Guest commentary: SCCF provides Week 4 legislative update

Budget proposals advanced last week, and a bad attorney’s fee-shifting provision that would have stifled the public’s ability to challenge permit decisions was taken out of a Senate bill to match it’s companion in the house. The Everglades Protection Area bills cleared their first committees.
BUDGET PROPOSALS ADVANCE
The House Budget Proposal, PCB APC 24-01, and the Senate Budget Proposal, SB 2500, both advanced in their respective Appropriations Committees. The end of federal pandemic aid and shrinking revenue projections are leading to slightly smaller budget proposals, with the draft House budget totaling $115.5 billion, and the Senate’s proposed budget recommending $115.9 billion for a $400 million difference between the two chambers.
Environmental spending highlights from the proposed House budget include:
– $1.4 billion for Everglades protection and water quality projects
– $158 million for Florida Forever land acquisition
– $220 million for Resilient Florida Program
The Senate budget proposal includes:
– $1.1 billion for Water Quality Improvement Programs and Everglades restoration
– $416 million for conservation acquisition programs
– $120 million for Flood and Sea Level Rise programs
The differences in budget proposals will be reconciled in joint budget committees during the last several weeks of session.
Environmental Management (SB 738) by Sen. Danny Burgess thankfully followed the lead of the House companion, HB 789, by eliminating the provision to add the prevailing parties attorney’s fees up to $50,000 for citizen challenges to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Water Management District actions. The provisions merit being taken out of the bill for their threats to citizen engagement alone, but another key reason they were scrutinized is that they may have violated an agreement Florida entered into with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when the state assumed wetland permitting authority a few years ago. The agreement required fair access to the legal process, something that would have been greatly restricted by the provisions in the bills.
Unfortunately, SB 738 contains another troubling provision the House bill does not — it orders the DEP to “increase efficiency” on issuing coastal development permits. This order could weaken environmental protections by putting pressure on permit review staff to approve complicated permits without the requisite time for a proper evaluation of potential environmental damage.
Our coastal systems deserve appropriate and adequate reviews to ensure that they continue to provide their important storm resilience function. Our coasts also face increasing threats from sea level rise, and this bill runs contrary to the millions of dollars our state and local governments have invested in our coasts to protect the people and wildlife that rely on them for environmental and economic support.
SB 738 passed by a vote of 7-2 and advances to its third and final committee, Senate Fiscal Policy, next.
Everglades Protection Area Bill (HB 723) by Rep. Demi Busatta-Cabrera passed its first committee stop, the House Agriculture, Conservation and Resiliency Committee, with a supportive unanimous vote. The bill was introduced last year but session closed before it completed its committee appearances. The bill proposes to lessen the impacts to and increase the level of protection to the Everglades by creating a two-mile buffer zone to restrict development.
The bill and its Senate companion, SB 1364 by Sen. Alexis Calatyud, proposes to follow Florida’s coordinated review process rather than the expedited review process, in which the DEP would determine whether proposed development would adversely impact the Everglades Protection Area. The House bill applies to all counties surrounding the Everglades, but the Senate version only covers Broward, Dade and Monroe counties. The Senate version has also passed its first committee of reference. Both the House and Senate version await to be scheduled in their next committee stops.
Visit the 2024 SCCF Legislative Tracker at https://sccf.org/what-we-do/environmental-policy/.
Holly Schwartz is policy associate for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. Founded in 1967, the SCCF’s mission is to protect and care for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems. For more information, visit www.sccf.org.