Senate passes Florida Forever, honors Mayfield

The Florida Senate passed, by 38-0 vote, a bill that breathes new life into the Florida Forever program, which had been set to expire in 2010. Now the program expires in 2020 and has a few new twists, like money to buy conservation easements on agricultural land.

The Senate also renamed a part of the Florida Forever program after Rep. Stan Mayfield. The "Stan Mayfield Working Waterfronts" program allocates 2.5 percent of funding (or $7.5 million of the $300 million this year) to a program that purchases and preserves some waterfront property, like historic fishing docks to help stymie over-development.

The Buzz is. . .

. . .that the idea to add Mayfield's name to the program came from Senate President Ken Pruitt, to recognize Mayfield's work on the Senate priority and acknowledge Mayfield's work to revamp the working waterfront program.

Update: The Buzz has learned that the move to rename the bill is a nod toward Mayfield's hard work despite declining health. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last year.

The program also keeps a grant program that buys parks for local governments, called the Florida Communities Trust, within the Department of Communities Affairs as a growth management tool. A House committee reversed course and changed its Florida Forever extension bill to keep the grant-buying program in DCA (instead of moving it to DEP) late Monday night.

The bill also makes the gopher tortoise the official state tortoise.

Comments

[Flathead]

Good job, hoss.