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By JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

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THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 31, 2017......... Senate President Joe Negron's priority of creating a reservoir to protect rivers and estuaries east and west of Lake Okeechobee appears to have a murky future.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday will discuss the $2.4 billion proposal (SB 10), which would advance work on a part of planned Everglades restoration projects. The proposal to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee has drawn extensive resistance from Glades-area residents, politicians and landowners, including influential sugar farmers.

When asked Thursday if his chamber would take up the reservoir proposal, House Speaker Richard Corcoran said ambiguously "we're all waiting with bated breath" for the Senate bill.

"We're never concerned with the fact that something is not moving in the Senate," Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, said. "We keep sending stuff to them. They should follow our lead."

The fight over the reservoir comes as Senate budget proposals released this week included $22.6 million for state land-buying programs --- something that has no matching money in the House proposal --- and $275 million for ongoing Everglades restoration projects.

House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, said the state shouldn't "run out and purchase land" as it currently has more than can be managed.

"I think if you look at our budget, we have to make informed decisions and we have to make tough decisions," Trujillo said. "We can't be all things to all people. So just going out and saying we're going to buy a bunch of land, that we can't maintain, when we have rivers that are polluted, when we have all sorts of issues with our beaches that need sand, we're just going to go buy more land, I don't think that's the best use of taxpayer money."

The House is pitching $166 million for Everglades restoration projects.

Negron, R-Stuart, is pushing the reservoir plan after widespread problems with polluted water being released from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Under the proposal, water would move south from the lake instead of going east and west into the other water bodies, preventing toxic algae outbreaks that have inundated Negron's Treasure Coast district.

Negron's bill seeks to bond $64 million next year through the state's Land Acquisition Trust Fund, which receives money from taxes generated by real-estate documentary stamps. The state's annual debt service payment would grow to $100 million through the 2037-2038 Fiscal Year.