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.