Coalition of conservationists demand the Florida Legislature restore funding for land, water conservation

Representatives from the Sierra Club, Florida Conservation Voters and the Florida Conservation Coalition joined Rep. Ben Diamond to stand in solidarity with seven other actions throughout the state Dec. 13, demanding the Florida Legislature “fully fund” Florida Forever in the state’s 2020 budget.

Sierra Club Florida has asked for the legislature to allocate $470.12 million in 2020, while others groups are asking for a return to the $300 million allocation that Florida Forever and its predecessor, Preservation 2000, once routinely enjoyed. Others have not yet specified a dollar amount.

Twenty-five years ago, Florida was considered a leader among states funding land and water conservation projects, according to Lindsay Cross, Government Relations Director for Florida Conservation Voters. “Under Republican-led governors, we enacted forward-looking conservation programs like Preservation 2000 and Florida Forever that were the envy of states nationwide,” she said. “For two decades, we committed $300 million each year to protect the integrity of our state.”

That changed during the 2008 recession, when land conservation funding was cut to zero. Land acquisition funding stayed at zero, or close to it, for numerous years under the leadership of Gov. Rick Scott, who signed eight budgets into law during his two terms from 2010 to 2018. Three of those budgets allocated zero dollars to Forever Florida. Every other year, Scott allocated $20 million or less, with one exception: his final budget in 2018 allocated $100 million.

Florida voters passed the Water and Land Conservation Amendment in 2014, dedicating 33 percent of net revenues from the documentary stamp tax, an existing excise tax on real estate documents, to the Land Acquisition Trust Fund for 20 years. The measure was approved by 75 percent of voters.

According to the text of the measure, these funds would be used “to acquire, restore, improve, and manage conservation lands including wetlands and forests; fish and wildlife habitat; lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, and the water quality of rivers, lakes, and streams; beaches and shores; outdoor recreational lands; working farms and ranches; and historic or geologic sites.”

But the land acquisition program has not received that funding. Rather, Diamond said, those funds have gone toward funding budget items generally covered by general revenue sources, like back office operations and the salaries of agency personnel.

“It’s a classic Tallahassee sweep,” Diamond said.

“I think what we need to do is do just what the voters said, let’s use one third of that money for broad environmental purposes, but lets actually deploy it. Let’s not use it to pay for agency personnel or the IT department of these agencies.”

In the 2019 budget, the Florida Legislature allocated just $33 million for conservation land acquisition. Far from the proposed $100 million suggested by Gov. Ron DeSantis, it is a middle ground between the $20 million and $45 million suggested by the House and Senate respectively.

“That’s unacceptable,” said Tim Martin, Conservation Chair for Sierra Club Florida. “It’s unacceptable when hundreds of thousands of acres of high priority conservation lands remain on the Florida Forever target list. It’s unacceptable that we’re doing so little, despite the fact that we’re losing 100,000 plus acres of natural and agriculture lands to development and sprawl each year. That’s unacceptable when the state agrees to spend billions of dollars on new toll roads.”

The Sierra Club’s analysis of the documentary stamp tax projects revenues of $943 million over the next fiscal year. Even considering funds allocated toward existing statutory obligations and debt service, that left over figure remains at $470.12 million.

“While Florida voters had this clear vision, the legislators have had their blinders on, blatantly ignoring the will of the people by refusing to restore the funding to these programs that they deserve and that you and I have demanded,” said Cross. “We’re tired of getting scraps, which is why organizations, business groups and everyday Floridians around the state are standing together today and for as long as it takes to demand full and consistent funding for our vital conservation programs.”

“We’re projecting to write a 90+ billion dollar budget,” said Diamond. “Billion with a b. So the money is there, this is just a debate about priorities. This should be on the top of the list.”

Haley Burger of Florida Conservation Coalition pointed to the growth and prosperity Florida has seen since bouncing back from the 2008 recession. Growth that has brought with it sprawling development. Rather than strip malls or big box development, Burger said, it is Florida’s lands, waters and wildlife that make the state so special. “Florida looks quite a bit different than it did in the 1960s,” Burger said. “In 1964 the state’s population was at 5.78 million people. In 2019, we have surpassed 20.5 million people living in our state. I’m afraid young Floridians today won’t get a chance to see the old Florida.”

Cross explained that the the best way to protect water, in quantity and quality, is to protect the land around it. “We see these massive proclamations about how we’re going to clean up red tide and blue-green algae and how much that’s damaging not only to our health but to our economy,” she said. “It is so much more economical and valuable to prevent these problems from happening in the first place.”

Litigation over the Water and Land Conservation amendment has been ongoing. In 2015, just one year after the amendment was passed, Florida Defenders of the Environment filed suit against the state legislature for misusing and mis-allocating funds intended for Florida Forever. The Sierra Club, Florida Wildlife Federation, St. Johns Riverkeeper and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida joined the suit in 2017, and in 2018 a Tallahassee judge ruled in favor of the conservation groups. The decision was overturned in September 2019, when the First Court of Appeals ruled that funds in the Land Acquisition Trust Fund “are not restricted to use on land purchased by the state after 2015.”