By Environmental Policy Staff

As the end of Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session draws near, focus generally centralizes on passing the budget, and this year is no different. 

Unlike the previous few years, there are still major discrepancies between the House and Senate versions of the bill, with only days left in the session. It doesn’t appear that there will be a quick resolution, as Senate President Ben Albritton announced on Thursday, April 24 that additional time would be necessary. With that announcement, he sent senators home for the weekend, practically ensuring that the session will be extended, or that a new session will be called. 

While the House and Senate technically have until the start of Florida’s fiscal year on July 1 to pass the budget, generally everyone likes to have the budget figured out before session adjourns. 

The reason for the delay seems to be philosophical. The Senate budget proposal of $117.36 billion is about $4 billion more than the House proposal of $112.95 billion. The Governor’s budget request was right in the middle of the two at $115.6 billion, but he has been publicly calling on the House to join the Senate to ensure that important programs are funded. 

Meanwhile, the House is pushing back, claiming they are protecting the state from rampant waste and spending. The final number seems to still be out of sight, and, once passed, projects and spending must make it across the Governor’s desk. 

The Governor has line-item veto power. That means that unlike at the federal level, the Governor can strip any individual spending out of the budget that he sees fit. While no one can say what the final budget will look like, there are some glaring discrepancies between the House and Senate versions that are making the conservation communities in south Florida nervous.

Funding for Everglades Restoration & Water Quality

The biggest question will be how much of the necessary funding for Everglades restoration makes it into the budget.  In order to fully fund Everglades restoration, Governor DeSantis requested $805 million. The Senate budget contains only $629 million, but that figure dwarfs the House’s allocation of $229 million. 

There seems to be some confusion up in Tallahassee about funding mechanisms for projects with federal partners, because throughout this session, we have heard that funding for the Everglades that was allocated last year has yet to be spent. This is being proffered as a reason to not spend any more until we’ve spent what has already been allocated. 

Due to the nature of how Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Projects work, and the mismatch in the state and federal fiscal year, that money has already effectively been spent — it just hasn’t moved out of the bank accounts yet. In order to keep the projects on track, we need to ensure that funding will continue throughout FY ’25-’26.  

Everglades restoration is an incredible investment for Florida, with federal dollars pouring into the state and giving Florida a 4:1 return on our investment. 

America’s Everglades provide clean drinking water, habitat connectivity, storm buffering, climate mitigation, carbon sequestration, biodiversity hotspots, and many other ecosystem services that are irreplaceable to the environment and economies of our state. These projects need to keep the momentum that they have built, and to do that, we need funding. 

We are already seeing the benefits of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in the northern estuaries, and over the next few years, our ecosystems are only going to get more robust.  We are going to see the C-43 Reservoir begin operations this summer, and progress is continuing on the EAA Reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. These projects have taken massive effort and investments to get to the place they are in today, and it would be a travesty to allow progress to falter for lack of funding. 

Once we can store, clean, and convey more clean water south to the Everglades, our ecosystems, communities, and economies will be healthier and stronger.

The first step to a robust Everglades is funding the projects that so many people have been working on for over two decades. Please call your local House representative and explain to them why Everglades funding is so important to you, your family, your business, and your way of life.

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