TALLAHASSEE – As he works on a proposed budget for the upcoming year, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday the state will ask President-elect Donald Trump to give Florida authority over federal money for Everglades restoration projects.
DeSantis offered a few environmental snippets that will be included in a proposed 2025-2026 budget that he said he will release “very, very soon.” If Florida had oversight of the federal money, it could more rapidly advance work, such as on the decades-old state and federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, he said.
“Send us the funds. Give us the authority and let us get to work, and we’ll get this done and move it along very, very quickly,” DeSantis said during an appearance at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Alexis Lambert backed DeSantis’ call.
“Florida has proven it can manage restoration projects more efficiently than the federal government, saving both time and money,” Lambert said. “Floridians understand the Everglades better than anyone else. We live, work and recreate here.”
But Tania Galloni, managing attorney for the Earthjustice legal organization, questioned DeSantis’ dedication to protecting the environment.
“Florida’s governor can make any political statements he wants, but the fact is that Florida’s ecosystems — including the Everglades — are in trouble,” Galloni said in a statement after DeSantis’ event. “All you have to do is look around to see that the state is failing to protect our waterways from pollution and failing to safeguard the plants and animals that rely on Florida’s wetlands and waters. We need to strengthen environmental protections, not continue to let development run rampant.”
DeSantis said he would bring up the Everglades issue during a gathering Thursday night with other Republican governors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
DeSantis’ budget proposal will serve as a starting point as lawmakers negotiate a final 2025-2026 spending plan during the legislative session that will start March 4. The fiscal year will begin July 1.
The governor said he will propose spending $805 million for Everglades restoration, along with providing money for projects aimed at cleaning water in the Kissimmee River area of Central Florida before it flows into Lake Okeechobee.
Polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee have long led to water quality problems in rivers in Southeast Florida and Southwest Florida.
“A lot of the nutrients that got into Lake Okeechobee, that would end up in the St Lucie (River) or the Caloosahatchee (River), in prior years, a lot of those nutrients were coming from Central Florida and Disney World and all this other stuff,” DeSantis said. “And so being able to head that off (north of Lake Okeechobee) really, really makes a lot of sense.”
The budget for the current fiscal year includes $850 million for Everglades restoration projects. That includes money for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and such things as the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir project.
In advance of the 2024 session, DeSantis requested $745 million for Everglades restoration projects and $330 million for targeted water quality projects.
