Editorial: After five years, it's past time to give 'Forever Florida' its due

Five years after its passage in a landslide, Amendment 1's promise to protect Florida's environment remains only partially fulfilled. It's scandalous, and it has to end.

Florida's voters spoke as an unmistakable chorus on Election Day 2014: 75% said “yes” to the ballot measure for land conservation and water protection -- including an overwhelming 84 percent in Palm Beach County. It got 4.2 million votes, more than any politician (including then-Gov. Rick Scott).

The idea was to give 33% of tax collections from real-estate documentary stamps to the state's Land Acquisition Trust Fund to protect the state's biggest asset: the environment. That would come out to about $23 billion over 20 years, according to recent projections.

But with development relentlessly gobbling up Florida's open lands and pollutants fouling Florida waterways, the voters saw the need. The bounty from real-estate sales would be used to “acquire, restore, improve, and manage conservation lands.”

Florida legislators and Scott had other ideas. For years they had harshly cut budgets when it came to the environment. Scott's administration, with the Republican-controlled Legislature's blessing, prioritized green-lighting industry and development ahead of protecting beloved assets like the St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee River estuaries.

And even after the people roared their disapproval with that vote five years ago, Scott was content to keep on starving Florida Forever, the state's main conservation land-buying program.

Land-buying had previously been a favorite occupation of Florida governors. Until the Great Recession hit in 2009 in the middle of Charlie Crist's four years in office, Florida Forever and its predecessor, Preservation 2000, were routinely funded at $300 million a year.

Not Scott, governor from 2011 until last January. Former state representative Paula Dockery tells it succinctly: Scott “signed eight annual budgets funding Florida Forever at zero, $8.4 million, $20 million, $12.5 million, $15 million, zero, zero, and $100 million during his two terms in office.”

Note that those last four budgets were while Amendment 1 was in effect. And the final of those four encompassed an election year when Scott ran for the U.S. Senate.

Of course, lawmakers did spend money from the Amendment 1 trust fund. Only, they often spent it on things that didn't seem to fit the aims or spirit of the amendment.

In 2015 alone, they directed $152 million to pay for salaries at agencies that deal with the environment in some way, such as hunting, freshwater fisheries, and archaeological and historic sites. Instead of expanding environmental protections, in other words, they used the new funds for business as usual.

>>>Related content: Editorial: Courts must protect Florida's environment from lawmakers

When environmental groups took this abhorrent legislative behavior to court, a judge found unconstitutional 185 spending provisions totaling more than $420 million. But the case is in limbo. An appellate court in September tossed it back to the trial court for further review without specifying whether Amendment 1 money had been misused.

Meantime, the unmet potential of Amendment 1 continues under Gov. Ron DeSantis. True, the new governor is taking some big swings for the environment. In September, for instance, he requested annual environmental spending of $625 million for the next three years. That includes $300 million for Everglades restoration and the long-delayed southern reservoir, and millions more for attacking harmful algal blooms.

But his official press release doesn't mention Florida Forever at all. And in the current fiscal year, which started July 1, Florida Forever gets only $34.5 million.

Keep in mind, the Amendment 1 fund is expected to generate more than $906 million this fiscal year. By anyone's arithmetic, there's plenty more money available for environmental needs.

Last week, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee took a step forward by voting unanimously to designate $100 million of Amendment 1 money to Florida Forever each year to provide the program with “a stable annual funding floor,” according to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando. The bill is filed for consideration in the legislative session that begins Jan. 14.

A $100 million guarantee is a nice start. Still, we agree with environmental groups that insist upon a minimum of $300 million annually. After all, that's what the program used to get, years before voters provided a pot exceeding $900 million a year.

It's good to see attitudes on protecting the environment improving in this state from the dark ages of the Scott administration. But bolder action is possible. The state's voters demanded it in 2014. They're still waiting. And they shouldn't be.