SCCF provides legislative update on Weeks 2 and 3
Starting on Jan. 18, the second week of legislative action saw leadership priorities being fast tracked through committee.
Local Government Preemption — SB 280 — Local Ordinances by Sen. Travis Hutson was heard in the Senate Rules committee on Jan. 20. The bill requires local governments to include business impact statements before adopting ordinances and awards court costs and damages to businesses in civil actions when challenges to ordinances arise. The majority of public testimony was initially opposed to the bill but several amendments were adopted, one of which strengthened the arbitrary and unreasonable thresholds with which businesses could file suit. The measure made the bill palatable to local government representatives. The bill passed 14-2 in its second and last committee stop before being heard by the full Senate.
In contrast a related bill, SB 620 — Local Government, also by Hutson was heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Jan. 20. The bill permits businesses to sue local governments if ordinances cause at least 15 percent loss of profits. Several local government representatives spoke to the burden the bill would create for the local community by passing ordinances to protect their citizens from issues like pill mills or water pollution. Those opposed to the bill also spoke to the anti-competitive nature of the bill using tax-payers dollars to pay businesses not to adapt to change and innovation being implemented by local governments. Although the majority of testimony was in opposition to the bill, the Senate Appropriations committee voted to approve the bill by a vote of 11-7. The bill moves on next to the full Senate for further debate. Due to strong public opposition, the bill sponsor may offer future amendments on the Senate floor.
Ecosystem Restoration — SB 198 — Water Resources Management (Seagrass Mitigation) was heard in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation strongly opposed the bill when it was introduced last year and does so again this year in its similar reintroduced form. The bill makes the destruction and mitigation of seagrass on publicly owned sovereign submerged lands allowable for the benefit of private development. There are multiple reasons to oppose the bill including the lack of success with seagrass restoration due to the poor water quality conditions present in areas of past abundant seagrass growth. A record 1,101 manatees died last year mostly due to starvation from loss of their primary food source, seagrass. Florida can’t afford to lose any of its remaining seagrass without fixing the underlying water quality issues contributing to the current system-wide loss of seagrass around Florida. The bill has two more committee stops with the opportunity for amendments to address these concerns.
Water Quality — SB 1000 — Nutrient Application Rates was heard in the Senate Agriculture committee after having passed its first committee stop the week prior. The bill provides for site specific management approaches to fertilizer application which could mean that a certified crop advisor may or may not recommend higher fertilizer application rates than current best management practices allow. Considering nutrient pollution contributes to poor water quality there is some concern that the policy may allow additional nutrient run-off in already impaired water bodies. The bill passed 6-1 and has been referred to its final committee stop in the Senate Rules Committee.
WEEK 3
Lawmakers got some good news late last week that with the solid economy and federal stimulus, Florida is slated to collect $4 billion more in revenue over the next two years than originally estimated. Collections from the state documentary tax, the tax that funds the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund (LATF), is also coming in above projections for a total of $4.42 billion. The SCCF is supporting a minimum annual expenditure of $100 million LATF funds for the Florida Forever Program. Prior to 2009, annual Florida Forever allocations averaged $300 million.
Florida Forever: Last week two land acquisition related bills were passed out of their referred committees, but one of the bills opens the land acquisition fund to expenditures for infrastructure such as septic to sewer conversion, stormwater improvements and flood control measures rather than the nature-based solution of land preservation and conservation. SB 1400 — Land Acquisition Trust Fund passed out of its second of three committees on Jan. 26 with a unanimous vote of 10-0. SB 1400 proposes to use $20 million annually from the LATF to fund water related projects to protect, restore or enhance the headwaters of Heartland Region of Central Florida. This would create the precedent for Florida Forever funds to be spent on an endless list of water related infrastructure projects rather than the clearly stated intent of the 2014 Land and Water Conservation FL Constitutional amendment that guides the LATF to be spent on land acquisition.
SB 1816, also titled Land Acquisition Trust Fund, authorizes $100 million annually to the Florida Forever Land Acquisition Program and extends the bonds to be issued to fund the Florida Forever Act. The bill also limits LATF expenditures for certain budget entities which relates to a lawsuit filed by supporters of the Florida Forever Program where LATF funds were spent on loosely related state administrative costs rather than for land acquisition and management. SB 1816 passed its first of three committees last week with a unanimous vote of 5-0.
Water quality: SB 832 — Implementation of Recommendations of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force passed its second of three committees with a unanimous vote of 10-0. In 2019, the task force made a series of recommendations to combat blue-green algae. Some of those recommendations were incorporated into the 2020 Safe Waterways Act but have yet to be fully implemented. SB 832 proposes to promote two of those recommendations that were not yet adopted including the implementation of septic tank inspections on a five-year cycle and improvements to the projects within Basin Management Action Plans that would promote increased effectiveness.
Visit the 2022 SCCF Legislative Tracker at https://www.sccf.org/our-work/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.