Advocates say Florida lawmakers still fail to implement land conservation program

TALLAHASSEE – Environmentalists gathered Monday at the Florida Capitol to celebrate the fifth anniversary of voters overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure aimed at steering billions of dollars toward land and water preservation.

But the fight over money remains.

“The unrealized potential that’s left and is before the Legislature today is to fund Florida Forever,” said Will Abberger, with the Trust for Public Land and campaign manager of the Amendment 1 proposal in 2014.

Amendment 1 was supported by 75 percent of Florida voters in 2014. It set aside 33 percent of tax collections from real estate documentary stamps to the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund to spend on environmental programs.

State analysts projected the measure could set aside $23 billion over the 20-year life of the measure. Voters across the state — including many from Republican-heavy coastal counties — backed the environmental push.

But while the GOP-led Legislature has directed dollars from the trust fund toward Everglades restoration, cleaning freshwater springs, and other land and water programs, the state’s premiere conservation land-buying program remains short-changed, critics said.

When lawmakers convene in January, conservationists fear it won’t be any different — with the 2014 ballot victory fading further into history.

Florida Forever drew $33.2 million in this year’s budget — down from the at least $300 million level it annually took in during its first 20 years.

Since former Gov. Rick Scott was elected in 2010, the program has received far less than $100 million annually, except for his final year in office, when Florida Forever was steered an even $100 million.

The $33.2 million set aside this year came in the first budget signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Aliki Moncrief, executive director of Florida Conservation Voters, said $300 million in 2020 is the organization’s goal “at a minimum.”

Many worry that Florida’s green spaces are steadily disappearing — part of what drove the ballot campaign in the first place.

Earlier this year DeSantis signed into law a measure that could lead to the construction of three major new toll roads in Florida — cutting through mostly rural counties home to some of the land environmentalists want saved.

“There is a critical need — now,” said Kevin McGorty with Tall Timbers Land Conservancy.

Lawmakers also have spent millions of dollars set aside by Amendment 1 on administrative and operational costs in state agencies, prompting a lawsuit from environmental organizations in 2015, which argued the Legislature was violating terms of the measure.

But after a court found unconstitutional 185 spending provisions totaling more than $420 million, an appellate court sent the case back to the trial court for further review, without specifically deciding whether Amendment 1 dollars have been misused.

It was a setback for environmentalists. But conservation groups said Monday they are focused now on securing at least $300 million for Florida Forever going forward.