The instincts of Florida’s new governor were right on target when he told the Legislature on Thursday to abide by the will of voters who overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana in 2016.
Ron DeSantis gave lawmakers until mid-March to get rid of a 2017 law that made it illegal to smoke marijuana for medical purposes. Otherwise he’ll drop the state’s appeal of a lawsuit that challenged the smoking ban.
How refreshing. A governor who respects decisions made by Floridians at the voting booth. In the case of the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, 71 percent of voting Floridians said yes.
You know what got even more support from voters than medical marijuana?
That would be Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2014 mandating the state spend one-third of the money it collects from a tax on documents — largely real estate transactions — on buying and maintaining land.
It got a whopping 75 percent of the vote.
It’s no wonder. Florida’s voters care about the environment. A lot.
And they were not pleased that year after year the state was spending less and less to acquire and protect public land.
So they voted for an amendment whose language couldn’t have been plainer. It mandated setting aside money to “acquire, restore, improve, and manage conservation lands…”
There’s no ambiguity here. Unless you’re a member of the Florida Legislature.
Rather than do what the voters wanted, the Legislature spent the money on salaries, sewage treatment plants, insurance and other things wholly unrelated to acquiring restoring, improving and managing conservation lands.
Then-Gov. Rick Scott — no friend of the environment, despite what he says — cheerfully went along with this naked betrayal of the voters’ will. According to a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups, the 2015 Legislature had $550 million available that year to buy land but spent only $50 million for that purpose.
The environmentalists won the case last summer but the Legislature appealed, still unwilling to spend the money as it should.
And that’s where the case is now, under appeal and stalled until the Legislature’s spring session complete.
Enter (we hope) Ron DeSantis, whose dizzying first week in office included rolling out an ambitious program of environmental reforms that called for spending $2.5 billion over the next four years on restoring the Everglades and “protecting our water resources.”
That’s a spending increase of $1 billion over the past four years, which has some giddy at the prospect but also asking, “Where’s the money coming from?”
It’s staring the governor right in the face.
In the same way DeSantis told lawmakers to obey the voters on medical marijuana, he needs to tell them to also do what three in every four voters wanted when they approved the land-buying amendment.
In doing so, DeSantis will demonstrate his devotion to the will of the voters is absolute, not limited.
He’ll also free up millions upon millions of dollars to acquire land the state needs to restore the Everglades.
Here in Central Florida, where the health and water flow of springs is declining because of pollution and development, money would become available to buy land around gems like Wekiwa Springs, Rock Springs and Blue Spring.
While the land-acquisition case involves the Legislature, not the governor’s office, DeSantis has a powerful weapon in his veto pen, which he can threaten to use if lawmakers don’t quit flouting the will of the voters.
We would argue the misspending of land-buying money is an even more egregious example of legislative hubris than denying patients the ability to smoke their medical marijuana.
DeSantis has acted boldly in the opening days of his administration. He can continue that streak by insisting the Legislature follow the voters’ orders to protect this state’s environmental treasures.
