Lawmaker Fights U.S. Sugar Deal

A Tampa Bay area lawmaker has filed legislation that could stall or even stop Florida from sealing its historic deal with U.S. Sugar to purchase the Everglades for restoration.

Gov. Charlie Crist heavily promoted the $1.35 billion purchase of 180,000 acres in the Everglades, which would open the way to massive ecological restoration of the area.

The deal-in-progress often is described in shorthand as a state purchase. In reality, the South Florida Water Management District is buying the land, using property tax dollars from residents under the district's jurisdiction.

State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said he wants to let affected taxpayers decide whether the district can spend their tax dollars on the Everglades purchase. An outspoken critic of the deal's terms, he said the proposal convinced him that all such deals by water management districts ought to go to local referendum, which is what his bill would require.

"Nobody on the water management district is elected," he said. "They're appointed, but they're not elected. I feel that if they have the ability to raise taxes, that's taxation without representation. I thought we kind of got rid of that premise a couple hundred years ago."

Water management districts follow hydrologic boundaries, not county or voting precinct lines, said Carol Ann Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, which spreads across 16 counties. "There's no way to have an election."

Eric Draper, deputy director of the Florida Audubon Society, said Bennett's proposal is unfeasible and a "deal killer."

If lawmakers seriously want to thwart the land purchase, Draper said, they ought to ban it outright. "This is just a dishonest way to kill the deal - to pretend that you're giving it to the voters, when in fact the voters, under this bill, will never see this proposal. Sen. Bennett should just have the courage to stand up and say, 'I'm going to try to get the votes to kill it.'"

Bennett is chairman of the Senate Committee on Community Affairs, which heard Wehle's presentation Tuesday on the land deal's terms and benefits. Afterward, he said he believed a referendum would be possible but conceded it would slow things down. That's something Bennett wants anyway, arguing the deal is too expensive and contains too many unknowns.

"We want sustainable Florida, and we want sustainable communities," said Bennett, who owns property in Clewiston, a town in the Everglades region that expects heavy property value and job losses from U.S. Sugar's departure. "But 'sustainable communities' also means you've also got to be able to afford what you're doing - and that's a tough issue."