FloridaTreeHugger

 I cobbled this together from several news bulletins today…

The Florida House passage of Senate Bill 542 today effectively extended the Florida Forever Program for 10 years at $300 million annually. SB542 passed unanimously in the House today and unanimously in the Senate April 23.

The pending $65 billion General Appropriations Act allocates $300 million to Florida Forever to come from the sale of bonds. The actual amount of Florida Forever bond authorization spent in any one year is appropriated by the Legislature each year.

Under an agreement reached late Sunday between House and Senate leadership, Everglades Restoration will also be funded. Though the $50 million agreed upon is lower than what Governor Charlie Crist asked for, which was $100 million each for southern and northern Everglades restoration, it is better than the initial agreement between the House and Senate budget chairs which provided no money for restoration.

“In a tough budget year, we are relieved we got $50 million,” said Eric Draper, policy director for Audubon of Florida. “We hope under a different House leadership next year we will be able to restore Everglades spending back to promised levels.”