water) policy"that will keep the state on the right course for land purchase in good times and bad.
Putnam recommended a long-term plan that focuses on the state's three areas of current emphasis: springs restoration, the northern Everglades and the Central Florida Water Initiative.
This is the way, he said, for water policy to reflect the progress Florida has made and ensure its future progress in themost effective manner.
"In effect, I'm suggesting you bake into yourrecipe an overarching statewide policy that recognizes differences around the state,but drives the policy discussion, that has an emphasis on springs, an emphasis on thenorthern Everglades and an emphasis on the Central Florida Water Initiative," said Putnam. "We need toview this from a long-term perspective -- the next 10 to 20 years."
He further explained, "We need to estimate how much it's going to cost us and then we prioritize by project sothat Legislatures change, economic conditions change, budgets change, but if thepolicy's right, the investments you're making, whether you can afford to make an enormousinvestment one year and have to scale that back the next, we're still moving down theroad, making the right investments based on an overarching, already prioritized policythat guarantees our incremental success in accomplishing what we all hope to accomplish."
Nobody on the committee, chaired by Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, had a question or comment for the commissioner during or after his presentation. Putnam later said he wasn't surprised -- "this is a lot to dump on somebody at one meeting."
The commissioner characterized the role of committee members in guiding the administration of the "Florida Water and Land Legacy" money as an opportunity to plant a flag in their own personal legacy, "an opportunity to think big and act boldly."
"The idea of targeting 33 percent of doc stamps is a big number," he said. "Andit's going to fall on your shoulders to identify how to make that work.But just as with water policy, whether Amendment 1 passed or not, we needed to be heredoing a water policy bill."
To guide them on appropriating money to the fiscally and environmentally best land buys, Putnam advised committee members to apply the lessons of the last 25 years, look at the projects that have shown the most success, review what the funding formulas were and whether they are still appropriate.
"Review whether we have given adequate priority to all areas of the state, review whether we have appropriately managed the lands the state has bought and if not, how do we do better? I would argue we need to do better," he said.
"I would argue that there are still efficiencies to be found in the management of public lands. I would argue that we need to rebalance the process that has resulted in substantially fewer conservation easements."
Putnam summed up the points he was making by providing perspective for the committee members -- the bigger picture and the importance of the role they play.
"The bottom line is, we're all inthis together," he said. "We've put 20 million people, 100 million visitors on a peninsula dominated by wetlands. That's going to have an effect.
"We have a $100 millionagriculture industry, a tourism industry even larger than that we need to protectfor a lot of reasons -- from national security to economic impact to communities. And wewant to keep this the kind of place that people want to live in, that people want tovisit. And a lot of that is rooted in our affinity, our attachment, to the water.
"Ask aRealtor," he said. "(Prospective buyers) want to be on a beach, they want to be on a spring, they want to be on alake, they want to be on a river. Our core values and our identity as a state areattached to water.
"...I'm excited about the opportunity to work with you onthis proposal. I think that this is something we can all view as a positive legacy fromour time in public life ... Make no mistake about it, the forces in this process that try to pull people apartare great.
"But all of us," urged Putnam in conclusion, "have skin in the game to get this across the finish line by theend of session and do it in a thoughtful way where we're all invested for betteroutcomes for our state and for our natural resources."
Lawmakers say they've been besieged by a variety of interests pushing blueprints for dividing up Amendment 1 money, estimated next year at about $750 million.
Putnam is moving forward with other initiatives as the 2015 Legislature prepares to convene. He has requested $25 millionfor the Rural and Family Lands Program, which allows farmers and ranchers to use their land while the state keeps it safe from development. In addition, the commissioner will ask for $18 million to fight diseases threatening to annihilate Florida's citrus industry -- plus, he says, more moneyfor springs maintenance and reforestation.
Several groups applauded Putnam's address to the committee, including the H20 Coalition, an offshoot of one of the state's largest business organizations,Associated Industries of Florida. AIF had recommended against Amendment 1 before the Nov. 4 election.
"Commissioner Putnam'?s recommendations provide an excellent framework to increase Florida'?s water supply and enact common-sense, science-based water quality reforms," AIF President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Feeney said in a written statement.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
