TALLAHASSEE – A Senate committee Tuesday backed a proposal that would earmark up to $20 million a 12 months for environmental projects in the Florida Keys, a week right after Gov. Ron DeSantis incorporated protection of Florida’s coral reefs as aspect of his 2nd-phrase environmental system.
The Senate Surroundings and Purely natural Assets Committee unanimously authorised a bill (SB 54) that phone calls for delivering income each and every 12 months from the state’s Land Acquisition Believe in Fund, which gets genuine-estate tax dollars below a 2014 constitutional amendment aimed at land and h2o conservation.
The proposal by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez would provide income to restore Florida Bay, the Florida Keys and ecosystems this kind of as coral reefs and to get land inside the Florida Keys Area of Important Condition Concern.
Condition regulation already directs revenue from the believe in fund for these types of points as Everglades restoration and springs defense.
David Cullen, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, voiced opposition to the proposal, which was amended Tuesday to take away a ban on making use of the revenue for wastewater tasks.
“Sierra Club strongly believes … the LATF (Land Acquisition Believe in Fund) — per the constitutional amendment passed in 2014 — is for the acquisition, restoration, management and improvement of conservation and leisure lands,” Cullen said. “Not for pumps and pipes.”
Previous week, DeSantis named for lawmakers to invest $3.5 billion above the next 4 many years on environmental assignments these as restoring the Everglades and addressing h2o-good quality issues. Among the other issues, he called for safeguarding coral reefs.
“We are also heading to build a coral reef restoration and recovery initiative to increase coral deployment, to improve coastal-flood and storm-surge protections,” DeSantis said at the time. “That is a little something that is incredibly, really critical, and we are likely to keep on to make development there.”
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