Future of reservoir plan appears murky
Negron has made protection of rivers, estuaries a priority.
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Senate President Joe Negron’s priorit y of creating a reservoir to protect rivers and estuaries east and west of Lake Okeechobee appears to have a murky future.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday will discuss the $2.4 billion proposal (SB 10), which would advance work on a part of planned Everglades restoration projects. The proposal to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee has drawn extensive resistance from Glades-area residents, politicians and landowners, including influential sugar farmers.
When asked Thursday if his chamber would take up the reservoir proposal, Ho u s e S p e a ke r R i c h a r d Corcoran said ambiguously, “We’re all waiting with bated breath” for the Senate bill.
“We’re never concerned with the fact that something is not moving in the Senate,” said Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes. “We keep sending stuff to them. They should follow our lead.”
The fight over the reservoir comes as Senate budget proposals released last week included $22.6 million for state land-buying programs — something that has no matching money in the House proposal — and $275 million for ongoing Everglades restoration projects.
House Appropri at i o ns Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R- Mi a mi , s a i d t h e s t a t e shouldn’t “run out and purchase land” as it currently has more than can be managed.
“I think if you look at our budget, we have to make informed decisions and we have to make tough decisions,” Trujillo said. “We can’t be all things to all people. So just going out and saying we’re going to buy a bunch of land, that we can’t maintain, when we have rivers that are polluted, when we have all sorts of issues with our Get The Post’s complete coverage of the Florida Legislature’s 2017 session, beaches that need sand, we’re just going to go buy more land, I don’t think that’s the best use of taxpayer money.”
The House is pitching $166 million for Everglades restoration projects.
Negron, R-Stuart, is pushing the reservoir plan after widespread problems with polluted water being released from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Under the proposal, water would move south from the lake instead of going east and west into the other water bodies, preventing toxic algae outbreaks that have inundated Negron’s Treasure Coast and north Palm Beach County district.
Negron’s bill seeks to bond $64 million next year through the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund, which receives money from taxes generated by real-estate documentary stamps. The state’s annual debt service payment would grow to $100 million through the 2037-2038 Fiscal Year.
House Republican leaders have been opposed to borrowing money for projects. Under Negron’s proposal, the federal government also would foot half the bill for the reservoir.
Wednesday’s meeting is the final committee Negron’s proposal would have to clear before appearing on the Senate floor. The bill also includes $35 million annually for the St. Johns River, its tributaries or the Keystone Heights lake region in North Florida, as well as $2 million annually for water issues in the Florida Keys and $20 million to help with the Indian River Lagoon.
Negron remained optimistic about the issue last week.
“I think we’ve made tremendous progress on Senate Bill 10,” Negron said Thursday. “I’m confident that we’re going to at the end of session have additional storage capacity south of Lake Okeechobee.”