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Frustrated with the slow trickle of federal dollars for Everglades cleanup projects, Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt decided to resurrect the dormant Joint Legislative Committee on Everglades Oversight, and named me as the Senate chair of the committee.
The move was bold and bipartisan. Bold in the sense that it signaled Senator Pruitt's willingness to expend political capital to make Everglades restoration a top priority of his Senate Presidency. Bipartisan in the sense that Senator Pruitt, a Republican, recognized that a Democrat could have a better chance of persuading our newly elected Democratic Congress to live up to Washington's previous promises to help restore the River of Grass.
It should not have come to this. When Gov. Jeb Bush stood next to President Bill Clinton in the White House on Dec. 11, 2000, as the landmark Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was signed into law, it marked an unprecedented partnership with Tallahassee, with each side paying half of the cost of the $8 billion project.
That was then. Today, the cost of CERP has risen to more than $10 billion because of rising land values and new engineering requirements. And while the State of Florida has spent more than $2.5 billion on CERP, the federal government has come up with only $350 million. When it comes to Everglades cleanup, our much-needed partner in Washington has too often been missing.
That's why our committee has made it a top priority to lobby the federal government to live up to its financial obligations. I just returned from Washington, D.C., where the new Congress seems intent on passing the long-delayed Water Resources Development Act, which would send Florida more than $1 billion in Everglades restoration funds. This crucial bill has a real chance of passage this year, because the change in Congress means that longtime critic of Everglades funding Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, is no longer in a position to block the budget authorization.
In addition to lobbying our federal lawmakers, members of our committee are influencing the debate in Congress by filing State legislation to demonstrate Florida's own commitment to the Everglades. On top of the State's annual contributions to CERP, Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, has introduced Senate Bill 392 to create a Northern Everglades Restoration Program (NERP), which will provide a framework to guide restoration efforts for Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers. The governor has requested $50 million in his budget recommendations for this project.
Our committee held a town hall meeting in Fort Myers last month on the subject of the Lake Okeechobee water releases.
We are taking the public input to heart, including the need to support Governor Crist's request for a $100 million increase over last year's $300 million appropriation for the Florida Forever land acquisition program to accelerate the purchase of water storage areas around Lake Okeechobee. Quite simply, if excess water can be stored in natural areas around the lake, less water would need to be discharged into our rivers and estuaries.
As Marjory Stoneman Douglas famously said, "The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet."
Let's hope that Washington realizes that Florida cannot pass this test on its own.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, represents District 27, which comprises parts of Charlotte, Lee, Glades, Hendry and Palm Beach counties.