Ramping up his political activity, Putnam has spoken at length about a number of issues that are important to Floridians and has stayed remarkably silent on others.
He recently spoke out against Senate President Joe Negron’s plan to buy land on the Southern side of Lake Okeechobee. Senator Negron insists that the land purchase and the construction of a 120-billion-gallon reservoir will help reduce the impact of discharges from the lake on coastal waterways and communities.
Putnam believes “there are better ways to spend $2.5 billion for water quality and Everglades restoration.”
Senator Negron fired back, saying “If there was ooze and poisonous fluids flowing down the center of Bartow and Polk County (Putnam’s hometown), we wouldn’t be talking about an abstract schedule or making comments that somehow this is a political effort.”
Sugar industry titans, Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar Corp., own a sizeable portion of the land in question and have been opposed to the sale, despite the fact that U.S. Sugar has been under contract with the state to sell their portion since 2010. Notably, these corporations have donated more than $250,000 to Putnam’s “Florida Grown” political committee.
